I started writing this blog out of a weekly writing habit I
developed when I was the Executive Director of the Birmingham Baptist
Association. When this began in Birmingham, I had deadlines for our weekly
newsletter. Since I started blogging
while Executive Director/Minister with the District of Columbia Baptist
Convention, I had no deadlines so I just wrote as time permitted. I have tried
continuing the discipline as I transitioned to Appalachia Kentucky as
President/CEO of Buckhorn Children & Family Services, but I have let life
interrupt the flow of writing.
I started writing because of how other people’s writing made
me feel, especially the writings of Dr. Buddy McGohon and Dr. Lloyd Batson. No,
they are not professional writers; they are men of faith who wrote stories of
family, parishioners and experiences in life. They inspired, they challenged
and they gave hope by finding the greatest of lessons in the smallest of
things. Through their mentoring from a pen, I discovered my love for writing and
sharing life’s simplest lessons through my lens of the world.
Recently my wife pointed out that I haven’t blogged in a
while, yet the untold stories of life observations continue to swirl around in
forms that are unwritten. Then I got to thinking, “maybe I should develop a
disciplined system of writing.”
Discipline? I have never been able, in any substantial way, to
incorporate the traditional spiritual disciplines into my journey with Christ.
My experiences with fasting are laughable while meditation and silence are
beyond me! But I do love to write, although it is not considered a spiritual
discipline.
In my quest to make writing my “discipline”, I found an
article by Stephanie Paulsell that was printed in 2010 in the Christian Century: “It is a spiritual discipline to find the right
word to set down next to another word in a way that reaches across boundaries
and distances. Haunting every word is the presence of the word God spoke to
reach out to us. In a culture in which words are flung out not as lifelines but
as invective, it is an act of resistance to measure our words against the
reconciling work of the Word that gives life and hope”.
Paulsell’s quote is more on target than ever before as we
see the political polarization across this nation get wider and wider and
invective language increase among all. I never thought I would see and hear the
things I am witnessing around me. I have so wanted to weigh in on the dialogue but wisdom tells me better. At this point anything I say would be lost in the tumultous sea of polarization. Everybody is talking and no one is listening and observing as to what is happening in our nation. Let's just take a breath and relax!
Words are powerful and important. They have the ability to change and destroy careers and lives. Somehow we need to help change the conversation, steer it with the rudder of tolerance, patience, grace and most importantly, love. Perhaps my role is just to let life happen, set aside my hero
cape and confess that my corner of the world (my work with abused/neglected children) is not
solely upon my shoulders and get back to writing!
What about you? What discipline(s) do you need to work on?
