Once Again

by Marcia Lee Laycock, @MarciaLaycock

Funny how God knows the perfect time to send you a reminder or two about something you seem to have forgotten. It happened to me recently and I confess it made me groan. I thought I’d learned this lesson well a time or two before, but I guess I’m one of those cracked pots that continually leaks.

It happened as I sat listening to my husband preach a while ago. The sermon was called Greatness That Doesn’t Have a Shelf Life. (He likes to use catchy titles). You can listen to it here - http://bit.ly/2gghh9R

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Go with the Flow

By Marcia Lee Laycock, @MarciaLaycock

I stared at the small rubber raft, then peered at the mighty Yukon River, the third largest river in North America. My friends had left the raft for me to use to get to their cabin about fifty miles downriver from Dawson City. The raft looked very small. I knew it was a bit risky, but I remembered my friend’s words - “You won’t have to paddle much,” he’d said. “The current will take you.”

I tossed my pack into the small craft and launched. That’s when I noticed there was only one paddle. That concerned me, but I was already out into the current and heading north. 

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Five Loaves, Two Fish and You

By Marcia Lee Laycock, @MarciaLaycock

Five Loaves, Two Fish and You by Marcia Lee Laycock

It is the only miracle Jesus performed that is recorded in all four gospels: the feeding of the five thousand. At the beginning of the segment in Mark 6:31 to 44, we see a Jesus who is tired, disciples who were no doubt exhausted. Jesus tells them to come away with him to a quiet place, to rest.But it was not to be. The crowds preceded them. No wonder the disciples asked Jesus to send them away. Their excuse was a good one. They had no food. But it says Jesus had compassion on the people, so he didn’t do as his followers asked. Instead, he said, “You give them something to eat.”

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To Make Oneself the Echo

by Marcia Lee Laycock, @MarciaLaycock

Maurice Blanchot has said - “To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking.” As we become echoes of Christ, we will know He has given us our writing not only as a means to speak, but as a means to hear and understand.

As pastor’s kids, my daughters were often asked to participate in the service in our small church. Our eldest, Kate, was asked to sing once, when she was going through a bit of a rough spot in her teenage years. When the Sunday morning came, this is what happened –

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Dark Trees

Dark Trees

by Marcia Lee Laycock

Dark trees. There seems to be a trend, at least in my community, to line the streets with them. I don’t like them. When I drive down a street where a string of these trees have been planted, I turn away. They seem unnatural to me. They remind me of horror movies in which innocent young women are running through tangled woods trying to evade a crazed murderer.

But yesterday, as I glanced out my window at the tree in my neighbour’s yard (yes, it’s a dark one), I was so attracted to it I stood up and walked to the window. The slant of light striking the tree made its dark red leaves glow with a crimson hue. It was beautiful and I stood there transfixed.

As that dark tree turned into something glorious I thought of God’s work in our lives. He is in the business of transformation. He transformed me from a bitter angry person into one who is growing in the understanding of the words joy and peace, grace and forgiveness. (If you’d like to read that story go here). And the red colour of the leaves had a new significance too, in that light, as I thought of the blood of my Saviour, poured out that I might have new life.

As I watched that tree begin to glow and pondered, I considered Ted Dekker’s words, that all good fiction is transformational. Dekker stresses that “you must long for a new way of being in the world to write good story.” Those words resonated with me because lately I’ve been feeling that God is wanting me to go deeper, to seek Him more. Mr. Dekker believes that is the first step to writing transformational fiction and I agree.

Jesus did indeed teach us a “new way of being in the world.” He turned His culture upside down in many ways, turning the people back to the core truths of the scriptures they thought they knew and putting their feet on a straight path that led to His Father. Some responded and were transformed: fishermen became leaders, cowards became brave, unlearned men became teachers, downtrodden women were raised up.

There will always be dark trees in our world, things that make us shiver. The good news is that even those things can be transformed by our God. There will always be dark trees in our own lives, things that could prevent us from moving forward in Christ. The good news is that He has given us the ability to overcome those dark things in our own lives and move closer to Him. For, as the apostle John has said, “You dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

And He has given us the ability to write transformational story, in all its forms. May we be faithful to that purpose. 
****

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

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A Poem for a Writer's Heart

Available on Amazon

I receive poems from the wonderful British poet, Malcolm Guite every week and they always stir my soul. This week the poem he sent also stirred my writer’s heart. They are such good words to ponder as a writer or artist of any kind so I thought I would share them with you today. Be blessed, Marcia Lee Laycock

As If  

by Malcolm Guite

Matthew 5:42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. 

The Giver of all gifts asks me to give!

The Fountain from which every good thing flows,

The Life who spends himself that all might live,

The Root whence every bud and blossom grows,

Calls me, as if I knew no limitation,

As if I focused all his hidden force,

To be creative with his new creation,

To find my flow in him, my living source,

To live as if I had no fear of losing,

To spend as if I had no need to earn,

To turn my cheek as if it felt no bruising,

To lend as if I needed no return,

As if my debts and sins were all forgiven,

As if I too could body forth his Heaven.

***

Of himself, Malcolm says -
I am a poet-priest and Chaplain of Girton College Cambridge, but I often travel round Great Britain, and to North America, to give lectures, concerts and poetry readings. This autumn I will be speaking in London, Salisbury, Winchester, and Needham Market. For more details of these and other engagements go to my Events Page. You can read more about who I am and what I do on the Interviews Page

Visit Malcom's Blog

An exciting recent project with Canadian musician Steve Bell:

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A Poetic Warning

Scroll

By Marcia Lee Laycock

In an Interview by Joy Biles, poet Carrie Fountain said:

“Be wary of becoming a poet. Be wary of becoming anything. I mean: you want to become a surgeon. Or, I should say, you want your surgeon to have become a surgeon! But don’t become a poet. You’ll never get there. Just get started. Each morning, make a little progress. Send out a little prayer. Take note of something. Try to be facing in the direction of the surprise.”

I think there’s a lot of wisdom in her words, wisdom that pertains not only to poets but to writers of all kinds. I think perhaps we try too hard to become writers. We agonize over it, set our schedules rigidly, watch our reviews on Amazon, try to do a hundred and one things using social media and all the other marketing ploys. And all the while the art suffers because of the ‘have to.’

Oh I hear you. Yes, it is necessary to market our work if we want people to discover it. Yes, it is necessary to learn the skills of our craft. But no, we don’t have to work so very hard at it that the joy evaporates and our ears become deaf to the voice that longs to speak to us through our own words.

I love that simple sentence, “Take note of something.” That’s what it’s about. Take note. Watch for it. Record it. Let it live inside you as you express it. Let it change you. Then give it to others so they too may live it through you.

I often wonder what it would have been like to be a scribe during the ancient times. What would it have been like to sit in the courts of Xerxes or King Saul and King David? Did they realize the importance of the history they were recording? They were trained to be accurate, to record the very words of their king as though their lives depended on it. Often it did. But did they have moments of awe as they wrote? Perhaps not. Perhaps it was just a job, a very ordinary thing to sit at the feet of the king and record his words and the everyday goings-on in his court. Perhaps yes. Perhaps a particular ray of light as it hit the king’s crown caught the scribe’s eye, or the compassion in his master’s eye as he listened to the stories of his subjects. Perhaps his heart was moved as he wrote.

We too are scribes, recording our times, recording and revealing the glory of our King. It is our job to lean into it, to recognize its importance, to be moved by it, for the very quality of our lives may depend on it.

“I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw” (Proverbs 24:32).

Yes, “take note of something, try to be facing in the direction of the surprise.” And don’t forget to “say a little prayer.” 
****

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 three devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies, including the Hot Apple Cider books. 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. 

Marcia's most recent release is A Traveler’s Advisory, Stories of God’s Grace Along the Way.

Visit Marcia’s Website

Sign up to receive her devotional column, The Spur

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Writing the Pain

by Marcia Lee Laycock

Anne Rice wrote - "When I'm writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is."

But why do it? Why go to places in our lives that are painful. Why put it on the page?

I recently attended the First Nations Christian Writers’ Conference in Winnipeg Manitoba. The first of its kind in Canada, it was attended by aboriginal people from all over the country. The First Nations Christian Writers’ Anthology was launched and several of the authors published in it were there to read.

There was a lot of pain in their stories. A young man wrote about the abuse he suffered in a foster home. A woman wept as she described finding her sister hanging by an electrical cord in a bathroom. Yes, there was a lot to make one shudder. But there was also hope in those stories because they did not stop with the pain, they went beyond it.

Several years ago I heard Eli Wiesel tell the story about the catalyst that made him write about his experience during the Holocaust. After WW2, he had gone to Paris to try and find surviving members of his family. He got a job as a journalist and on one occasion had to interview Francois Mauriac, the famous Christian writer.

When Mauriac spoke about Jesus Wiesel exploded and told him to stop. He said that not far from where they were sitting atrocious things had happened to his people. “And we have to words,” he said. “We have no words.”

Mauriac was deeply moved and responded – “You must find the words. You must write this story.” Wiesel began to write and the result was some of the most powerful writing produced about the horrors of that era. Wiesel won the Nobel Prize for that work.

Francois Mauriac was right. We must find the words to express those things that are ugly and evil in order that they do not defeat us. We must get to the other side of them. This is the writer’s acknowledgement of stewardship – the stewardship of his/her gift and talent. 1Corinthians 4:2 says – “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” I believe we have been given a trust as writers and we must be faithful to it. To make our lives of use to others we must be willing to touch those parts of ourselves that are universal – the pain and the joy of being human.

Madeleine L’Engle once said - “It is not that what is, is not enough, for it is; it is that what is has been disarranged, and is crying out to be put in place.”

We do not write about the ugliness, the darkness, the things of despair, in order to glorify them, but in order to put them in their place and to recognize that there is redemption of all that is ugly and evil in this world, because of what happened on a cross at the base of a hill in a tiny country then called Palestine.

Bruce Cockburn, the Canadian song writer and poet said it well: “you’ve got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight.” 
****

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 three devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies, including the Hot Apple Cider books. 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 A Traveler’s Advisory, Stories of God’s Grace Along the Way.

Visit Marcia’s Website

Sign up to receive her devotional column, The Spur

Read More