Are You Listening?

by +AneMulligan  @AneMulligan

Do you look for a new word on which to focus throughout the year? I started this practice a few years ago, because of a friend and fellow writer, Julie Garmon. This year, my word is "listen".

Uh-oh. I'm in trouble. And it's only the beginning of January. Oh, I can listen to a conversation I'm involved in. I can eavesdrop on them, too. As a writer, it's important for me to listen. And I do - to the conversations around me.

But to sit quietly and listen to God? Not so much. I'm A.D.D. My attention span is that of a gnat. I try to empty my mind, which is hard when it's filled with voices telling you their story. But I try. I'll pray, then be silent and wait for God to speak to me. 

Within a few seconds of nothing, my mind wanders. It leaves on its own, anxious for the next adventure or something. Pretty soon I realize I've mentally left the room. I don't mean to, but I can't seem to help it.

Which makes this word so difficult for me. I guess God expects me to learn how this year. All I can say is He's going to have to smack me upside the head when my mind starts wandering. I will say, sometimes God has spoken quickly and I've heard Him in my soul. And it's awesome. 

Looking back, I realize there have been times when I was noodling on a plot or character, and God has "spoken" by giving me the exact idea I needed to make the story work. And yes, I remember to thank Him.

So this year, I'm going to work on listening more, for both those story ideas and for God to simply share something with me because He loves me. That in itself is a mind-blowing thought! 

What are you going to focus on this year?

Ane Mulligan writes Southern-fried fiction served with a tall, sweet iced tea. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. Novelist and playwright, Ane is the executive director of Players Guild@Sugar Hill, a new community theater and president of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket. She resides in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a dog of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane at her website, Novel Rocket, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ and on her Amazon author page.

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What's In A Voice?

By Rachel Hauck

Since last summer, I've been crazy over a worship song "Great Are You Lord."

Originally sung by All Sons and Daughters, I'd never heard of the song until I happened upon Amanda Cook singing it for a live set.

I listened to it none stop.

Brought it to my worship team at church. Ten months later, it's still a monthly favorite.

I'd pull the song set every week if I didn't want to wear everyone out.

Just recently however, I learned another favorite worship leader of mine, Jeremy Riddle, also lead the song in a worship set a few years ago.

In fact, I'd listened to that live set several times. Jeremy sang "Great Are You Lord," the bridge "All the earth will shout Your praise..." with energy and sincerity.

But the song never stood out to me. Didn't make an impact. Until I heard Amanda Cook sing it.

Why is that? What is that?

Same song, different singer, and one deeply impacted me while the other did not.

Was it a time in my life? Was it a season? Was it the unseen of one worship leader over another?

I don't know because I admire them both.

But there is something in Amanda Cook's voice, in her worship, that resonates with me in the deep. I'm moved by her voice, her songwriting, inspired to love Jesus more.

Voice is a critical part of life. Of writing.

It's more than the tone, than inflection, than a string of words put together.

It's the vibration of one's heart that makes Voice reverberate with the masses.

Sometimes the "it" factor causes one voice to stand out above others.

We see this a lot in politics. And in pulpits.

As writers, our voice is critical.

How you phrase things, how you tell the story, how you emote onto the page will draw or repel readers.

If we challenged two writers to write a story on the same issue/topic, invariably one would be more successful than the other.

Let's say they are both great writers. Both have superior editing and cover design. Both work social media and are very personable.

Nothing on the outside makes a difference. But yet one book will do better than the other.

It's Voice.

A sound that comes from the heart of the author that touches something we can't distinguish in tangible terms. Soul? Spirit? Unseen?

Who knows but an author's voice is so key to success.

I remember meeting Karen Kingsbury in 2002 at the first ACFW onference. I'd not read any of her books but everyone at the conference loved her.

After I heard her speak for the first time I knew why. Voice! Karen is a great, emotional story teller.

I'm not such a great emotional story teller, so I find what works for me. I find my voice. And I have to fine tune, train my own writing voice.

If I could boil it down to this, I'd say voice is about passion. Emotion. About conviction. About being real, being "you" on the page.

Sometimes writers are so focused on craft they leave voice behind. Or a writer can get lost in trying to write the "next great novel" that they leave out their own heart and soul.

Books overly manufactured can read excellent, but lack "feel."

Let's not leave the feel out of our novels.

Sometimes our books have all the right feel and emotion, passion, but it just doesn't resonate with readers.

But trust it will in time. Trust the Creator in doing what's right concerning your writing and career.

Maybe you're like me and you have to take a step back and just write what you love. Forget about market or competition and just be passionate about all you're writing.

Maybe you need to shut up the voices of doubt and indecision rattling around in your head, and believe God is working in and through you.

We all know success does not indicate the best. Or that God loves one person more than another.

At the end of the day, you must be true to Him, and true to yourself, and the person God has made you to be.

And lift your Voice! Whether one or a million hear you, be a voice. Not an echo.

***

Rachel Hauck is an award winning, best selling novelist. 


She lives in sunny central Florida with her husband and ornery pets.

A graduate of Ohio State University with a degree in Journalism, she worked in the corporate software world before planting her backside in uncomfortable chair to write full time eight years ago.

She’s the author of EPCA and CBA best sellers, RITA and Christy nominated books. 

She also co-authored the critically acclaimed Songbird Novels with platinum selling country music artist Sara Evans. Their novel Softly and Tenderly, was one of Booklists 2011 Top Ten Inspirationals.

Rachel serves on the Executive Board for American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a mentor and book therapist at My Book Therapy, a conference speaker and worship leader.

Rachel writes from her two-story tower in an exceedingly more comfy chair. She is a huge Buckeyes football fan.

Visit her web site: www.rachelhauck.com.

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An Appropriate Quote

Marcia Lee Laycock lives in Central Alberta Canada with her husband, two Golden Retrievers and a six-toed cat. Her devotionals have been endorsed by Mark Buchanan, Phil Callaway and Jeanette Oke. She won the Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. Visit her website - www.vinemarc.com

I read the email with a bit of anticipation and a bit of dread. It was an invitation to yet another Christmas party. That meant another pot-luck item to prepare, another auction gift to bring. And I couldn’t stop sneezing and coughing, so who knew if I’d even be well enough to attend. It was almost enough to make me want to shout, “Bah Humbug!”

But the instructions in this email were intriguing, and piqued my interest. For the gift exchange, we were to bring a favourite quote, done up in some kind of creative way. The favourite quote part would be easy, I thought. I have a huge file of quotes on my computer. With the state of my health, I knew the creative part might be a bit more difficult, but I decided to try and rise to the challenge.

I clicked into my quotes file and began to read, and read, and read. Nothing seemed exactly right. I was thinking Christmas, but couldn’t find anything seasonal. I thought inspirational, but nothing seemed to hit the mark. I thought humorous, but couldn’t find anything that made me laugh out loud. So I gave up, swallowed some more cough medicine and went to bed.

The next day I opened the file again. A quote seemed to beam its way to me immediately. It was short but thought provoking, and when I thought about it, the words, from poet Anne Sexton, were very appropriate for the Christmas season. She wrote: “Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.”

In the midst of the rush to shop, to bake, to decorate and make it to all those Christmas parties, God is calling us to do just that. He wants us to stop and hear His voice in the tumult. It is a still small voice, but one that echoes with everything we need. It is the voice of a child crying from a manger, the voices of angels singing and shepherds jabbering about a baby born to be King. It is a voice weeping for those in pain and sickness. It is a voice mourning for those who refuse to hear Him. It is a voice shouting victory over the forces of evil and death. And it is a voice calling us to know Him, to know His love for us, love that grants us one more day of life, filled with all its challenges and blessings.

Listen for Him. He has promised that anyone “who hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev.3:20) Not only that, He has promised to stay with us forever, to guide and protect us, and to give us peace.

So, “put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.” You might just hear the true voice of Christmas.

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Consider Carefully

“Therefore consider carefully how you listen.” Luke 8:18

It never ceases to amaze me how you can read a passage of scripture that is very familiar and suddenly see - or hear - something that you’ve never seen or heard before. Such was the case when I read Luke 8:16-18. It’s a familiar passage, one often quoted in the context of gifts and talents. But that is not the context. The context is talking about hearing and receiving God’s word.

It comes immediately after the parable of the sower – that wonderful and somewhat convicting passage about those who were hearing the word but received it in different ways, under different circumstances. For a while I wondered how these two passages were connected. They seemed isolated – one about hearing, the other about sharing. But as I pondered it, the light began to dawn. You cannot have one without the other.

You will not have a light to put on a lamp stand or anywhere else if you are not receiving that light from a pure source. If you are not hearing from God, you have nothing worth saying.

Now I’m not talking about divine revelation in the same terms as we would consider scripture divinely revealed. I am talking about the everyday, ordinary way God speaks to us. I’m talking about how we listen. That is a difficult thing to do in these days that are so full of busy-ness and stress, but it is an essential thing, especially for those who would dare to be writers.

I remember a day some time ago when I realized how important it was. The day couldn't have been more perfect. The sky was clear, the sun dancing off the water. The beach slowly filled with parents and children, out to enjoy a day at the beach. After an overnight camp‑out, my friend and I had brought a few girls from our church's Kids' Club to have a swim and a picnic. We stretched out on the sand and chatted as we watched the children play. Little ones were busy making sand castles. An older pair tossed a frisbee above their heads.

A little red-haired girl caught my attention. She had wandered in front of us a few times, as she dashed from the edge of the lake to her mother, sitting in a lawn chair not far away. I watched as she stood still, her small head bent studiously over something in her hand. She turned and started toward us, stopped and peered at her hand once more, took a few more steps and stopped again. Her progress was slow as this pattern was repeated. As she approached, I could see a moth cupped in her palm. She tilted her hand each time it moved, stopped when it crawled dangerously close to the edge and moved slowly forward when it was secure again. Eventually the little girl reached her parent, holding her hand out for her to admire the precious treasure.

My delight in watching that little girl deepened as I heard God’s voice. “That’s how I carry you, to my Father’s delight.” The depth of Jesus’ love overwhelmed me in that moment.

I know I could have missed His voice that day. I could have been anxiously watching the little ones under my care. I could have had my mind on all the stresses that come with being a pastor’s wife and mother. I could have let all of “life’s worries, riches and pleasures” get in the way. But somehow He broke through. I heard and was blessed and several times I have used that story in written form to illustrate God’s care for us.

We must take time to listen, consider the circumstances in which we have placed ourselves and see to it that we find a place that is conducive to hearing God’s voice. Then we will indeed, have something worth writing about.

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