Writing, Money, and Purpose

Is Writing about Making Money or is Writing about Communicating a Message?

Writing is not all about making money, creating a name for yourself, or building a following. I think not.Those things are part of the deal, but not the most important element.   
Writing is about passion. It's about having something to say that is worth saying, that the writer believes has merit and meaning. It has an objective. Writing is communicating big ideas in carefully crafted wordings. Writing is speaking with a musicality endearing to the reader, causing them to want more. Writing with substance is to take writing to a level of purposed endeavor which will influence and create something of value for its intended audience.  I believe if we only write to make money, then we have missed the point of the greater reason.

If it is only about dollars and cents, writing will be of a temporary quality with little lasting value. Cranking out volumes of text to print for this purpose only--to pay the bills--in itself is not what writing, in its pure form, is about. Writing which captures ideas to bring them to life, and incorporates understanding of human foibles, errors and triumphs, will endure and become legendary. 
The test of time will sift the wheat from the chaff. Time showcases the people who know how to write, to spill their guts, to make language speak in ways people can hear whereby causing the cream to rise to the top. Real writing has something to say that is worth saying, if not for others at least for one's self.
                                                                        
Great writers write because their voices refuse to be silent.  
The fire burns within them. Some writers did their writing from prison cells where they languished for their beliefs of no compromise nor deliverance. Thoughts came to them in the quietness of the hidden place behind walls of darkness. There, some of the greatest works blossomed within the harshness of their crucible. The spirit within them would not die or disbelieve in the greater good that could be accomplished if the truth could be released from out of the bowels of their tomb. Some authors' works speak louder in today's world than in the day in which they were written. #Tolkien, Lewis, #Bonhoeffer, #Solzhenitsyn, #Bunyan, the apostle Paul, Saint John, #Merton, and #Chesterton, to name a few, had much to say that came out of lives bound to a greater purpose. The world is a better place, richer in dimension, because of their contributions.
    
Passion and writing are like hand in glove, one needs the other to make it work. Writing is the observation of the nuances of language and emotions of life, showing the spirit of the spiritual and evil of the diabolical, coming together in an on-going clash of plot and message, teaching through subliminal message and characterization through carefully constructed plots which weave the very essence of life and living.  
Writers write like sculptors sculpt. They release the image through the uniting of their soul with the material at hand, seeing the hidden message found in beauty or distress by means of expression with unexpected and unusual clarity. Their words take us to the place, emotion, belief, or conflict. Our eyes see through their words.

#Writing #Fine literature #Classics #Authors

THE SECRET? It Really Is About Love

 I SPEAK because of LOVE

 A CONVERSATION SWEET~

 A new friend and I were sitting at the table talking about our lives. Our daughters are friends which brought us together to visit while the girls watched the Super Bowl. We are the same age and God is important to both of us. Then the conversation got real. She told me her story and I shared mine. She is an accomplished woman, a former corporate climber of the ladder of success who became a Christian in her early thirties. She married a Christian man and became a homemaker mom who also home-schooled her daughters. Then life took a turn for the worse. The bubble popped. They divorced, she returned to work, custody battles and so forth and so on. She asked about my children, my life, how God worked in my life.   Tears welled as emotions surfaced while I related some of my story. "Three hours seem like fifteen minutes," she was saying to me. "You understand how hard it is. You're so easy to talk to." 

Yes, I do understand. Pain did that to me. Yet, it no longer owns me. I am free of its curse.

* * *

THE SECRET: WHY WE USE OUR VOICES
In our sharing, we both gave an explanation for why we help others. She uses her voice as a compliment to service. She helps others. While helping she often shares the grace of God. Right now she is helping a couple in their eighties with some pretty challenging issues. Her explanation was so beautiful that I want to remember it forever. ... She sees herself as a teapot. 

Her analogy is a perfect picture of how it works in being real!

Her words: "I am like a little teapot.

Christ pours his spirit into me and then I pour out to others what he has given me. It comes in the top--from God to me, and then it goes out the spout--from me to someone else. I do things for others things I would never have done before he came into my life. And, I am happy to do them. The important part is to keep myself open to God, to let him continually fill me so I have something to give to people he puts in my path."

 * * *

My story is a little different. The changes in me came as a result of a vow and a list. Both were promises I made to God from out of a wounded heart and after years of struggle. I decided that I would use anything he wanted to do in me or reveal to me for his glory, to help others who suffer in silence. I made the vow in February the week after my mate chose to leave our marriage of twenty-one years. The list was written on the day I was served divorce papers on my forty-sixth birthday.  I submitted the list to God in a prayer, asking him to do something I could not do on my own. I was on empty. I had done everything the best way I knew how--and it had never been enough. The list was my declaration of what I wanted God to do in my life with a plea to change me.  For all my trying, I hadn't been able to save my marriage, now I wanted God to save me from defeat and despair and from becoming a bitter old woman. As I sought God for all I was worth and he initiated change in me, surprisingly (or not surprisingly, actually), every one of the items on the list became true in my life. I received a beauty make-over!                     (The list is abbreviated)

My Vow: 2002 - My first journal entry.

"Gracious Father, Work on my heart and mind. Help me to learn to listen. Help me to push past my fear and to have eyes to see. I want to see Jesus. May my reality adjust and readjust as my vision for you changes. May I see you alone. May the work you are doing in me be used outwardly to minister to others. I seek you and you alone." 

         2002 - My List which changed my life. The Key - intentionality and surrender.

1. God first in everything. I want his power and strength in all I do. I want to change.
2. Healing in my emotions and deep inner spirit. I want to be free. I want joy.
3. Be myself. Let go of the chains and conflicts that bind me.
4. Become more self-decisive, less worried about what others think.
5. Develop more honest "transparent-real" friendships with godly people.
6. Seek deliverance from the bondage I've been under in this marriage relationship.
7. Pray for repentance which brings godliness, for wellness in all areas of my being.
8. Pray for God to change me. I will pray for awareness and humbling. 

It truly is amazing how God can take a broken person and breathe life into them. His life becomes their life. His Spirit renews and heals their spirit. These days I can not imagine living without God. He has become my breath and being, my sustenance. It is hard to explain how even the simplest of common things, like a dainty wildflower, can reduce me to tears of wonderment and joy. 

When we give God access to our lives, what God gives to us, in return, is his love. We, in return, receive a beautiful heart. After the healing transformation has begun, our hearts becomes free to love in a new way. Because of its swelling abundance it must share its love. It becomes an outworking of the love God has given us which replicates through us in an a sundry of ways. God makes something beautiful out of something ordinary. He is that way. We must trust him for the journey. I must say, though, it rarely is easy, and we are desperate at times. Yet, he walks with us right in step ... even when we can't see him through the fog of circumstances. It is such a privilege to help a sister who is going through the fire, to encourage her, to tell her that she will make it and life will get better because you know it is true, you've lived it. The more real God becomes the better it gets, even through the difficulties and heartaches. He touches us where we need touching, in our deep inner places. He frees us through his love, forgiveness, and life.

Because of love, true love, God gives us the most gorgeous Valentine of them all. 

Its words say, "I LOVE YOU!" 

Blessings ... Your friend, Norma

The Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you. Never forget, you are loved. Norma

-----
#When A Woman Finds Her Voice

Character is a Choice

In life there are some areas that matter far more than wealth, power or fame. Although we don't talk about them much, they are there nevertheless. I want to talk about one of them. It is so integral to person-hood and self realization; it is the area of character.

We have certain perceptions about character. We believe it is taught--and it is: we believe it is formed--and it is. We believe that a set of guiding principles are what character traits hold true--and they are indeed. There is one more thing that character is about. It is an internal dial that is constantly moving us through the moment by moment occasions of each day, like a compass giving us direction. Personal habits influence character. Belief fuels our choices. Until we cement our personal boundaries, the daily stuff may become a minefield of temptations, a cage of internal conflicts that form areas of bondage we must battle and struggle against.  Someone's character is trashed when they succumb to the forces of lust or some form of want or greed. This comes quite naturally as we all know.  

No matter how vigilant, one is always vulnerable. One must determine what they hold sacred, what values they WILL live by and stand by through thick and thin. Areas of non-compromise. I believe the battle for character is won deep on the inside of the person. Especially in the context of a society at large which no longer supports a standard of acceptable behaviors that are wholesome. The assault on cultural mores opens up avenues for degradation we never thought possible, the slide down hill into the quagmire. One has to go up the hill, plan for the future. Choose how one is going to live their life in the actions of the will. We as individuals are always responsible for our own actions. We make the choices in most circumstances--except those whom have had the wrong thrust upon them by wrong-minded adults and others. These are not of their doing. Character is precious. We may not agree on politics or religion but we respect a person who lives a life of character and integrity.

CHARACTER MATTERS
Be careful of your THOUGHTS:
For your Thoughts become your WORDS.
Be careful of your WORDS;
For your Words become your ACTIONS.
Be careful of your ACTIONS;
For your Actions become your HABITS.
Be careful of you HABITS;
For your Habits become your CHARACTER.
Be careful of your CHARACTER;
For your Character becomes your DESTINY.

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost;
When health is lost, something is lost;
When character is lost, all is lost.
Sow a thought and you reap an act;
Sow an act and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit and you reap a character;
Sow a character and you reap a destiny.

                                                           Poem - courtesy of Pete Coulson

#Character Matters

Truth is True, Opinion can Counterfeit as Truth

National Monument to the Forefathers: Plymouth, Massachusetts

.

  "The monument depicts Faith, and Faith is pointing to God and has an open Geneva Bible and a star of wisdom." Marshall Foster.  Photo and quote from Wikipedia. Statue is featured in the movie, Monumental, a movie about the bedrock beliefs that shaped America, starring Kirk Cameron.

Truth is always true. Truth cannot be manipulated. It either is the truth or it isn't the truth. If something is true and always will be true, it is incapable of being something it is not. It is no longer easy to talk about truth. It has become a 'dirty' little concept in many circles. Why is this? I could say why I think it is this way, but that isn't necessary. Truth represents a standard, an absolute, something unyielding. The natural parameters of truth, in its purity, get in the way of its fully being embraced. It has limits that determine behavior. It may be easier to denounce or avoid what is true because then a life can be lived without binding restraint.

If truth were to bend it would not be truth. The nature of truth means it cannot be manipulated. ‘Find your own truth’ is a statement one hears which seems to mean, what is true for that individual person.  That statement seems in-congruent with the steadfastness of truth. Yet, we all understand its meaning. It is a subjective truth, truth based on the individual’s belief. or dare I say, their opinion on what is true. In truth, true truth is based on something that will always remain true—the same--it will never change. It is wrong to steal. That will always be true, an agreed upon principle for behavior, even though people steal in little deceitful ways and big obtuse ways. The truth will always be the truth, regardless of whether it is believed or not. Truth stands alone. If it is an inconvenient truth, then it may be hidden or buried or disbelieved.

Understanding truth can be a little complicated. There was one time when I stood alone for something I believed in. It was in the workplace. I felt I must stand up if I was to be true to my own convictions and self. So, in a sense, the thing I stood up for may be perceived as ‘my own truth,’ and my colleagues, in their respect, were living out their ‘own truth.’ I believed in a truth but others did not see it as I saw it. We differed in our understanding, perceptions and beliefs, in a situation, it could be argued, where there was no true right or wrong. We all felt passionate about what we believed and it was not easy.

There are times when truth is being compromised. Whistle blowers seek to expose the truth, the coverup, the corruption, the wrong doings and wrong behaviors. This is difficult and even may be deadly. They know a truth, an unpopular truth, that to expose will be of potential risk to them. Someone I know experienced this very scenario. He was in a management position with an agriculture processing company. During the course of his work, he uncovered some inside corruption. He went to the top with his findings. The truth was quickly silenced. He was given notice. It stung. But he knew--that didn’t make it any less the truth. Spiritually speaking, truth is what binds the Bible together cover to cover.

Christ said some astonishing words that few, if any, could comprehend at the time. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” He was claiming to be The Truth, not just as a way to find truth. His sacrificial life (life, death, and resurrection) backed up these words. These were not empty promises with false hope nor were they rash words. Jesus’ death and resurrection validated his earlier claims, proving the Messenger’s message as true, a truth for in that day and still apropos for our present day and on ahead into future centuries.

People have an awareness of truth even if they do not believe the the concept of a universal truth. An argument for the defense of truth is found in everyone's conscience. Embedded within our thinking is a strong sense of right and wrong. Even a very young child displays an awareness of this. They will hide when they sneak something that doesn’t belong to them. People cry 'foul' when there is a cover-up or lack of equality in some way that affects their person or community or even nation. Fair treatment is action everyone understands and expects. “Just’ treatment is in the same category, both related to a sense of what is true, what is right societal behavior. “Speak the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” are not fanciful or empty words. When testifying in court, the unvarnished truth contains the facts,  as they were at the time and not as we wish they had been. Nothing but the truth is resolute. It cannot be manipulated through embellishment or minimization of details. Truth is connected to a code of behavior. Truth-telling has its basis in truth. Truth can not be shaken or destroyed. It remains and endures.

            

Jesus Christ makes no apology. His very life was a defending of truth. He was a Rock in the sifting sands of time and shifting waves of public opinion. To this day, we can measure truth by actualizing the life of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount, found in the gospel of Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7 is truth we are well advised to heed that it might go well with us. Framed in Christ’s words is how truth should be lived.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall  inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when other revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:3-12) ESV 

 Truth, would not be truth if manipulated by changing days and societal mores. The things of which Christ said are most important are not on many agendas or to-do lists. That doesn't make them any less true. We see a few saints who qualify for the groupings listed above. Their understanding of truth is lived out God's way. It is as if God's truth flows into them and then flows out of their spirit. It is of a different quality than the world around them. Truth has a reality about it that frames the question. Many people believe that truth is relative. It it is relative, then it couldn't possibly be truth. The two are in contradiction.

A rose is a rose ...
---------
#truth telling #opinion #spiritual #Beatitudes #Jesus and truth #relative truth #Monumental #Kirk Cameron