On Writing

I just recently watched a documentary on JK Rowling. Basically, a camera crew followed her for a year as she finished the Deathly Hallows. It was great to see her reflect on her life and writing. And, seeing this made me do the same.

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved stories, being involved in one (either reading or watching), or making them up myself. In my inner heart, that is what I loved doing the most. There are times where I feel like I have clouded that desire because I thought I needed something more important to do, IE, something big and important, especially in light of the calling of God. That mistaken belief led me to think the military was God's calling (don't ask, long story) and attended Virginia Military Institute. That was very obviously not me. I was there a week.

So, I went to college, majored in history because i liked it, and had no earthly idea what to do. I still loved to tell stories and write, so I minored in English. I took a creative writing class and it nearly destroyed my desire to be a writer. The teacher was one of those overly arty people for whom poetry was a deadly serious thing. Then, as now, I had a playful, sarcastic streak. Most of the my poetry was pretty silly and she constantly called me out in class. My thought was, If that is what a writer is, I really don't want any part of that.

But, something else happened in college. A little picture began to appear of a boy and a dwarf named Archibald. I remember it started in my sophomore year in college. That little image kept my foot into writing in the next twelve years. Now, Archibald is no longer a dwarf, and the boy is almost a man. And the story is River of Fire.

And over that next twelve years, I have been looking for what I am made to do. What makes me feel like the Chariot of Fire guy, who said that when he runs, he feels God's pleasure. I have realized lately that for me, that is writing. There are three things on earth that make me that sense of completeness. One and two have to do with my wife and kids. The other is writing. When I am able to sit down, and write something, whatever it is, I feel God's pleasure. As if saying, yes, my son, that is what I made you to do.

And that has happend even more as I have worked on the script with my two buds. I have loved it. It has already been so much fun already.

I know He has made me to do other things as well. I am a decent minister, not a great one. I love being with people, telling them about God's grace and seeing that in their lives. I love that because people know the Jesus I serve through what I say. And, that is really enough for me in my calling as a minister. As long as one person came to know Jesus in a way they did not know Him before through my ministry, everything, from seminary to my failed attempts to be a head pastor, it will have been enough.

But in my calling as a writer? God alone knows.