Writing

Hello

Hello, this is for my correspondent who asked the question about getting started–that is, how do I start when writing this blog. I’ve inadvertently deleted your question. I read it and looked forward to making a response and now it’s gone. Sorry, I hit the wrong button! Now to answer–no, answer is the wrong word. The fix for that how-do-I-start question will be different for every person. Here are a few of my thoughts. Maybe they’ll push you a little closer to a solution. Hope so.

questions about writing

I’ve heard and read all sorts of advice about writing. Some say you must write every day, others would make that a certain number of hours daily. Many offer good advice about getting over writer’s block. The steps through which I’ve traveled to reach this website you might not believe. They seem extraordinarily odd to me, different from what I would have done if I’d taken most of the advice I’ve heard.

how I start

This is how I start: I just start.

Then what? The words are always too many. The hurdle I face isn’t getting started but the dead wood that piles on afterwards. I write a column on the Bible for the local newspaper. It’s a task and privilege I’ve loved for more than a dozen years. But the opportunity came with a drop-dead limit–ONE PAGE. That is no small challenge for a wordy person.

less is more

What I’ve found is that getting rid of the extra words makes for more a powerful piece. The Hebrew Bible is proof. One time I counted the number of Hebrew words in Psalm 23 and compared them to the English total. The Hebrew psalm has half the words. And it was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who inspired King David–maybe shepherd-boy David–when he wrote that psalm. Psalm 23 is an inspired expression of faith and beauty, incalculable in its power. Generations of God’s people have memorized that psalm–over the centuries. Psalm 23 isn’t wordy. And the power of it is undeniable.

Now, back to the beginnings, how to start a blog: My experience with beginnings is that they’re easy. The polishing, editing, deletions and adjustments are the challenge. The argument has to move forward, the reasoning must be careful. But that’s all inside stuff.

something I care about

Why are beginnings easy for me? Beginnings are easy because the topic is important to me. I won’t say it’s my passion because the expression is so over-used it’s virtually meaningless, my opinion of course. I try to avoid using expressions constantly batted around in the back and forth of our national conversation. Buzz words don’t turn up in my writing, not if I can help it. But this blog and the Edgefield Advertiser articles I also post here involve a subject that fires my thinking and, unless I put on the brakes, can burn up the hours.

To explain: Since college years, I’ve observed how, as a culture, we’ve begun to distance ourselves from the Bible. Even Christians don’t read it. Americans are abysmally ignorant. It isn’t cool to know the Bible. We’ve erased prejudice like a plague from our society, but it’s still all right to scorn the “Bible thumpers.” The Bible itself is held in low regard. The label “Bible believers” sometimes shades off toward the pejorative. It grieves me that we seem to have lost the Book. Some of this is the result of changes in education. When my mother was a schoolchild (~1910-1920), the exercises–in penmanship, say, or memory work, or grammar and syntax–involved biblical sentences, phrases, and content.The Bible was a given, the authority of it unquestioned.

changes

The changes in American culture, education, and life, rampant since my mother’s school days, are dramatic. For example, consider how crude and contentious our national style has become. Anything goes, it would seem. On the other hand, many would be shocked with references to prayer, examples of wisdom from the Bible, or the outpourings of a worshipful heart brimming with gratitude in praise of Jesus Christ. Few would put up with talk like that. It has become controversial, even in the military, for ministers and chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus. We tolerate many things today, but such prayers, such topics as those mentioned above are deemed intolerable. Should these things be verboten in America? Should open expressions of Christian faith be so embarrassing they fall on many ears like obscenities? Must we confine these things to Christian groups alone? It grieves me that we’re removing biblical topics and Christian concerns from our national conversation. Look around. What I see is a picture of cultural devastation. Can there be no connection? To me, the hardships of pandemic and economic slide seem an objective correlative, to borrow T.S. Eliot’s term. For me, at least, the loss of the Bible parallels and highlights many losses within the current scene–a culture in decline. A friend of mine cannot resist comparisons to Rome the mighty as it began to fade from history. Do we say nothing?

life

So what does this have to do with how a writer gets started? As you can see from all the above, I have no trouble turning out words. The problem is to control them. Wordiness may be a personality quirk with me, but I’m guessing it’s more closely related to my topic, a matter of intense personal concern. I want to remind anyone who will listen that the Bible is more than a treasure. It is life. Jesus said, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:33).

absolutes

It is at our peril that we forget the Bible. It may be even worse to reduce it to a mere historical or religious document–one of many such texts in our possession today. So doing, we obfuscate the fact of biblical power and push it aside, rejecting it as a resource for our lives. It is a supernatural library of writings, a book that reads the reader. Humanists of today avoid the subject of divine revelation and insist on “many ways to God.” There are many texts to help seekers on that path, many voices urging this religion or that. The Bible deals in absolutes. Those of us who have been apprehended by Jesus Christ and live in the light of biblical authority know what absolute means. To accept the absolutes is to avoid relativism–to stop living a lie, a false position like telling myself that if I miss or misplace one dot in an email address, it will be delivered anyway, or like refusing to think twice before gleefully jumping off my roof to show how little I believe in gravity. Absolutes are everywhere and they are real. The Bible talks about absolutes.

Some of us talk about the Bible but do not read it, and when we don’t, we are the losers. These are the things I want to say, and it’s all I can do to keep from spinning out more paragraphs. Getting started isn’t the problem. What I have to watch is pushing my own button.

the words will come

Advice about beginnings? Think for a little bit about your driving concerns–the things that go beyond interest in your life, the things dominating your thoughts right this minute. Connect with what really matters to you . . . in your heart. Make that connection. My guess is that the words will come. Who will read? It’s not a worry. The Bile says to sow the seed broadly–the more seeds thrown about, the more sure the harvest.

And thanks so much for your question. Again, I apologize for losing it somehow. Hope I’ve responded carefully enough to be of some help.

In Christ,

Sigrid

with thanks for the great image: hannah-grace-j9JoYpaJH3A-unsplash.jpg