I have been a writer for as long as I could write. If you asked me waaaay deep down what I have always thought of myself in my innermost self, I would tell you (probably only in the wee hours of the morning, when things like this are easier to say) that I am a writer. If you took away everything else I have done and will do in life, the one thing that would remain is writing. Poetry, prose, nonfiction, silly songs, I love it all. But I also never wanted to be a writer who only wrote things that other writerly people read. I write for normal, everyday people about normal, everyday things.
I've always wanted to write in a way that was meaningful, in a way that revealed truth in ordinary life, in a way might just elevate the reader's sight from the ordinary into the extraordinary, and these early experiences in preaching have shown me that the preaching moment is what this is all about. And I was excited. It seemed I found my medium.
And, having found my medium, wouldn't I be able to just slide into preaching with ease? I mean, hadn't I been practicing this my whole life? I'm a writer, after all. Wouldn't it just be a matter of sitting down and writing?
Turns out, not so much.
So, I did what I do, and I read books. Books by preachers. About preaching. And I found that a lot of what these preachers were saying about preaching is what a lot of authors say about writing--that it's not an act to be undertaken in the moment of composition or proclamation...rather, it's a lifestyle.
And so, far from the preaching task being well on its way, I am realizing that it's just beginning. I have figured out that I'm preacher; now I have to figure out how to be one.
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