f a i t h * i n * f i c t i o n: The Will to Publish: "There’s a sense of perspective, though, that’s sometimes lost in the desperate race to see our words on the printed page. Our industry does much to fuel that race. I hope we can also do much to offer perspective. You are God’s children, creators made in His image. What you put to paper is a splinter of what it took for Him to breathe us into being. There is you comfort, your joy. A bound book is its reward, a testament to many things, but the writing is of first importance. It’s where we can meet God, if we can suppress the will to publish long enough to hear Him in the echo of clattering keys or the scratch of a pen."
-Dave Long, Faith in Fiction"
It’s a little after noon and I feel as if my soul didn’t sleep with me last night. I am rejuvenated and my body tired from last night's first Third Thurdays. But overjoyed all over my self, rejoicing in constant rejoicing, because my soul exists in total praise right now.
We do what we do not because we are programmed machines, but because our creation means something important to God. Angels can’t do what we do. We choose. And with the choosing we are enveloped above a halo-like glow.
Our writing, if it is good, if it is holy, transcends best seller lists, race, this life... it is an eternal writing.
Dave is preaching over at Faith in Fiction this week-bring the anointing here, Dave:)
--As we began to thank our father’s for being fathers this weekend. Let us thank our Father in Heaven, our Father who gave his son-our lover our Lord, our Creator, our Perfect Peace, this weekend as well, especially in our writing.
Our Faith. Our faith in our writing.
If you’ve completed your first draft WIP, this weekend is the time to find God in it. And if we walked away from him prior to the Black Moment, lets ask him back in there. If we’re still writing, then let’s march on Christian soldiers, march on until the tale is told. If we’re critiquing each other’s work this week, let’s make sure we seek God and with grace and integrity let’s help our writing partners put Father back in there. Let's be there for each other like sisters and brothers should.
When I was a teenager our little missionary baptist church lost our minister and we gained a new one. A young, Airmen who was stationed at Moody Air Force Base in my hometown, Valdosta, Georgia. He was toweringl, statuesque-Rev. Reginald Benjamin. But what stuck out most for me was that he had this voice that was a hint stronger than thunder and it rolled through our bodies as he spoke, particularly when he prayed. He always began his prayer like this: “Father…” And the way he made it sound-- It was more than just Daddy or dad or daddio(my dad’s likes me to call him daddio.) It was sacred…Father…slow, deep, powerful. Better than when James Earl Jones says. “Luke, I am your father.” Close, but not as close as holy.
Now close your eyes and say "Father" like you know it should sound when we think about God. Say it before you began to work on your WIP.
Father…
Hallelujah.
May you have a blessed week. And keep on writing for...Father.
Writing to see what the end’s gon’ be,
Dee
The Pruning Principle
2 years ago
