I Write Because I Can

In recent weeks I have been asked why I keep writing my articles. I guess they wonder why a person does something when they don’t have to. I originally started writing because I needed to. At the same time it was also something I liked doing. My writing career began in my graduating year at high school. I was the editor of the school paper and the first tech student to hold that position.
One of my favourite ways of writing is to take an everyday event and pulling from them a spiritual lesson. If you remember, Jesus did this. How about the woman at the well and never thirsting again? For reasons known only to God, I enjoy writing and thinking of the unthinkable. Of telling stories of life, where we have all been and all those joys set before us and of course the agony of defeat. As we look back on them, we can use them to help us in our own spiritual journeys.
A case in point relates to a time in my life when I spent great periods of time just practiced writing. I wanted to have the best writing in our class. I remember back to one night in particular. The electricity was off and it was going to be off for a while. I didn’t normally do any homework. But this night, due to the novelty of the situation, I decided homework would be fun by candle light. There I was, cross legged on the floor, writing away on the coffee table with the candle in front of me.
I was practicing writing and the more focused I became, the closer to the light I moved. I didn’t realize it, until the telltale smell of burning hair filled the room, that I was too close to the flame. Yes, I did have hair at one time. Very quickly I jumped back and snuffed out the red glow of the burning ends. The next morning, in the daylight I noticed something more. I had a red glow on my forehead.
Today, as I reflect on that one incident, I can think of the spiritual connection. When we get close to God, I wonder which of these two evidences we will have. The evidence of a face glowing as we get closer to Him or the loss of hair as He singes our sin. I think of Moses and the glow of his face after seeing God.
So why do I write? Today it is something I can not do. I love to write. It may not be the best writing you have ever read but it’s the best I can do. I look at my writing today as practice for the future. I’m sitting cross-legged leaning closer to the light. Someday, in the not to distant future, my life will be most spent. I will have given my last sermon. I will have lead my last worship service and I will have finished teaching others to reach out and touch others for Christ. When that is all over, I pray, that the practicing I am now doing will be perfected. I will still be able to keep writing about the Lord I love because He Loved me first.
And when I see Him face to face, I pray I will have radiant skin from the Glow of his presence. What will you have?
Rob