Write Your Story

 

“Bind them as a sign on your hand
and let them be a symbol on your forehead.
Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
~Deuteronomy 6:8 CSB~

“This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand
and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord
is to be on your lips.
For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”
~Exodus 13:9 NIV~

Writing is a bit like weeding (and who ever “feels” like weeding). Hard, back-breaking work, at times; but, when I invite my dog Friday to go on a “walk-about” the house to view the progress of my gardens or feed my birds, I inevitably pause to pull this weed or that, and progress is made on the garden upkeep. So it is with writing:  if I pause just long enough to ponder on one interesting thread of thought that I need to unravel, I discover that the words are working themselves out on the page as I finish personal processing. And lo and behold! I have written quite a sum! In this, writing helps peel back the lime-encrusted layers in my brain and forces organization in a space that has the tendency to be so cluttered that I have a difficult time processing anything.

In Jewish culture, a boy as young as thirteen years old was trained to don his outer garments in meditative ritual, repeating God’s Word as he did so. “As he wound the straps of the phylacteríes around his head and arm, he was reminded of his binding relationship to his Creator…The left arm was chosen because it was ordinarily the weaker. They were to wear God’s Word as a banner and shield over their weakness. We don’t practice the outward expression of the Jew, but we are wise to share the inward principle” (Beth Moore, Portraits of Devotion, p.4).

God’s Word is replete with exhortations to “write down” His words, or to erect stones of remembrance as signs of His faithfulness in our lives. He wants to write His story “on our hearts” and interact with Him “in writing, listening while we write, asking questions and responding. It’s about resting and not striving, joy and not grief” (“The Encounter of Writing With Holy Spirit,” Chuck Parry).

“This is why I write these things…” 2 Cor. 13:10 NIV

“It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again…”
Phil. 3:1NIV

“I have much to write you.” 3 John 1:13 TLV

“We write this to make our joy complete.” 1 John 1:4 NIV

“I was very eager to write to you.” Jude 1:3 NIV

I remind myself that what I do have or “have not” to write down isn’t “just words” but useful for the building up of my faith. When those whirlwind days come that feel as if I’m “chasing” down my thoughts like a game of “Tag! You’re it!” or like a magpie hoarding the next shiny thing, I steal it away in my journal for future use until I have need of it. My thoughts are not just footnotes in the scheme of time or marginal notes to be glossed over. My thoughts to Him are valuable.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you…
thoughts of peace…to give you a future and a hope.”
~Jeremiah 29:11~

Being “present-tense” with God, in the now in your story line, not waiting on the sidelines or in the margins, but being an active player, recognizing He is unpacking our story through our work, even in our writing, “with a splash of whimsy just to realize how smitten he is for us.” (NIV God’s Word for Gardeners, p.1331, Shelly Cramm)

So at those times when I have nothing stirring in my heart to put on the page, I recall His promises of faithfulness to me. His faithfulness is present to me at all times, in all places, in my past, in my present, and in all my days to come, and He is encouraging me to write my story in as much as He wants His story to be written on my heart.

“The people for whom I write begin anywhere,
—with the first flower or seed they happen to pick up;
and then work on—anyhow!
That is, not heedlessly, nor neglectfully, but as they can.
Therefore not by line and rule, which is often an impossibility;
but in some strange wild wood way making a path through difficulties,
and reaching their Fairyland ‘cross lots.” 
~Anna Bartlett Warner~
Gardening By Myself, 1872