I am sitting in a small coffee shop in the Westport district of Kansas City as I scribble this blog down on a blank word document on my computer. The sun is setting, and I didn’t have one of the best London Fogs ever, but that’s okay.
I had set time aside today to write a blog about what makes the good news of Jesus Christ good, but honestly, I’ve started and stopped prewriting for that thing at least three times this past week. I have a list of titles and ideas for at least ten blogs, and on my computer I have three half written blogs that, even after trying to add onto them, they probably wont ever be published.
Why is this? When I was killer at papers in college receiving A’s, and am a published poet? Why is it that when I was in high school, I was one of the top students of my English class, but I can’t write a stupid blog? Maybe I am seeing the assignment given to me by my leaders at Adventures in Missions as a burden instead of a creative platform for the truths of the Gospel to go forth.
With this understanding, I have been going back to the basics of prewriting and the simplicity of what a blog should be: short, with accuracy of expression, and clear.
I have also acknowledged my sin of comparison of my writing with others and their experiences. I envy their capabilities to share their life in God and in missions with such creativity and wonder of the heart of God. This envy and comparison is a lie from the enemy that I have agreed with and made them my own words. Going back to the basics has helped me see that I write blogs to please my audience or readers.
As a writer it is one of the most important things to understand who your audience is when prewriting, creating, and publishing. As a believer, your Audience is One. He is the One who deserves all the glory and praise, and your words (rooted in His Word) are the vehicle of the expression of His Kingdom.
With this blog I want to say that number one, I still have a voice and that voice needs to be heard even though I think that I am not so eloquent or accurate with punctuation and grammar. Secondly, no heart comes in a canned curriculum or well thought out blog post. Yes, its nice to set things aside to write about, but I think the best lessons shared are from the raw pages of a journal filled with a life in God.
Over the past four years I have taught in a children’s ministry with the House of Prayer in Kansas City. My first year and a half I was a 3yr olds teacher on Sunday mornings. I was given a curriculum with a word for word lesson that I could just read a loud. I was new to children’s ministry and was still being trained even though I was in a place as a leader so I would just read the lesson aloud to the children like a regular story book.
There was this one lesson that I remember in particular where I didn’t read it word for word, but I sat the pages down and I taught the lesson from my own experiences with God. I guess what I am trying to say is that even though we have curriculums and things that we would like to say, go back to the basics where you learned the truths of God in the first place.
Where did you find Him? What is He revealing to you this month about His character or attributes? How is He healing your heart?
I don’t know… I don’t have all the words. But I guess this is what this blog is about. It’s not to please you, and its not to say that I have it all together. Because I don’t.
I am writing this blog more to remind myself that I need to write things like this again instead of trying to figure out those awesome things that floor people in the heart.
Jesus help.
