The Write Love - Tracy Krauss

There is a saying that goes, "You will always find time for the things that are truly important to you."  I believe this wholeheartedly, and I've seen it play out in my own life.

Like most of you, I suffer from what I call the 'treadmill syndrome'. Sometimes it feels like I'm on a treadmill that just won't stop. I run and run and run some more and yet at the end of the day, it often feels like I didn't get anywhere. What with working full time as a high school teacher, volunteering in both my community and church, and trying to keep home and family in order, there is little time for much else.

Yet, somehow, I've managed to write fairly consistently for the past twenty five years or so. When I stop to consider how I make time for writing, I really only have one answer. I love it so much that it's really not a question of 'making time'. Somehow, because it is so important to me, I manage to do it, despite my busy schedule.

When a task is forced upon us, or when we do it out of obligation, much of the joy is lost. It becomes a 'have to' rather than a 'want to' activity. I experienced a great example of this recently. I teach Drama as a course, but I also facilitate an after school extra curricular program for teens. The 'KodiActs', as we call ourselves, (our sports teams are the Kodiaks) practice twice a week and put on two major productions a year. The club is totally voluntary on both my part and the part of the students and it is very time consuming, especially the two weeks leading up to a show. The kids who come are there because they want to be. They just love drama!

My administrator recently asked me what I thought of making the after school Drama program into a course for credit. Basically, I would get paid for all the time I put in - a definite advantage.

Then I thought about the down side... I have 30+ kids who join the 'KodiActs' each year because they love it. They want to be there and they are willing to make the commitment and sacrifice their time and energy to be part of the club. If the program suddenly became a course, I'm afraid it would open the doors to those that just want 'easy' credits. (Little do they know the hard work involved!) I'm afraid the commitment level would drop off and I would have less recourse to do anything about it. As it stands, students who join know that they have to give 100% or they won't be in the club long.

In the end it comes down to my original premise. If you love something you will make time for it, with or without outside incentives like money or credits. Sure those things are nice, but that can't be what motivates you. Passion for my students and a love of theatre keep me committed to the 'KodiActs' - not the offer of money. The same goes for my writing. Although I have had a small amount of success with my published books and plays, I am definitely not writing for the money or the fame.

Think about this before taking on another commitment. If you can't 'make time' for it then it's probably not that important to you in the first place. Learn to say 'no' guilt free and focus on the things you love instead. You might be just as busy, but the time spent will not feel like a sacrifice.

Visit my website: tracykrauss.com   OR
 check my blog 'Expression Express' - the creative process from a Christian perspective

How to Love - T.L. Wiens

Has the church forgotten how to love? I ask myself this often. If we have, then are we even Jesus Christ’s church?

In Matthew 22: 35-40, we have this familiar passage:

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

In Corinthians, we have another instruction on love.

“Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” ~ I Corinthians 12: 27-31, 13: 1-8

We have these last words in chapter 12: “And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” Then we launch into I Corinthians chapter 13; the love chapter. We hear it often at weddings but this isn’t a passage about marriage. This is about our life in Christ or it should be.

As writers and Christians, does the love come through? True love—not the wishy washy, please like me, kind of love that kills. Do I truly love as Christ loves me?

On Love in Action - Lorrie Orr

She stands with her back to the kitchen sink, eating a snack after coming home from her work as a care aide at an old folks home. When introduced, she barely smiles and says little.

Her age is hard to guess. She looks younger than my 20-something daughter. But in experience, she is world weary old.

Raped at age 7 by her father. Sold into prostitution at age 9. Eight children. Eight different fathers.  Four abortions. Drug addicted. Supplied by her pimp to keep her enslaved.

What does Maria know about love? 

She doesn’t love her children – they are a constant reminder of how she has been abused by men.

After finishing a year of drug rehabilitation, Maria wondered what would happen to her next. If she went home to her father’s house, he would just return her to her pimp. What would she do with her children?

Enter Dorothy, a 60-something Canadian woman with a vision to help Mexican women. On a shoestring, much prayer, and a lot of gumption, she started up a women’s transition home where women like Maria can come and stay for one year.

As my husband and I walked through the kitchen, Dorothy asked Tim, “Do you know anything about fridges? I’ve defrosted this one and it fills with ice in a matter of days?” Tim took a look and couldn’t find anything wrong in such a short time.

“I’m teaching the women how to cook, how to make jam. We sell it in the market on Fridays.” 

“The oven isn’t working just now.”

“Here’s our sewing room. We had someone out and now we have four machines working. A hotel in Canada donated their used linens and we are remaking them into usable sets and selling them.”

 Maria lives here. With her children. With food. Warm beds. Safety.  Maria’s children knew so little. Now they no longer urinate in corners of the house. They use cutlery. They attend school.

Dorothy helped Maria find a job. She loves it.

What does Maria know about love? Love accepts. Love helps. Love is patient and kind. Love acts. 

As we left, Dorothy said, “Please pray that Maria will love her children. Please pray that Maria will know that Jesus loves her.” 

Lorrie Orr

God's Loving Dream for Me by Sharon Espeseth

God has always known me. As my creator, he says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1: 4-5 NIV)

I'm getting used to recognizing myself as a writer, but I hesitated to call myself a prophet. Recently, however, I read a column by John Connelly in Western Catholic Reporter reminding us that God has "appointed us to be a prophetic people. A people who shine the light on truth in the darkness of our times." Hmm, I thought, that does shed a different light on the matter.

There is a lot of darkness out there and Jesus pointed out the futility of lighting a lamp and putting it under a bowl. Instead we are to put our lamp on a stand, so "it gives light to everyone in the house."

God loved me from the beginning. Sometimes I need the visual of God literally knitting me together in my mother's womb. While knitting, God implanted dreams and gifts that he intended me to explore and use to his honour and glory. One of those dreams was writing.


At particular points in my life I've had glimpses of God's dream for me, but I've then let everyday distractions crowd these dreams out like weeds can crowd out flowers in my flowerbeds. Eventually, untended, the flowers in my garden become indistinguishable from the weeds. That's when it's time to do some serious weeding to get rid of those detractors, so I can once again see the dreams God has knitted into my being.

To do this I need to spend quality time with my maker. I need to be still and know that he is God. Being present, listening, sharing, respecting, honouring, adoring, praising, submitting: these are the protocol of love. In these days of independence, rights, freedom, and equality, submission is not a popular concept.

In My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers reminds us that even Christ "never spoke of his right to himself, but always maintained an inner vigilance to submit His spirit continually to his Father." Christ provided an example of how we must attune ourselves to God's Spirit. Knowing God has created our inmost beings, would it not be wiser and more effective to give our loving heavenly father "elbow room" to work in our lives.

Pray with me: Dear Lord, like David the psalmist, may we humbly and frequently ask you to examine our ways. May we give you room to work in and through us so our lives and our writing may say what you want us to say.