The Excellent Difficulty of Writing

There was a time when I devoted at least an hour a day to writing and loved it. I was in school, strolling from class to class where we discussed great literature, poured over poetry, and critiqued each other’s essays. I worked a part time job (or two), led Threshingfloor, and was planning a wedding. I don’t think that I had more free time then than I do now, yet somewhere along the way I lost track of the joyful discipline of writing on a daily basis, and for the last three months have been struggling in starts and stops to get back to that place.

Even a month of vacation didn’t do it. I had all the good intentions in the world (specifically Sri Lanka and India) of writing and posting to this blog at least every two days during the month that Kelly and I were travelling, but in the end I averaged less than one post a week.

When I was younger writing was something that flowed out of me without thinking, and most of it was pretty much worthless. You can read my older posts and judge for yourself. Now that I’m older and life is made up of more solid commitments writing leans more towards a discipline than a spontaneous overflow, but it’s in that discipline that the reward is found. When we train ourselves, push ourselves beyond what comes naturally and into something greater, we grow.

My generation doesn’t do well with discipline. More often than not we simply go with the flow of the culture around us or the whims of the moment. I’ll get to it when I feel like it. We’ll see if it works out. Maybe.

I want to be someone who isn’t tossed around by my desires or by the fleeting fads of the culture. I want to invest my time in things that will improve me and the people around me; to work at becoming who my King created me to be. There’s an excellent difficulty in writing regularly that is good for the human soul. The same goes for the difficulty of reading, praying, fasting, exercising, eating well, going to bed and getting up on time, and a thousand other disciplines. Every time we push ourselves we improve ourselves.

All that to say, I’m committing to coming back to writing. I’ll be writing something daily and posting at least twice a week, training myself to leverage the skills that God has given me. Where has God gifted you that you’re currently neglecting? Join me in getting back in the habit of training and growing yourself in the grace of God. It will be well worth it.