Once upon a summer camp, in my early teen years, I responded to a preacher’s offer for prayer. Along with a dozen other tanned campers, I waited until it was my turn to be prayed for. I can’t tell you for sure what prayer might have been mumbled over me because, like most teens there, I had been to countless services and prayed for countless times.
This time, though, the moment before the prayer was unlike I’ve ever experienced. It was so impactful, I have remembered it in pretty awesome detail ever since.
Eyes closed, sensing all the remaining eyes on my back, I waited for whatever holy moment I needed.
A hand on my shoulder, “Keep writing.”
And it came out before I could stop it, “Whaaaaat?”
Preacher Guy looked me in the eyes and said it again, “God wants you to keep writing.”
World. ROCKED, you guys. How did this guy know I had brought my writing binder with me? How did he know I wanted to write but never felt the need to keep writing?!
Those very words have stuck with me, so close to my heart, for 15 years. Yet, I feel as if they would have rolled off my back and into oblivion but for two words, “God wants”.
God WANTS me to keep writing? As in, He LIKES it when it write? He wants MORE writing to come from me? In the same way I want more writing to come from my favorite author?
The Creator of all the authors over all time (you guys, C. .S Lewis, J. K. Rowling, Steinbeck), Who could enjoy and recall any story or inspirational essay wants ME to keep writing?
WHY?? I have no special words untold by another human. I’m not published or original with my ideas. There is nothing unique about my pencil or paper.
And it wasn’t until this very year, 2015, that I figured out exactly why He wants me to keep writing.
My writing is my altar.
In all the really big moments in the Bible, when God really showed Himself to whomever needed His help, there was always an instruction (or at the very least, a prompting in the heart of the recipient) to build an altar in rememberance of whatever happened.
Abram is promised to have as many descendants as the stars by way of his barren wife. Altar.
God rescued the Israelites by parting the Red Sea. Altar.
Noah survives a bumpy boat ride and a really dramatic flood. Altar.
The Bible is filled with examples of men who built altars to God after they had a significant event in their life. And why? To remember what God had done for them.
Otherwise they would forget. And when that happens, the slope into cynicism and bitterness becomes super slippery. I know, I’ve recently had to trudge back up that incline.
I’ve forgotten a lot of the amazing acts of God in my 30 years. I should have kept writing.
A few weeks ago, as I was sitting in church, I felt God reminding me of that day at summer camp.
“Keep writing.”
To remember what He has done for me. To remain in this place of gratitude and faith. It’s how I can protect my faith.
By building an altar. Something tangible I can return to when I feel the weight of life squeezing me, leaving no room for all the things I have learned.
So, with the help of the One I follow, this blog will be my altar. Come see the things Jesus has done for me.
You can begin by sharing in one of the most blessed moments of my life, the birth of my baby girl.
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