Monday, August 29, 2005

I find myself sitting in an abandoned prayer room at 9:00 at night, laptop stretched over me, a generator softly humming the background. All day today the Voice has beckoned me to prayer, yet something always seemed to get in the way, be it a distraction or a friend or a project, and I kept shoving the Voice deeper and deeper into the back of my plans. Then through a weird twist of events, I find myself sitting in a prayer room, all alone. I didn't even come in here for prayer! I guess God got tired of my laziness and just yanked me in.

So I prayed by writing. Maybe it is because so much of my life has been involved in writing, or maybe because writing is a gift God has given me, or maybe some other denizen of mystery is the culprit, but I am somehow able to formulate my words better on paper and the prayer even seems to become a bit more intimate. As a writer my heart naturally unfolds and perspires better on paper than through my words, and it is in my writing that I am able to articulate the groans and cries and exuberant praises of a soul on a journey with and for God.

I've been devoting lots of time to writing fiction. As of now, I am a chapter away from completing a 400-page Roman epic. I even have ideas for short stories jotted down and the first two chapters of my next fiction book written out. Yet I feel the Voice telling me that He has a greater calling for me than simply writing fiction. I believe He has endowed me with this gift for the sake of advancing His Kingdom, and I believe He calls me, in the future, to write spiritual books that bring His genuine and real message to those who've never heard it, or to those who've believed a false message. Having already completed one spiritual book, the forgotten gospel, I know how much a task it can be and is; the forgotten gospel took me eight months to write (and, let's be honest, I am sure there are some errors in it; I still have yet to get my Bible degree).

Yet God seems to be telling me NOT to wait, to write about what I KNOW, not spend all my time studying what I DON'T know to write a book LATER. I hear Him calling me write a short book on discipleship, founded completely in the gospels. Discipleship has been an interest of mine for a while and ever since writing a chapter on it in the forgotten gospel, I've always wanted to expand upon it. God seems to be calling me to do so; yet still unsure, I take it to Him in prayer.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thats awesome man. Dude college is going to make us write until our hands fall off. Ive had to read soo much boring crap to read. You seriously would be awesome at writing. I would read it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks dude :)

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