Finding a Voice
Monday, February 27, 2006
the discipline of listening
Jordon Cooper is rethinking his blog. Here's one of his hopes for its purpose and future:
"I also want to spend some time helping tell the stories of what is happening in the Kingdom of God (or as Brian McLaren says, the "Enterprise of God") in Canada and around the world. While I am bored with the rants, I still find passion and hope in the stories that get told of what is happening. I would love to have those stories of hope define the conversation about the Gospel and culture. My contribution will be to link to those stories and hopefully tell some of my own."
I've been thinking a lot about stories lately, realizing that the words I penned in 1998 and recorded in 2001 are at the core of my vocation:
I am a poetess
Between the silences
I hear stories and find the words to speak.
I went to bed last night with grand intentions of getting up early-ish this morning, doing Pilates, drinking tea, and sitting in silence, "listening" with pen in hand to "stories" rising up from that silence. I did the Pilates, I made the tea, but I read a Town & Country magazine (which did inspire somewhat), browsed the internet, and played a couple games of online Scrabble. I thought about writing ...
Sure, blogging is a form of writing and I am doing it now, but it's kind of cheating. This is not really the sort of writing that requires "listening." Confession: I'm a bit intimidated by the possibilities, not quite certain that I want to find out where such listening and writing will lead. In a class at Regent called "The Christian Imagination," I did a dance assignment in which I explored what it means to hear the word of God, mediating on 4 images: (1) the boy Samuel hearing his first word from God--a prophecy that the house of Eli would die by the sword, (2) Mary the mother of Jesus hearing Simeon say that a sword would pierce her soul, (3) Paul's writing to Timothy that the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, (4) Psalm 1.
Am I afraid? Am I afraid to settle down and listen to the word/voice of God? I'm not talking about reading little devotional excerpts.
It's easier to sit around in pyjamas until noon, perhaps like Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz. Confession: I'm not just fearful, I'm undisciplined, lazy.
What does it take to repent of that? Not just feel sorry, but really repent as in change? The Nike slogan comes to mind ...
"I also want to spend some time helping tell the stories of what is happening in the Kingdom of God (or as Brian McLaren says, the "Enterprise of God") in Canada and around the world. While I am bored with the rants, I still find passion and hope in the stories that get told of what is happening. I would love to have those stories of hope define the conversation about the Gospel and culture. My contribution will be to link to those stories and hopefully tell some of my own."
I've been thinking a lot about stories lately, realizing that the words I penned in 1998 and recorded in 2001 are at the core of my vocation:
I am a poetess
Between the silences
I hear stories and find the words to speak.
I went to bed last night with grand intentions of getting up early-ish this morning, doing Pilates, drinking tea, and sitting in silence, "listening" with pen in hand to "stories" rising up from that silence. I did the Pilates, I made the tea, but I read a Town & Country magazine (which did inspire somewhat), browsed the internet, and played a couple games of online Scrabble. I thought about writing ...
Sure, blogging is a form of writing and I am doing it now, but it's kind of cheating. This is not really the sort of writing that requires "listening." Confession: I'm a bit intimidated by the possibilities, not quite certain that I want to find out where such listening and writing will lead. In a class at Regent called "The Christian Imagination," I did a dance assignment in which I explored what it means to hear the word of God, mediating on 4 images: (1) the boy Samuel hearing his first word from God--a prophecy that the house of Eli would die by the sword, (2) Mary the mother of Jesus hearing Simeon say that a sword would pierce her soul, (3) Paul's writing to Timothy that the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, (4) Psalm 1.
Am I afraid? Am I afraid to settle down and listen to the word/voice of God? I'm not talking about reading little devotional excerpts.
It's easier to sit around in pyjamas until noon, perhaps like Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz. Confession: I'm not just fearful, I'm undisciplined, lazy.
What does it take to repent of that? Not just feel sorry, but really repent as in change? The Nike slogan comes to mind ...
posted by Colleen McCubbin at 6:55 PM
3 Comments:
You read Jordan Coopers Blog? I've been lurking there for a long time but never connected with him. Actually, I think this is the first time I have commented on yours as well.
These are the things we do when we should be doing a thesis.Speaking of Thesis, how swamped do you feel this month?
Blessings
Scott Francis
Your words resonate with me. . .
I have been feeling the same way for quite sometime now. I had thought it was fear, which it probably is. Here it goes, I am lazy. I am so sad to admit it. How embarassing. I am glad you said it first, becuase it helped me say it second. . .
dp
I nearly quit blogging a year and a half ago - I began my blog to keep people in touch with wedding plans and when that was over I started to be tempted to just blog about stuff that would make me seem cool. "Here's another cool photo of my husband and me, we are so in love isn't that cool and look at the cool movies and books I am watching and reading I am so in touch with what's currently important and cool."
I gradually realized that I wanted the heartstone of my blog to be God's story with me. That I wanted my blog to notice what God is doing in my life and be a witness to his faithfulness, even and especially in the small things, like Valentines Day on $30. So I still post about movies and books and my husband, but those are secondary to the story of God's faithfulness to me.
Post a Comment
<< Home