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In response to a question on Christian Writers-Group ‘The Writers View 2′:
What about your journey? Your expectations? Is the writing life what you thought it would be? What are the negatives and positives for you? How is the writing life what–or different than–you expected?
A question of a journey barely begun.
I may not have begun ‘the writing life’ but life has been preparing me as a writer. Life does that! God revels in it, I suspect… preparation.
A year or three ago when this long-lingering rumour of a writer began to gather some weight, I was all expectations and dreams, wishful thinking and wanna-be. Now, I realise, I need to just relax, and simply be me. The writer is in there, just beginning. The communicator has been developing for many years, and the poet is, of late, a little lost in the mix.
I’ve been writing poetry since I was 15 (give or take some silly cute verse a few years earlier; green frogs and girls, what a combination!) and that is a gift I can only be thankful of; one of those abilities that prompts the questions ‘how do you do it?’ and I simply shrug and say – ‘I don’t know, I just… write’. As a favourite songwriter sings – ‘When I was younger, I would write a bad song every day’ – and I’ve known many of those days, but I have enjoyed seeing the improvement in the craft over the years too. Sometimes, the words just appear on the page and you end up grinning and scratching your head, wondering where on earth they came from! (Of course, we all know where, or who, they’re from…)
As for ‘being a writer’ – What has become of my expectations of ministry, and non-fiction books, and sharing my thoughts and (dare I suggest?!) God-given revelations to the world? Well, as I said – I can simply be me. The paid career is still engineering, soils, data, bridges and tunnels, but my character and spirit are being shaped day by day; God knows my future. My expectations are relaxing, I am less concerned about what I ‘see happening’ and trying to stay aware that if I have faith in what I cannot see, I know I will be better off.
Right now I need to be a husband, a new father, a worship leader, a friend, and, unfortunately, an employee (as I also get to be a mortgage ‘owner’!) Yes, there will be work to be done to move into ‘the writing (teaching/ministering) life’, but as my family and I are about to move across the planet from England to our New Zealand home, I have enough to deal with right now. Perhaps over the next year, opportunity will present itself, but for now, all I can be is me. Take the chances God gives to share who He is and what He has done, perhaps through who I am, and what He has shown me… and simply be His.
He knows what He is doing.
I’ve just bought a book ‘Seeing Angels’ by Emma Heathcote-James. I was on a random walkabout during my lunch hour and Waterstones bookstore clearly proved too much of a temptation. I originally headed in there to ‘window-shop’ for books on another topic but then discovered a small section which intrigued me. Right next to the ‘popular psychology’ section (packed with the habits of Steve Covey) was a small section on ‘Angels’.
Heathcote-James’ book was published in 2001, the fruit of doctoral research following her Theology Degree at The University of Birmingham, promises to tell the story of hundreds of ‘contemporary experiences with Angels’. Well, that got my attention! I’m really interested to know what the ‘real world’ thinks about angels – it was the blurb about the research and recounting of many recent experiences that sold it.
So that’s why I walked away with the book.
I enjoy looking for physical and spiritual connections between mankind, the world we live in, and God. Looking at the world in the light of God’s Biblical truth means you see things differently. I’m intrigued by what someone else might see when they haven’t yet encountered that truth. What does an angel (as I am slowly beginning to understand) look like to the guy down the street? If they encounter an angel, what is that encounter like and what does it mean to them?
The Bible talks about angels a lot. And it talks about allegiances. There is a battle being fought between angels loyal to God, and angels who have another agenda altogether. Mankind is right in the thick of it.
I will be trying to imagine, as I read this book, and hear of each persons story, just where those allegiances lie.
I’ve just been reading a great article on @U2 with an interview with Eugene Peterson… I love articles like this for a number of reasons – but mostly because they bring together two rather significant passions in my life; my faith, and my love of U2. Actually, it ties in the whole writing thing as well – Mr Peterson being a successful author, particularly on faith related topics. So if I was to think a little more about it, both represent my aspirations, in that they are both (significantly) achieving the things I want to be achieving: ie making music and writing! Anyway, bearing that in mind, I just had to share!
An excerpt:
To U2 fans, Peterson is known first and foremost as the guy whose Bible Bono likes. After the National Prayer Breakfast on February 2, Bono shared with reporters that he gets inspiration from reading The Message “by the very gifted scholar and poet Eugene Peterson.” During the Elevation Tour, Bono recited from The Message a portion of Psalm 116 as the introduction to “Where the Streets Have No Name.” When his father was near death, Bono said he would sit at his bedside and read aloud from Peterson’s translation. (@U2’s Angela Pancella’s reported on the U2-Peterson connection in 2002.) Bono sent Peterson a video thank-you when he finished work on the whole Bible, to share
“… my thanks, and our thanks in the band, for this remarkable work you’ve done translating the Scriptures. Really, really a remarkable work….There have been some great translations, some very literary translations, but no translation that I’ve read that speaks to me in my own language. So I want to thank you for that.”
The appreciation goes both ways, Peterson said. He’s thankful for U2’s remarkable work of spreading a message, calling people to forsake lives of selfish pursuits fueled by destructive delusions. In U2’s songs, he hears the sound of truth and love. Peterson can hear, when Bono sings, the voice of the prophet in pop culture. In the foreword to Raewynne J. Whiteley and Beth Maynard’s, Get Up Off Your Knees, Preaching the U2 Catalog, Peterson wrote:
“Is U2 a prophetic voice? I rather think so. And many of my friends think so…
And EP goes on to explain this further in the AtU2 interview:
…They say unconventional things and use unconventional language. When the Rolling Stone interview came out (People of the Year: Bono, November 2001), one of my former students sent it to me. My friend told me I was in there someplace, so I read it through and I was hoping that when he got to me, he wouldn’t use the f-word on The Message. [Laughs.] My daughter was reading it too, and she said, “I thought they were Christians?” and I said, “Well, I think that’s the way Irish Christians talk.”
That’s funny, but you know that is a question which in one way or another has followed them their whole career: Are they capital “C” Christians or not? Do you think that’s even a valid question to ask?
No I don’t. I don’t think it is.
What is the right question to ask?
Maybe we shouldn’t even be asking prophets questions. They are asking questions of us. Maybe the question we ask should be, “Is God using these words, this stance, to say something to me, to my society, to my neighborhood?”A prophet, almost by definition, doesn’t fit into the categories you expect, which is what gives them bite, and clarity, and the sense of grabbing us by the scruff of our neck, and saying, “Listen to this: this is truth, this is what’s going on.” The whole authority of prophets comes not from what people say about them or the credentials that they have, it’s from the truth of what they are saying…
I did a little net-search (like research, but more efficient) today as I wanted to confirm what ‘date’ Easter Monday was back in 1986. And thanks to this website I now have a new anniversary to remember:
31 March 2006 will mark the 20 year, yes, 20 year (!!) anniversary of my call. Otherwise known as the day I ‘became’ a Christian, it was certainly the day that the becoming began.
And it still goes on. Quite a trip it’s turned out to be too.
Ask me about it sometime, go on.
