writing | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Our Unique and Transforming Call and Vocation

Anita Mathias — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 12:07:45 +0000

We read in the Gospel of Matthew, that as Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. […]

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Writing and Prayer

Anita Mathias — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 20:33:28 +0000

“Writing and Prayer” was published in an earlier version as “Learning to Pray,” in The Christian Century, March 22nd, 2000. Reproduced in Religion Online, and many other places. This is from my book Wandering Between Two Worlds, available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com and Amazon.in * * * Writing and Prayer. We read about them, write about them, talk […]

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Burn-Out Vanishes When We Rediscover Purpose

Anita Mathias — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 22:25:52 +0000

When I blogged regularly, which I did for six years, I felt more alive, more alert, more attentive to my life, and what God was doing in it. In Frederick Buechner’s phrase, I listened to my life. I have taken a six month blogging break, and the peril of blogging breaks (or writing breaks: […]

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On “Defining Decisions” Rather Than New Year’s Resolutions

Anita Mathias — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 12:03:08 +0000

Image Credit Mark Batterson, in The Circle-Maker, a fascinating book on a prayer, praises “defining decisions,” that set the course of your life, sort of like choosing whether you drive to Slovenia (which our family did last summer), or to Scotland (which we might do this summer). I made three defining decisions in my twenties. […]

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In praise of tiny goals

Anita Mathias — Thu, 28 May 2015 13:35:40 +0000

I know many people who want to write books they haven’t completed—and I, alas, am one of them. The standard advice for writing a book? Ray Bradbury, Stephen King or Donald Miller recommend 1000 words a day. If people did that, they’d publish 4-6 books in a year, Miller says. More commonly, writing gurus recommend […]

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When, For a Season, God Himself Blocks You

Anita Mathias — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 11:09:50 +0000

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to save many lives,” Joseph quietly tells his brothers. (Genesis 50:20) Oh they did; they sure did, first throwing him into a disused well, then uncaringly selling him on for thirty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, not caring what became of him. And what […]

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As Birds Sing Because They Must, Even So I Write

Anita Mathias — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 12:31:44 +0000

As long as I have a garden to muck about in, and the health to do it, I shall not mind growing old. My garden is a deep joy at the centre of my life, even though I am making peace with not being able to keep up with it: it’s an acre and a […]

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Lucy Mills on her New Book, “Forgetful Heart,” and her Writing and Publishing Journey

Anita Mathias — Wed, 28 May 2014 11:21:34 +0000

Lucy Mills has just published her first book, Forgetful Heart: Remembering God in a Distracted World (Darton, Longman and Todd) available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. I ask Lucy a few questions about her book What inspired your book? There was no ‘one thing’ – at least not that I can remember (!) I was aware of […]

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Amy Boucher Pye guest-posts on her writing process and her work in progress

Anita Mathias — Tue, 20 May 2014 07:50:55 +0000

Thank you to Anita for inviting me on the Monday blog tour. Pleasure to be dreaming beneath the spires with you, even if from a sunny garden in North London! So the game is to share what we’re working on, why we write, and how the process works. What I am working on I’m writing […]

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On Trusting our Work to God: Moving Upwards by Standing Still

Anita Mathias — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 09:20:47 +0000

Reginald Arthur, 1893, Joseph before Pharaoh Joseph is seventeen when he sees his sheaf stand up and his brothers’ sheaves bow down. When he sees the sun, moon and eleven stars bow to him. * * * Interestingly, God shows him his destiny, the end of his days, but not what he needs to do […]

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