Writing - Will it happen?

So it’s decided in my head. I have been trying to write daily, but never am able to fulfill my desire. Until now. I have decided (in the lyrics of the great evangelist, Amy Grant) to begin each day with the Divine Hours and writing. I will use the format of a blog, and probably no one will read it but a few friends who graciously choose to humor me.

Regardless, I will most often respond to other writers, biblical texts, or even possibly commentary on my time in Tickle’s Divine Hours. Overtime, I hope to learn to make links to other topics I am quoting, but for now I will make reference and move on…the technology of a blog can all too easily get in the way of actually writing.

I am choosing to do this for three reasons. I enjoy writing. Writing is a centering activity. In a world that consumes content (the iPad, for which I lust, is a perfect example of how consuming content is primary over creating it).

I enjoy writing. When I take the time to outline, draft, edit, and “publish” I find a great deal of energy to continue the day. I also believe that a major focus of pastoral identity is communicating vision and prophetic possibility that requires a mighty pen (or keypad); as one description of ecclesial leadership noted, “a winsome voice, an appealing pen, and a congenial presence as the public face for this ecclesial space.” Writing, especially in public forums, is a place to uncover how important and difficult this kind of identity is to cultivate. I love to write, and it is my hope that in writing, I might more fully discover my voice, pen, and presence.

Writing centers the day. Often, I enter my office, take a deep breath and launch into the mundane, yet important tasks of church ministry. Quickly, I delve into details and minutiae that appear to have very little to do with the needs and desires of the church (signing statements, reviewing financials/stewardship statements, managing events, responding to emails granting permission to do ministry). The micro-management of the pastoral task seems to blunt the priestly, prophetic, and apostolic gifts expected of me. In other words, I enter my office and never step back to look over the balcony (ala Heifetz and Linsky). Writing as a centering practice offers a breath of space to reflect, wonder, and understand how the minutiae relate to the whole. Writing also reminds me of what I see, value, and desire.

I consume content, and I invest myself in trivial details. I think I am news-astute, but then at the end of the day, I know very little about the details…. Whether Haiti, Chile, or most recently the political unrest due to the Polish President’s plane crash. I read to consume; I desire to read for understanding – it is a shift from a tabloid mindset to a Thomas Friedman mindset. Writing invites me to think through the many messages that bombard me on Google News, BBC, and even facebook….. I am obese on information, and it is my hope that writing becomes my nutritional plan. Maybe my need to respond to the trivial world of content is simply because “deep down we are quite superficial” or because I think Neil Postman was right in his these of Amusing Ourselves to Death.

It is time for me to write, so this is my reminder, to myself, that it is in writing that I find love, center, and maturity. Only the days ahead of my writing will allow me to recognize if, indeed, writing has become more fully one spiritual practice.