A Quick and Simple Task

I have never been an early riser. It was always a struggle for me to get out of bed in the morning when I was young. My sluggishness likely had a lot to do with the fact that I hid under the blankets with a flashlight reading until the wee hours. As the morning sunlight lit my room my mom would call several times before my toes would finally slip over the side and touch the floor. Then it took a long time in the shower to really wake up before heading downstairs for breakfast. And when I got to the kitchen the refrain was always the same. 

“Did you make your bed?”

I’d groan and trudge back upstairs, knowing there would be no breakfast until that small task was done. One morning I asked my mother why she always insisted that I make my bed.

“It’s a good start,” she said. “It means you’re ready for the day.”

I couldn’t help but think about my mom’s words this past Sunday as my husband preached on Acts 9 verses 32-43. It was verse 34 that triggered the memory. Peter had stopped in the town of Lydda where a man named Aeneas, a paralytic, caught his attention. He stopped long enough to heal the man, saying, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.” 

That last sentence made me sit up straight. Why did Peter tell him to take care of his mat? Was it in the way? Was it unsightly? Or was Peter saying something more to Aeneas? I wondered if perhaps he was saying, get ready Aeneas, a new day is beginning, things are about to happen and there’s a purpose for you in them.

And that made we wonder about the purpose of the healing, the purpose of the blessing. God does not act randomly or without reason. His actions, and most especially his blessings, always have purpose.

That made me think of all the blessings I’ve been given in my life. It’s a long list and the realization that it all has purpose made me begin to think about what God intends me to do. He’s given me wealth so I should share it, food and a home to open to others. He’s given me health so I can do His will on this earth. He’s given me family that I might raise them to go into the world and bless others. He’s given me the talent of writing so that I might glorify His name through story. All of his blessings have an outward slant, none are intended to be hidden or hoarded.

My mother trained me well. Making my bed is still something I do each morning. It makes me feel that the day has started and I’m ready for it. This morning, as I did that quick and simple task I wondered what God had in store for me today. What am I to be ready for? Ready to hear his voice, ready to move when he says “go,” ready to speak when His Spirit directs. Yes, all of these things and more. I’m to be ready to receive His blessings and use them for His purposes.

What about you? Have you made your bed?

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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 and also has two devotional books in print. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. 

Marcia's second novel, A Tumbled Stone was recently short listed in the contemporary fiction category of The Word Awards. Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded here. Visit Marcia's website

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Secretaries of Praise

In a devotional about Acts 20:35, J. Hudson Taylor said - “Oh that our pen may be anointed as with fresh oil, while we seek to bring our own soul, and the soul of our readers more fully under the influence of this truth!”

As we search for truth in the world around us, as we strive to depict it, in whatever form, we glorify the One who is truth, the One who lives in us.

But there is a danger, the trap of arrogance, the sin of pride. There is danger in loving our words too much, danger in thinking ourselves wise. William Saroyan has said - "If you practice an art faithfully, it will make you wise, and most writers can use a little wising up." We must never assume the words belong to us, neither to keep nor to distribute. The words, especially those that come from the depth of our spirit, belong to our Father. We can never claim Divine inspiration, but we must take seriously the calling, the vocation, of a writer who is Christian.

Nor can we claim that we have all the answers. Frans Kafka has said - “One reads in order to ask questions.” Perhaps one should also write from that perspective, not to provide, but to seek the answers, those answers that will resonate deep and long as they touch that central part of our being where God resides; those answers that will lead us and our readers to more questions and to a deeper knowledge of God.

The trap of pride also lurks, ready to ensnare us. It is in arrogance that we write believing we possess the complete unadulterated truth. Jesus is the only One who lives in that place. Jesus is truth. We are merely those, as J. Hudson Taylor says, who are seeking to bring our own souls under its influence.

Oswald Chambers, who has written one of the most popular devotional books ever written, has said - "The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance."

I think the author who is most true to himself, and his readers, is the one who admits that truth has been dumbly struggling in him, as well. It is when we as writers struggle to give utterance, struggle toward that wholeness, that holiness, that we succeed, no matter whether the result is published in the New Yorker or in a local newspaper. For, as E.B. white has said, “Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.”

This is our calling, our privilege, to walk forward in that faith, for, as George Herbert's wonderful little poem says -

 “Of all the creatures in the sea and land

Only to Man thou has made known thy ways,

and put the pen alone into his hand,

and made him Secretary of thy praise.”  

 

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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 and also has two devotional books in print. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. Marcia's second novel, A Tumbled Stone has just been short listed in the contemporary fiction category of The Word Awards. 

Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded here. Visit Marcia's website

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Words in the World

Recently I had the honour of being published in an anthology along with several other Canadian Christian authors. A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider is, as the name suggests, the second collection published by That's Life Communications. The first book, Hot Apple Cider, has done well and all of the contributing writers have received royalty cheques. We're all expecting great things from this second edition and it's already looking like this book is going to travel. One writer mentioned it was going to Japan with a missionary family. Another said he was taking it to Rwanda to give to national pastors he would meet. Another is taking a few copies to the southern states and another had just sent a copy to the Philippines. We also just heard it is already being distributed in Australia.

Words have wings. They go where we cannot, reach into the hearts and homes of people we will never meet, all over the world. The words go beyond us, beyond what we can do or even imagine, because they are words breathed into the world by the Holy Spirit and sent on their way to do His work.

I love this quote from one of my favourite YA novels, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – “Trust me though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Leisel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain.”

I love that quote because I love the image of a young girl holding a book in her hands with awe, as something precious and ethereal and wringing out of it nourishment and sustenance - the very necessities of life. Think what our world would be like without books. Not a pleasant picture. Knowledge would be stymied. Faith would be stunted. Hope would be a faint unrecognizable glimmer. And love? Would any of us believe in it?

And herein lies our responsibility as writers of faith, to put down words worthy of being wrung out - words that come from the true Source of all knowledge, faith, hope and love - then send them out into the world where they will do His work.

Most writers of faith have stories about readers who have contacted them to tell them how their books met a need in their lives. Most writers wring those words out like rain from a cloud as well. They are the words that keep many of us writing as the wheel of encouragement cycles from one to another. And that's really what this writing business is all about - it's about building one another up, tearing through the fog of this world and revealing what is true, honest and good. It's about revealing human nature and then pointing to the redemption that can cure it. It's all about God's design, His plan, His mercy and grace.

Let us therefore, "not become weary in doing good" (Galatians 6:9) but write on. "For it is God's will that by doing good (and writing well) you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men" (1Peter 2:15).
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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 and also has four devotional books in print. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. The sequel to One Smooth Stone will be released in 2011. Abundant Rain, an ebook of devotionals for writers has just been released here. Visit Marcia's website

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