Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

The Best Writing Advice: Love your Reader

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 Undercover Readers
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesbryant2/4058975175/

Don Miller says that this is the best writing advice: Love your Reader.The golden rule is also a good blogging precept: Write the kind of posts you would really like to read. Ask yourself: Would I like to read this? What would reading this do to me? If you wouldn’t care to read it on someone else’s blog, chances are nobody will want to read it on yours.

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I can’t get enough of grace, of the deep love and mercy of God. And that’s fortunate—because grace and the love of God are some of the few things I can’t get too much of which are actually good for me. All the others things involve spending too much, or eating too much, or sitting too much, or…you get the picture.

And this is one way to blog daily without exhausting oneself, without boring oneself, without repeating oneself. By dipping one’s cup into the deep wells of the loving creativity of God: God’s stream of thoughts, which outnumbers the stars. (Psalm 139:18).

* * *

How exactly do we love our readers?

Well, for starters, we give them grace, rather than the law. Peter, who knew the disgrace of failing—lying, betraying, being pushy and envious–in public, eventually had little time for the law. Didn’t work for him; won’t work for us.  The question he asks the council of Jerusalem changes the course of church history: Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” (Acts 15:10).

Grace rather than the law. The positive rather than the negative. There is a place for negativity and opposition, of course. If Christians hadn’t bitterly opposed other Christians, slavery might still exist because of the scriptural injunction, “Slaves, submit to your masters.”  Women would not be ordained because of “I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man.” And how unfair for one gender to always be preached at by the other!

* * *

And speaking of preaching: Don’t do it in blogs. People do not come to  blogs to be told what is good to do. They come because they are bored, they feel a little empty, a little depressed, perhaps; they come seeking stimulation and interest, inspiration and fullness.

If they are Christians, they probably have shelves of Bibles and Christian books, telling them what is good to be done. They do not come to your blog for that. They know the many good things they could be doing instead of reading blogs—housework, exercise, Bible study, prayer.

But they come to your blog for a little bit of beauty, a little bit of grace, a little bit of comfort, the energy to go on, perhaps.

So what is this reader offered? Law or grace?  Preaching or the honey of the Holy Spirit? If a reader came to your blog weary and heavy-laden, harassed and helpless, exhausted and overwhelmed, would this be an energizing hope-filled post or make their shoulders sag deeper?

* * *

As I grow older, I dislike what smacks of the law and burden-loading. I dislike preachiness, and tacking-on additional burdens to simple faith and grace.

I like hope-filled blogs, full of the wonder of the spiritual life and spiritual discoveries. Because Christianity is really a hopeful religion, full of Can-do and God’s infinite power, which is available for us who believe. Full of the power of prayer, and the infinity of grace. It’s annoying when it becomes a soul-shrinking, guilt-inducing To Do list.

* * *

Sometimes I feel we need to hear “Relax, God loves you,” in a hundred different ways. Relax, God is your Father. Trust God. Consider the lilies. In everything, give thanks.

Is that all Christianity is? No, of course, not. But if it takes seven compliments to undo one negative word, then we need to hear that God loves us, and delights in us seven times for every time we are reminded of the good Christian things we fail to do.

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There are two yardsticks for our endeavours: temporal and eternal.  One might succeed brilliantly (or not) by temporal measures, which in blogging would be the quality of writing, readers, followers, ranking, and all that jazz.

But there is also an eternal standard. My friend, singer-songwriter Debby Barnes, ends her haunting song, In the End, by asking,

Was there any love there in the end?

And that is a scary and chastening question we will all be asked one day.

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My blog post was first published in the Big Bible’s Digidisciple project.

C.S. Lewis’s Five Commonsensical Rules of Good Writing

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  1. C. S. Lewis What really matters is:–

    1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

    2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’timplement promises, but keep them.

    3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”

    4. In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”

    5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

From

C. S. Lewis’s Letter’s to Children

Tricking Oneself into Writing

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woman-writing-a-book
Image Credit

So I am trying to make the transition back from blogging to “real” writing.
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Anyway, here are a few tips that have helped me trick more writing out of myself.
1 Sometimes, when I think I am mentally tired, I am not really. My conscious has worked as much as it can on what I am writing. I am bored, or have hit a wall. I need to put it aside now for an hour or two, to let my unconscious mull over it.
However, taking up a new piece of work will give me fresh energy and passion.
2  When I don’t feel like writing, feel sleepy, tired, lethargic, sluggish, then putting a timer for just 15 minutes, or just 5, gets me going. The timer goes off and feels like an intrusion. I want to continue writing.
3 After a few days of serious work, my spirit protests. I feel as if I want a break. It really, really helps to just declare a Sabbath. I garden, I exercise, I tidy up, I pray. I shop online. The wells fill up. Thoughts clarify. And then, after an hour or two, I am delighted to get back to work.
 If on the whole, you love writing, and occasionally really don’t want to, don’t. Do other things, be physical, wait until the underground springs bubble up like a geyser.
What are your favourite tricks for tricking writing out of yourself?

Secret Disciples and Celebrity Christians: Not Necessarily the Same

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 These are the best read Christian authors in the world today: Francis Chan, David Platt, Ann Voskamp, Randy Alcorn, Lysa TerKeurst Here are the top 5 Christian bloggers in the world : Justin Taylor, Trevin Wax, the Resurgence, Desiring God, Tim Challies.And the most influential Christians on Twitter according to the New York Times are Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and Joyce Meyer.

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And are these the greatest Christians now alive?

The most famous Christians are not necessarily the greatest Christians, and the quest for fame is intrinsically at odds with the spiritual life.

When Edith Shaeffer was asked who the greatest living Christian woman in the world was, she replied memorably, ‘We don’t know her name. She is dying of cancer somewhere in a hospital in India.’

Who is the greatest? The disciples were vexed by this question, and Jesus tried to solve it more than once. The one who believes like a child. The one who can serve others.

* * *

The blogosphere can be a noisy place. A clamour of opinion, attack, self-promotion and the trivial, though shot through with gems of insight, wisdom, humour and beauty. And sometimes, even with the divine.

Sometimes, the difference between the echo chamber of anger, finger pointing and “outing” in the Christian blogosphere, and the gentle whisper in which God ultimately speaks to Elijah can be striking.

And just when you despair, you hear gentle voices which are close to God’s heartbeat, Ann Voskamp, definitely, and often, the more polemic John Piper, and you feel better. You realize that even the snakes and ladders world of fame, celebrity, attention, followers, is, of course, under the sovereignty of God. That God is sovereign over the literary world, and sovereign over the blogosphere. That God has an interest in promoting mystics like Ann Voskamp whose heart beats like his.

* * *

We write to be read. When I first began blogging, I worried, because it seemed that controversy, attack and tearing down definitely got more traction, readers, attention and links, than things which might be a blessing, be soul-nourishing and soul-fattening.

But there are spiritual dangers in tearing down other Christians, or other Christian bloggers. It’s the work of “the accuser of the brethren who accuses them night and day before the throne.” Though sometimes, if the views of an influential Christian are harmful, something might need to be said. Or done.

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But there are spiritual dangers too in writing about the spiritual life. The wonderful Norwegian writer, O. Hallesby, said that one’s secret life with Christ in the secret places of prayer is like a cosy, warm Norwegian cottage in a blustery winter. If you talk about your prayer life, you open the door, and cold wintry blasts enter.

The only justification for doing so is that that’s the song I have to sing. One of my deepest interests. I read Christian memoirs and autobiographies as travel dispatches from people who have ventured deeper into the holy wilds of God than I have, and I want to hear the news, the travel conditions, their blog, Facebook, and twitter reports of their travels, so to say. Similarly, by honestly describing my spiritual adventuring, I might be able construct a travel map, a topographical map for those who might be called to follow similar routes.

But we need grace, for writing about the spiritual life has all sorts of dangers—pride, self-promotion, exaggeration, and the dangers of “garden writing:” that one might spend more time describing the fruits and flowers in the garden of your soul than tending them. That one can continue with spiritual “garden writing,” even while the real garden grows weedy, unwatered and unkempt. This happens to many Christian preachers, speakers, celebrities and writers. But may it not be true of me, Lord.

                                                                                                                               * * *

 My hope, my goal in my blog posts is that I hear or overhear what God is saying, and saying to me, and express it. I want to see the world and see reality as he does.

We write to be read. Amid the clamour of many voices and the self-promotion of commercial Christianity, will gentle whispers ever be heard?

Yes. Because if one has sat at Christ’s feet long enough to hear his voice and feel his heartbeat, then he is as interested in having your voice heard as you are yourself.

So, relax, oh Christian blogger. If you do indeed have something to say which might bless the world, you have a friend in high places, a powerful connection, who also wants your voice to be heard, your words to be read, and know the best way to bring about this happy eventuality.

Oh to Blog Hearing the Father’s Voice, Not My Own!

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 David Cooke in Cookie’s Days, had this moving post.

It’s time to lay down the blog for a while.  Any blog that quotes Tim Keller as much as I do needs to watch its idolatry-o-meter as it tries to apply a lesson or two from Counterfeit Gods. 

You see, I have to be so careful not to like the sound of my own voice more than I long for the sound of the Father’s. I want to long for the Spirit more than the attention of others and I have noticed the two conflicting with each other slightly too much recently. 

I am going to take some time out to read the book Eugene Peterson says is one of the most important he has ever encountered. It’s called the ‘Descent of the Dove‘ by Charles Williams (one of Lewis’s pals who he supped warm ale with in the Eagle and Child).

 For all my, at times, strong opinions about the church that I love and the gospel I haplessly preach as best I can, I must remind myself anew that it is not about me and that the Holy Spirit is at work whatever I do or write. 

Maybe sometimes not always as I would like in the C of E, but to be honest what I think is of no consequence. What matters is what God thinks. The plan is that we each one of us love Jesus, try to stay humble (always a tricky one as our most humble moments can in fact be pride in disguise) and we need to remember afresh that we don’t have to prove anything. Grace really is sufficient.

I read it, shuddered, and felt convicted. I enjoy blogging. Blog posts compose themselves in my head all the time–most of which don’t get written down.

But it’s scary–I guess I too hear my own voice more than the Father’s, and so I too have to be “careful not to like the sound of my own voice more than I long for the sound of the Father’s.”

I too need to long for the Spirit more than anything.

I want my blog to flow out of my relationship with God, the way that Matt Redman, Michael Card and Rich Mullins’ song-writing organically flows out of their love affair with God, and their spiritual lives.

Besides, if my blog mostly flows out of hearing the Father’s voice and his heart and perspective, it will be far more of a blessing than if my blog merely expressed my own voice and perspective.

Not to say that there is no value in an individual’s voice–of course there is—but that value is overshadowed by the blessing of being able to hear the Father’s voice, and to hear the notes and lyrics of the song that he continually sings over us.

 The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zeph 3:17)

The Eucharistic Nature of Creativity (Talk by Rob Bell at Greenbelt, 2011)

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The Eucharist–This is my body, broken for you. This is my blood, shed for you. 

Writing from the heart, close to the bone has these eucharistic characteristics: pouring out your life-blood.
And so, it’s no wonder that one sometimes feels depleted. Emptied. Exhausted.
Bell recommends taking a break when this is the case, coming unplugged, unwired. Going away perhaps, and waiting for the springs to refill at their own pace and time.
The results sometimes surprise one!!
He suggests balancing time spent shedding one’s creative blood with time replenishing the empty tanks, and letting God refill them with fresh wind, fresh fire.
Bell also suggests laying down your work when you are feeling burnt out, laying it down for as long as necessary, and when you come back you are renewed and refreshed and can approach your work with fresh vision, passion and perspective.
Good to hear since I work best in short, intense bursts, and regularly burn out.
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90 % of the energy expended in one of his books was spent on “mind-games.” Second-guessing his work and its reception. Don’t do it. Get it out there. Leave the reception to God.
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After his glorious vision of angels ascending and descending the highway, Jacob says, “Surely God was in this place and I was not aware of it.”
We live in a God-drenched world, and being out in it, experiencing it, puts us in touch with infinite springs of creativity, with God himself.
Moses in the desert saw a bush which burned and was not consumed. Bell suggested that that bush was always burning. It was just that Moses slowed down enough to notice it.
It burns for us too, eternity in blades of grass.
“My father is always at his work, to this very day, and so am I,” Jesus says. God is always at this work, creating newness, sharing his visions with us. Those who can see God always at work, in our hearts, in the hearts of people and in the world will never run out of things to write
Rob Bell seems quite relaxed, happy and confident in his own skin, apparently quite unscathed by the tsunami caused by Love Wins.

Forgiveness and Creativity

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I was at a really good Bible study yesterday at St. Andrew’s, Oxford–the sort of group that I would have put together if I were able to put together the ideal women’s group for me. I have been in many small groups through my two + decades as a Christian; this one is closest to the one which, rightly or wrongly, I would have chosen could I have assembled it.

Though the effect the study had on me this morning was more of a Spirit-lightning kind of thing. So mere words may not be able to convey the sort of lightning effect it had.

We looked at the parable of the unmerciful servant, reproduced below if you’d like a refresher. 
                                 * * * 

It was as if I had got it for the first time. Everything is forgiven me. And so I need to forgive.

God forgives us the mass of sins and wrongdoing we have accumulated though our life, 10,000 talents worth. Ten thousand was the highest number the Greek could count up to, and the denarius was the highest value coin they knew.

None of us, perhaps, are punished proportionately for our sins. I know I am not.

Compared to the huge stack of offences for which a just judge might need to judge us, any individual’s offence against us is small indeed. 

But not writing it off, retaining the memory of the wrong and the injustice they have done us, opens us up to judgment from God. 

Though he had not held us accountable for all our wrong-doing, in the act of refusing to waive our brother’s sin against us, we open ourselves up to judgement.

And it comes. We are handed over to the torturers until we have paid back all we owe.

I can testify from personal experience that this true.

When I have struggled to forgive, I have been re-injured by by memories of the injustice; by rage and anger at the wrong done me, by memories of my impotence to do anything about it, by the desire for justice to be meted out to those who had wronged me.

So one just has to mentally rip up the cheque of the wrongs committed us into tiny pieces, and hand it to God. He can fling it into the depths of the sea, as he does our own sins, or choose to bring judgement to those who have sinned against us.

Jesus points out the correspondence between our being forgiven and forgiving others, when he teaches his disciples to say, “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” In the proportion to the which we release the debts owed us.

Forgiveness is not a matter of the mind and will. It is a transaction of the emotions.

How do we do it? Well, we ask for God’s grace to forgive those who have sinned against us.

And the crucial thing is that we ask God to bless them. It is cognitively impossible to both ask God to bless people, and to wish them ill. So we ask that God forgives us our sins, as we forgive others, that God blesses us, as we bless others. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who persecute you.”

And our souls will find rest.

And joy.

It’s funny, for me there is a link between joy, peace and creativity–and forgiveness. When I tear up the cheques of what people owe me, and pray for them to be blessed, joy and peace, creativity and good ideas flow through me again. 

And how quickly one can forget this and get mired in the marshes in which no good things grow. (Ezek:47)

P.S. Writing down my thoughts on this has a minuscle fraction of the power a good story or allegory would have had. Story is really the way to go.

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, Joel 2.25

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And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.KJV, Joel 2.25


When, oh Lord, when? When we turn to you. When we place them in your hands. When we ask you to!


I am a bit of literalist sometimes in reading scripture. When I read, “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount with wings like eagles,” I ask: How does that happen?


Which is what I usually ask when I read this: And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten?


I ask, How does that work out in practice?


Now, forgive me, God, and do not smile–for trying to reduce the immensity of your power to my capacity to understand it. But that is what I need to do, right now as I paddle in the shallows of your immensity
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The phenomenon of the years the locusts have eaten being restored to us is actually not an unfamiliar one in the story of creativity.


I think of the wonderful poet Rainer Maria Rilke who gathered up strength and sweetness all his life as he struggled with a writers’ block which lasted for decades, indeed intermittently all his life. And then, in his phraseology, the angel came. And he wrote the beautiful Duino Elegies in an astonishing burst of creative power. Like Handel who wrote the Messiah in three weeks. 


Faulker wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks working six hours a night from midnight to six a.m.  Annie Dillard comments on this, “Some people cross the Niagara Falls on a bike. Some eat cars. Who would offend the spirit who hands out such gifts?” 


Samuel Johnson wrote his classic Rasselas in a week to pay for his mother’s funeral, creativity blossoming under time pressure. Sylvia Plath wrote her astonishing Ariel poems in her life blood over a period of weeks, “The blood flow is poetry/There’s no stopping it.” 


I suppose Van Gogh experienced a similar burst of creativity before his incarceration.


The trick I suppose is to accept God’s gifts of creativity with open hands, flowing with his rhythms so that one can be creative for a long time, and not burn out like Plath or Van Gogh after their bursts of genius.