A Step in the Write Direction--July 28, 2014--Will Your Writing Help Someone?

A Step in the Write Direction

July 28, 2014

Update: Not too much to report. Two of my tests came back negative, except for a hiatal hernia. The report also showed an enlarged heart, but doctor didn’t say anything about it (I read it in the report), so he must not be too concerned about it; have one more test this week. Guess it’s just the windy weather here and the progression of the COPD….Daughter and family have gone back to Oklahoma. I miss them already but glad they’re where God placed them….Such a good message this morning on the Prodigal Son titled “When God Ran.” Three points: 1) Something was lost; 2) Someone was concerned; 3) There was a celebration when the lost was found.

Thought for the Day: I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up by asking God to do His work through me (Hudson Taylor, missionary).

Song for the Day:

The only time I ever saw him run,

Was when…

He ran to me,

He took me in His arms,

Held my head to His chest,

Said, “My son’s come home again!”

Lifted my face,

Wiped the tears from my eyes,

With forgiveness in His voice He said,

“Son, do you know I still love You?”

He caught me by surprise, When God ran…

            —“When God Ran,” John Parenti, Benny Ray Hester

Laugh for the Day: A man was told he needed surgery.  "Let me tell you how quickly I work," said the doctor.  "I believe in getting my patients up and around very quickly.  Three hours following the operation you'll sit up.  Five hours after, you'll stand up.  Eight hours later you'll be walking."

"Fine," the patient agreed, "but will you let me lie down during the operation?"

Writer’s Tips: (#6 from unpublished Writer’s Devotional book)

Playing Chopsticks

The one who calls you is faithful

and he will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

The story is told that at one of Paderewski’s concerts, a restless five-year-old sat

near the front of the huge hall. Waiting for the concert to begin, the boy slipped away from his mother, crawled onto the platform, and sat at the grand piano. He began to play “Chopsticks” with one finger.

As the audience sat in shocked silence, the great pianist walked out and stood behind the boy. Bending over the child, Paderewski improvised a beautiful arrangement of “Chopsticks” as he whispered, “Keep playing, son. You’re doing a great job.”

Do you ever feel like you’re just playing “Chopsticks” in your writing? You take an article to a writers’ group and the members tear it apart? You send manuscripts to editors and they come back with a form rejection note? You meet an editor at a conference who sounds excited about your book and takes it back with him, but you never hear from him or her again? “I’m giving up,” you say, and stuff all your writing materials on the top shelf of the closet.

A conference speaker tells of attending a camp meeting. He stopped at the book stand where he saw a minister friend who had been going through a rough time. The minister picked up one book after another, looked at it, and put it back down. “There’s nothing here for me,” he said and walked away. “Did God call you to write a book that might have helped this minister?” the speaker asked the conferees.

Will a devotional you write get someone through a depressing time? Perhaps a poem God gave you can be the means of encouraging a family member or friend. At the end of a songwriting workshop, the instructor gave the students the chance to share a song they had written. After one woman sang her song, the instructor kindly said, “That’s good, but I’m not sure it’s marketable.”

“Maybe it isn’t,” the woman replied, “but every time I sing it in church, someone comes up to me afterwards and says, ‘You wrote that song just for me.’”

The instructor then told the class, “There’s a lesson here. Not everything we write is meant to be published. If it gets you or someone else through a rough time, that may be the reason God gave it to you.”

You may just be playing “Chopsticks” today, but maybe that is what someone needs to hear. God will fill in the missing notes as He whispers in your ear, “Keep playing, child. You’re doing a great job.”

Has God called you to write something specific that would help someone? What’s the first step you need to take to begin that project? Ask Him for help to start it today!

 Have a good week spreading the

gospel through the printed page.

Donna Clark Goodrich

dgood648@aol.com

www.thewritersfriend.net

http://donna-goodrich.blogspot.com

 

www.thewritersfriend.net
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