Am I Not Worthy of My Hire? - Bruce Atchison

I often wonder why I bother with writing. It hasn't paid my bills in the past 21 years, though I tried my best to sell my articles and books. In this world, we work for our money so we can pay our bills. As Ecclesiastes 10:19 (KJV) points out, "A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things."

Is not our work worthy to be purchased? As Paul wrote regarding remuneration for the servants of the Gospel in 1 Timothy 5:18 (KJV)  "For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward."

For most of us, there's more to the craft than money. Firstly, there's our love of the written word. Being able to craft a compelling story or poem is aesthetically pleasing. Even if no magazine or book compilation features what we wrote, we still can be proud of it.

We also bless others by what we've written. In my case, people have complemented me on blog posts which particularly inspired and edified them. No doubt the rest of us Christian writers have had the same experiences.

I've also found writing to be excellent therapy. My second and third memoirs didn't sell well but writing them helped my heart to heal. The pain of being sent off to a boarding school and having been lied to in a house church has largely abaited. God used those books to exorcise those painful memories from my life. Doubtless others have had the same experience.

Our writing is also a legacy to our children. In my case, my sister Linda learned much about our family life through the events I recorded about being exiled to Jericho Hill School. I'm certain that other InScribers have had the same experiences as well.

Journals For Mental Health - Tracy Krauss

I have kept a journal off and on for most of my life. In the early days these 'diaries' were full of childish angst, long laments about a current crush, or more often than not, mundane lists about the weather and what I ate that day for dinner. At one point in my teenage years I destroyed all of my diaries for fear someone would find and read them. What I didn't understand then was that writing down one's personal thoughts and feelings is a powerful way of processing and subsequently dealing with those feelings.

Since becoming an adult, I've kept most of my journals and I now have a banker's box full. I still vent in my journals and I even dare to write down my dreams, no matter how unrealistic or extravagant they might sound. I've also found journaling to be an indispensable prayer tool. Not only is the writing process itself therapeutic, but it is very encouraging to go back and reread what I wrote years before and see the fruition of those dreams or the answers to those prayers. While some of the ranting may be humbling, even those entries are useful in that they help me to put life in perspective. It is interesting to see how each of these issues played out. What seemed like an impossible situation has usually worked out in some unexpected way.

Expressing myself in this manner has been a hugely important way for me to maintain my mental health. Others have expressed this same sentiment this month. Writing from such a personal place may not be for everyone, but for me it continues to be my primary way to make sense of my world.

Besides journals, Tracy Krauss writes other stuff, too, from her home in Tumbler Ridge, BC. For a list of her stage plays, novels, short stories and non-fiction, check out her website: tracykrauss.com

THERAPEUTIC WRITING - Bruce Atchison

Almost nine years ago, I learned a valuable technique for dealing with emotional baggage. June Hunt, host of the Hope For The Heart and Hope In The Night radio shows, advised that I write down the name of everybody who wounded me. Then I must forgive those folks one by one, placing them (along with the painful incidents), in the hands of Christ. She also said I should do this as often as I feel upset about things in my past.

Nine months after I called Hope In The Night, I thought of a new way to deal with my mental anguish. From my upcoming How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity memoir, here is how I used my writing to purge myself of these painful memories.

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In February of 2004, the heavenly Father led me to another effective technique of dealing with my bitterness. I found an ad on the Writers Weekly site that offered lessons on how to write an autobiography. I completed the course but I didn't publish my lengthy life's story in its original form. Instead, I wrote When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies), a memoir of my life with house rabbits, in 2006. Writing that paperback taught me much about the writing craft.

A year later, I published Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School). God used this memoir to heal many emotional wounds I had received as a child. Each time I encountered painful memories of being exiled five-hundred miles from home for months at a stretch, I poured out my heart to the Lord and handed over the pain to him. Writing and publishing that paperback also eased the pain of tormenting memories from my time at that institution. I had fewer nightmares about Jericho too.

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In addition to being a member of InScribe, I've self-published When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies) and Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School). I hope to have How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity in print some time in 2012. Read more about them here. You're also welcome to contact me directly for more information.