A Worthy Goal, A Precious Prize.

I read something recently about breaking free of writer’s block. The writer expressed how she had broken through and was energized again. She proclaimed – “The goal, to write. The Prize, to publish.” I felt like cheering. To write – yes! A worthy goal. To publish – yes! And it was here that I paused.

The question came to mind, What is the prize? Is it seeing your byline in a magazine or newspaper or on the cover of a book? Is it receiving a check for a piece of writing you have labored over? I’ve had the thrill of all of these, and yes, it is a thrill, but it is fleeting. The byline may not be noticed nor remembered. The check evaporates like mist. Surely there is more. Is the prize perhaps the process itself? Is the prize all that is learned along the way? Is the prize the life being lived as a writer who belongs to Christ?

Henri Nouwen wrote; "Writing is a process in which we discover what lives within us. The writing, itself, reveals what is alive! The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey whose final destination we do not know."

What lives within us – that which is alive – is revealed to us as we write. As those spaces open up within us we discover Who will fill them. As we trust Him, not knowing the destination becomes irrelevant.

What greater prize can there be? When we focus on the Spirit of God as the giver and sustainer of the gift, it is as we write that we understand Who that Spirit is. It is as we build our stories, our articles, our poems, that we discover the depth of His wisdom and love.

That journey, that adventure is in itself a gift. I would own no other prize.