When the Boat “Planes”

by Marcia Lee Laycock, @MarciaLaycock

When I was about nine years old my father taught me how to run the small motor on our ten-foot boat. I was thrilled that my father trusted me enough to let me take it out all by myself.

I was cautious at first, only going out on the lake when the wind was down, and only opening the engine’s throttle half way. I would chug around our small bay and come back to the dock, feeling very mature. Then one day my dad went with me. We ploughed along the shore for a while. Then Dad turned to me and made a hand motion indicating I was to open the throttle more. I moved it a couple of notches. He signalled for more. I took a deep breath and opened it up, all the way.

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When Writing is Like Riding a Horse

by Marcia Lee Laycock

I’ve always been horse crazy. It took many years of begging before my mother let me learn how to ride a horse and many more after that before I owned one. I remember the day I woke up and looked out my bedroom window and saw Cheyenne grazing in the field. I almost pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

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A Pruning Process

by Marcia Lee Laycock

I’ve had a geranium plant for several years. Every spring I put it outside and it flourishes. Every fall I bring it inside and it goes a bit dormant, but still manages to flower now and then, though some of the leaves shrivel and go yellow, then brown. Almost every time I water it through the winter I trim off the dead leaves, dropping them into the large pot that holds the plant. They crumble and eventually become nourishment for that old geranium.

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I Am Not A Writer

By Marcia Lee Laycock @MarciaLaycock

For many years, indeed, for as long as I can remember, my identity has been totally and inextricably bound up in being a writer. It’s not just what I am, I told myself, it’s who I am. Sadly, over the years, that perception led me to a place that was filled with stress and burden. In fact, it became like a prison in a way, a prison of my own making.

Today I am declaring that no, indeed, I am not a writer. Every time those words enter my consciousness I feel the chains fall away. I don’t have to produce. I don’t have to publish. I don’t have to succeed. It is not who I am.

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Dealing with the Impostor Syndrome

by Marcia Lee Laycock @MarciaLaycock

A friend once emailed me to ask for prayer. “I’m having a huge case of Imposter Syndrome,” she explained. She had been asked to lead a workshop at a writers’ conference but was on the edge of backing out. Though she was an accomplished writer with a long CV, she felt inadequate for the job.

Another writer friend once said: “I keep getting the feeling that someday someone will discover what a fraud I am and the jig will be up!”

Sound familiar? 

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My Day of Epiphany

by Marcia Lee Laycock

I was in tears. No, not tears of sorrow but the kind that spring from being touched deeply and profoundly. Interesting that it happened to be January 6, traditionally known as the day of Epiphany.

It happened as I began a writing course called The Creative Way by Ted Dekker. A few months ago I almost emptied my writing bank account to buy this course. I’d seen it advertised a few times and kept thinking about it, looking at it, trying to gauge whether or not it was worth the money. I kept thinking about the exchange rate and how that bumped the product up to a cost I would not normally entertain. But I kept going back to it again and again. I felt there was something there that God wanted me to investigate. So I took the plunge.

The first module stirred me deeply, not because it was anything I hadn’t heard before but because it was all about something my heart reaches for – abiding in Christ. Mr. Dekker tells his own story and then gets to the bottom line – our identity does not lie in who we are as mothers or fathers or plumbers or dentists or yes, even as novelists. Our true identity lies in the fact that we are children of God. Our freedom and release spiritually and creatively lies in believing how deeply He loves us. The premise is that “transformative fiction” comes from a heart that is resting in that place because that heart is first and foremost seeking to go deeper into that identity. The process teaches us to love God, love ourselves and others as ourselves and our work becomes part of that process.

I knew that. I believed that. But until yesterday I was not whole-heartedly pursuing that path.

I remember chatting with a writer friend some time ago about the fact that I’m a two time cancer survivor. I mentioned that I did not once ask God, “why me?” My only question as I walked down that path, was, “Who are you, God? Who are you really?”

My friend smiled. “You’re ready,” she said.

I didn’t understand what she meant then, but I do now. I’m ready to let go of me - as a mother, pastor’s wife, church leader and yes, even as a writer. I’m ready to get to know who I really am. I have a feeling this course is going to do what Ted promised in his introduction. It is going to change my life and my work.

I’ll be blogging about it here as I go, and no doubt what I learn will spill over into this blog as well. I welcome any comments along the way.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 

TWEETABLES

My Day of Epiphany by Marcia Lee Laycock (Click to Tweet)

Our true identity lies in the fact that we are children of God~ Marcia Lee Laycock (Click to Tweet)

It is going to change my life and my work.~ Marcia Lee Laycock (Click to Tweet) 

Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. The sequel, A Tumbled Stone was also short listed for a Word Award. Marcia has three novels for middle grade readers and four devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. Visit Marcia’s Website

Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded on Smashwords or on Amazon. It is also now available in Journal format on Amazon. 

Her most recent release is Celebrate This Day, a devotional book for special occasions like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving. 

Sign up to receive her devotional column, The Spur

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Wishing I Could be Jesus

 by Marcia Lee Laycock

I recently attended a funeral for a young man who died too soon, leaving a wife and three young girls. The sadness overwhelms at times and it makes me wish I could be Jesus, especially now, at Christmas time, just for a few minutes, just long enough to say, as He did, “arise.”

But then, I realize that He doesn’t need me to do His work for Him. He has already done it. He has already said that wondrous, mysterious word and brought that young man into His kingdom, given him time to have a productive, full life here on this earth, and then brought Him home, to the place where he has wanted to be, as a believer in Christ.

Often things don’t seem right to us. The world seems off kilter and full of so much pain and suffering it overwhelms us at times. And we want to be Jesus. We want to snap our fingers and make it all better. But He has already been at work. He has a plan for this earth, for each one of us, a plan that goes far beyond what we could ever imagine. He told the Hebrew people that, when they were in circumstances that were full of pain and suffering – their captivity in Babylon. Living as slaves, they no doubt often cried out to God to bring them relief from all the suffering and pain they saw around them.

This was His answer – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

Sometimes, in my writing, I try to be Jesus. I try to erase all the pain and sorrow and make the world a better place, a more pleasant place. An admirable purpose, perhaps, but does it serve my readers? Does it serve them to deny the pain that Jesus has allowed in the world? Would it not be better to show how we can all move beyond that pain?

Would it not be better to show them how to look up? Would it not be good to remind them that when we see all those decorated Christmas trees, we should look for the star or the angel on the top, and know Jesus is with us?

Would it not be an encouragement to show them how to look around and see there are others who are struggling, and nudge them to reach out?

Would it not be best to direct them how to look ahead, to know that Jesus has promised a bright future, and given us a way to know we are secure in his hand, even in the worst of times?

Yes, there are times I wish I could be Jesus. And there are times I write as though I am. But then I remember – He is the Messiah, the Living God, our hope and our comfort and we can survive anything with Him at our side. If I strive to portray that reality in my writing I will have done my job well.

TWEETABLES

Wishing I Could be Jesus by Marcia Laycock (Click to Tweet)

We want to snap our fingers and make it all better~ Marcia Laycock (Click to Tweet)

Would it not be better to show them how to look up?~ Marcia Laycock (Click to Tweet)

Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. The sequel, A Tumbled Stone, was also short listed for a Word Award. Marcia has three novels for middle grade readers and four devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan.

Her most recent release is Christmas, a collection of short stories that will take you from the far reaches of the galaxy to the streets of an inner city and the cold landscape of the far north. In every setting the Christmas Spirit is alive and well. Now available on Amazon in paperback and ebook form.

Visit Marcia’s Website

Sign up to receive her devotional column, The Spur

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God's Best Plan: Stop Writing

By Marcia Lee Laycock

“Why don’t you ever have time for me?”

My heart stopped and I turned to my nine-year old daughter as she burst into tears. I gathered her in my arms and we talked. She had needed me when she came home from school that day, but I was glued to the computer screen, and had only given her a vague “uhuh” when she started to tell me what was on her heart.

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Taking Correction

by Marcia Lee Laycock

Correction. It's never easy, especially when we think we've got it all right. Those words we have slaved over; those characters we built from scratch; those brilliant plot twists we implanted at just the right place. How could they need correction? In our eyes, they’re perfect. But then fresh eyes find the typos. A keen sense of rhythm finds the awkward sentence structure. And even those brilliant plot twists are found wanting.

That's when we must take a deep breath, read our work again and acknowledge that the one with the blue pencil in her hand is experienced and astute. Another deep breath and we make the changes. Then a smile. The work is more precise, cleaner and does express more effectively what we intended it to express. The correction was needed.

This doesn't only happen in our writing life. Our spiritual life needs the same attention. Oh yes, we sometimes think we’ve got it all right. But then something happens and we discover there are things lurking that ought not be there. We find ourselves thinking thoughts that ought not have come to mind. We act in a manner not becoming and realize there might be a streak or two of arrogance and pride buried deep under our self-righteousness.

The Lord has a way of bringing these things to our attention and often it’s not a pleasant process. That’s when we need to take a deep breath, acknowledge our sin and take steps to act on God’s correction. In the end, like our writing, we will smile as we find our lives are the better for it. We see more clearly, and God’s presence is able to shine more brightly in and around us.

Even those chosen by the Lord to be his first disciples had to humble themselves before Him. None of them were perfect, all needed correction from time to time. Often the process was painful – see Luke 22:24-26 where Jesus rebukes the disciples for jockeying for position in the kingdom, or Luke 22:61-62 where Peter weeps bitterly after denying he ever knew Jesus. But always, after the rebuke, comes the forgiveness and the love. Though the disciples disappointed Jesus time and again He blessed them and made them into powerful men of God. None of us is exempt from the process because none of us is perfect. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23 Correction is not only necessary to make our work and our lives better, it is necessary so that we will become the people God intends us to be, able to do His work and His will, able to stand before Him one day as he says, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). 

TWEETABLE
Erasers are Necessary by Marcia Lee Laycock (Click to Tweet)

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Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. The sequel, A Tumbled Stone was short listed in The Word Awards. Marcia also has four devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. 

Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded on Smashwords or on Amazon. It is also now available in Journal format on Amazon. 

Her most recent release is Celebrate This Day, a devotional book for special occasions like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving. 

Visit Marcia’s Website

Sign up to receive her devotional column, The Spur

Read More