New Material

My brother used to have a sign in his room. It wasn't anything fancy, just a piece of printer paper pinned to his wall with scotch tape. In black, bold Sharpie it read, "WRITE EVERY DAY."

I'm not sure if he stayed true to that self-command, but it was a good thing to have hanging around your room as a writer. My brother is a gifted writer, he has the unique ability of turning intangible experiences into words. When you cannot express yourself or your feelings in response to something, he can - and that's why he writes about movies. But what always impressed me about Scott is that he is a disciplined writer. He writes consistently, rarely wavering in his pace. When I started the blog four and a half years ago, he told me one thing: "Just don't give up on it. Keep posting, no matter what."

Being a disciplined writer came quickly for me because my work has always demanded that I produce new original written content. From sermons to the constant barrage of emails, writing well became a necessity very quickly.

What has become increasingly difficult, however, is getting my life to keep up with my writing.

This is what I mean:

When you write a sermon, you're often writing to an audience that hears you or someone like you quite a bit. They know you. So, the problem becomes generating fresh material with new wisdom. There's quite a bit a pressure, even if much of it is unwarranted.

Nevertheless, I find myself sometimes thinking: I'm just not reading enough books, or, I need to watch more TV to get better ideas or, I really need to go to more movies and subscribe to more magazines. And while all of these things contribute to my knowledge, they don't necessarily stir content for sermons. Why, you ask?

You see, the best sermons have two qualities: 1) they give the audience an accurate picture of God 2) The picture of God they get is supported by tangible examples from a shared reality between the speaker and his/her audience.

The worst sermons, then, show you nothing about God and have very little to do with real life.

Many times I find myself thinking I need to change things about my life to come up with fresh concepts to write or say when the reality is that I need a fresh vision of God to change my heart.

That, in the end, is why I pray, read the Bible, and read books; I do these things so that I might catch a renewed vision of the God of the universe. This doesn't mean that I have profound spiritual experiences on a weekly or even monthly basis. Actually, it means I have less existential experiences.

We do not necessarily see new things, read new things, or experience crazy new things when we enter life with God. Instead, the lens in which we see all things has been forever changed. We don't need the things that we say to be changed, we need our hearts to be changed. Because then, out of the abundance of our hearts our mouths speak.

I love sermons and I love the challenge of writing every day because they both keep me desiring fresh pictures of God. The "new material" I need is not a thought or belief, but a heart. And that won't change my circumstances, it'll change me.