Strengthened Purpose Through Fellowship - Tracy Krauss

I have the privilege, on occasion, to hang out with a wonderful group of writers from my area. The "Peace Region Writers' are an Inscribe satellite group, and we met this past Friday to share some writing, chat, and encourage one another. Even though I can't make it to every meeting, (it's a two hour drive for me) I take every opportunity that presents itself. It just happened that I was doing a book signing the next day in Fort St. John, BC. which is very near where the group meets, so I made the necessary arrangements.

What is it about meeting with other writers that is so invigorating? It's not as if we accomplished a lot, in practical terms, but I don't think that is the point. Writing can be a solitary experience at times. We get very caught up in our own thoughts and sometimes those thoughts need to be shared in order for us to see them from a fresh perspective. As well, 'fellow-shipping' with people of like mind and interests reminds us that we're not alone in our compulsion to write. As Christians, we may get lots of fellowship from our church family, but not everyone within that circle will understand our love of the written word or our need to put thoughts on 'paper', metaphorically speaking.

As part of our evening, one of our members shared a devotional she had written on 'unmet expectations'. One line in particular stood out as she talked about the disciples and how they also had to grapple with unmet expectations. She said something to the effect that they "watched as their expectations dripped into a pool of blood at Jesus feet." Wow. That's a profound thought with all kinds of layers of meaning, especially as we just celebrated the death and resurrection of our Lord. It proved that what might have seemed like failure to the human mind was actually the greatest triumph in history.

I came away with a renewed sense of my own purpose as a writer. He has called each one of us to use the gifts He had provided, no matter how 'successful' we might appear to the world's standards. God can indeed, use ink, even if it is only shared among a circle of amateurs.

(Thanks to Gwen Koop, part of the "Peace Region Writers', for her wonderful devotional series, which I referred to above.)