Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been slowly working my way back into a habit of personal writing. A blog post here, a few paragraphs of fiction there. Nothing big, just an attempt to try to rebuild the long-lost habit.
Everything I have written is safely stored in a Scrivener project and marked with a status. Most are marked as rough drafts, reminding me that I need to go back and edit them at some point. Meanwhile, I’ve also been trying to clean up the blog and even think about some fresh organization. After all, it’s been a few years. I need to revise my presentation before I just start publishing stuff again. I need to have something good and attractive and just right before I get back to publishing again. For now, just building the habit is enough. Right?
Right???
Maybe. And maybe not.
Early this morning, I followed a trainer named Shannon along a beach in Australia while listening to an audio devotional that Heather Thompson Day recorded back in December, all thanks to the marvels of technology built into my treadmill and my phone. Neither of these lovely ladies were actually with me in my living room today. But both of them were a part of my morning because at some point they decided to click “submit.” They chose to put their work out there on display for me to access whenever I needed it.
As I listened to the podcast, I was struck profoundly by a comment about shining enthusiastically through anything you do, whether the audience is huge or small. I was personally being impacted because two women had chosen to make their talents public. They had chosen to put themselves out there, having no clue how many people would watch or listen. They had no guarantee of reaching a record-breaking number of viewers. They simply wanted to put what they had out there for anyone who might be willing to take advantage of their material.
They didn’t keep their thoughts and actions hidden in a Scrivener file on their computer.
Yes, that is the exact thought that went through my mind as I walked and listened. And that first thought was immediately following up by the conviction that I’d been hiding, too. Hiding behind rough drafts and the need for organization. Hiding behind the idea that I never really had an “audience” anyway. Wasn’t all of this just about the writing for my own edification? If I am focused on rebuilding that habit, is it really important to actually publish what I write? I mean, on the one hand, I want to be productive and write for more than just my own mental processing. But, there’s no rush, is there? No one is waiting for me to publish a blog post. Who even really visits personal blogs anymore, anyway, other than random bots?
All of the excuses came right back to the original realization: I’ve been hiding. There are many reasons for it, even beyond the excuses. But I wasn’t meant to hide for the Kingdom of God. I was meant to shine for Him. I wasn’t meant to edify myself. I was meant to edify the body of Christ and draw others to become a part of that body.
It might be that no one reads. It might be that I don’t impact a single soul by publishing a random post on my blog. That’s a possibility anytime I publish a blog post. But if I keep hiding, it’s more than a possibility; it’s a guarantee.
So, this is me, coming out of hiding. This is me typing this post directly into WordPress instead of in Scrivener. This is me committing to just a quick edit before I click publish. This is me turning on a light bulb to shine right now, even if no one else sees it for weeks or months or years…or ever. My job is to take what God has given me and commit to putting it out there.
Not Quite Ordinary 