Dear ______:
Sorry to let so much time lapse between letters. Thanks for your note, and I’m sorry that writing is proving to be such a struggle.
You are in good company. If writing is part of what you do for a living then inner turmoil is probably another part.
You can find a lot of professional writers saying pithy things about how all you have to do is sit at your typewriter and bleed.
And you can find a lot of stories about famous authors driven to depression and addiction by the work.
But you don’t have to be a novelist or a poet to experience the challenge. In seminary you have to write papers. As a pastor you have to write sermons — Sunday has a way of coming around pretty relentlessly.
So you are pursuing a vocation where writing is required. You need a way to do that writing that gives you some life instead of sucking it straight out of your soul. And you need a way that won’t later require a 12 step recovery program.
There are ways to make that happen. I think thriving in your vocation depends on it.
Your Role Model: St. Augustine of Hippo
My quick suggestion for today is to take St. Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) as your role model. You won’t find a more prolific writer — just check the huge new collection of his works in translation in your seminary library.
Between major treatises and sermons you might wonder if he ever said a word that didn’t end up in a book. But that didn’t mean he was sloppy. His ideas shaped theology in the West more than any other thinker, and his writing is often truly beautiful.
The Inner Life of the Writer
But the reason I bring up St. Augustine is that he gave us a window into his inner life — the inner life of the writer who thrived on writing.
For that you need to pick up his Confessions. It is the greatest autobiography of the ancient world. It is also a book-long prayer.
Augustine prayed in writing. That is actually the point to build on if you want a healthy inner life as a writer.
He gives you great examples to imitate.
- He talks to God, on paper, about his whole life story, looking and listening for traces of how God has been active all along the way.
- He talks to God, on paper, about his current temptations and struggles, finding his way to wisdom and strength to face them.
- He talks to God, on paper, about what he sees in Scripture — not preparing a sermon, but just exploring God’s Word in conversation with God.
Nurturing Your Inner Life As You Write
You can do those things. Take a bit of your daily prayer time and do just one of those tasks for a few minutes. Or take a few minutes as you are starting a paper or a sermon and write to God about it.
If you begin to make writing part of your daily practice of prayer, I think you will begin to turn the corner.
Blessings,
Gary
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As Lent approaches you may find yourself thinking about renewing your own inner life. If you want information about an online class on prayer, using my book Kneeling with Giants, click here and I’ll be in touch.
(There are affiliate links in this post.)
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