You are the light of the world (Matthew 5:13)

...keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel...that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak (Ephesians 6:19-20).

The world is a dark, hopeless place. I see that darkness in the literature I am reading and the historical periods from which the works come. I see that hopelessness in my peers and professors whose souls are perishing in nihilism, Buddhism , cosmic humanism, naturalism. I pray every day that Jesus would shine though me; that people would look into my face and find it radiant with the hope of the gospel. And I know that I must open my mouth and defend the name of Jesus; I must share my hope with others. Yet, in the classroom, I often remain silent or speak in abstraction. I don't want to miss opportunities to open my mouth and to let my light shine, but I know I do, holding back in fear. How wrong and tragic! How I long for greater courage and compassion, greater devotion to Christ, greater love for the lost, greater discernment to know when and what to speak.

Will you join me in praying for a greater revelation of the gospel, for boldness, for humility, for effectiveness, for good soil in the hearts of the lost whom we are called to love and serve, for opportunities to share the gospel? Pray that I would speak the name of Jesus--that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. Fellow saints, I'm praying for you!

Your name
Jesus, said in contempt, frustration, hatred
a curse word
Your name
Jesu, a Spanish slave ship,
traders and slaves, alike
enslaved, in darkness, desperate
classmates only see irony
blind to their own slavery
to sin that easily entangles
make me unashamed of your name
power to save
Your name
Jesus, the name above all names
Your name
Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth
and under the earth
Your name
Jesus, must be heard in all the world
in truth
Your name
Jesus Christ is Lord
every tongue confess
Your name
Your name
how sweet the name of Jesus

The Purpose of the Blog

My poetry professor continually reminds my classmates and me that "a poet should 'ground the reader' at the beginning of the poem." My main goal, as a poet, is to lead my readers to wonder at the significance of the poem (and discover it), to make creative leaps with me in the work, to reach with me into the heart of the matter (beyond the structure of the poem), to explore the poem's thematic depth. These are large requests, and I am learning that I cannot ask these of my readers until I first help them find their footing in the poem--until I show them where they are, define the poem's "characters," and sharpen the images, diction, syntax, etc.

As a Christian and a writer, I am about to make a great charge to you. It is a charge that I have accepted and, by God's grace, will pursue. As in poetry, I recognize how important it is to "ground" you (as the reader) by telling you the story of how God has brought me to where I am today. My hope is to do so in the next few weeks!

The charge is not original to me. I will leave writer Rachel Starr Thomson to make it:

In these dark days, we desperately need Christian artists who will love God with all their hearts, minds, souls, and strength, and who will pour that love into unique creative expressions of truth that have the power to bridge into the souls of others.

This is my charge to them, to you, to myself more than anyone.

Go and meet with God. Seek Him in your relationships, your circumstances, the creation around you. Immerse yourself in scripture. Pray with your whole heart. Let His Spirit fill you with light. And then do what God has asked you to do — be a candle, a burning light, a city on a hill blazing with truth and shelter for those who are lost in the darkness. Use your art to do it.

It is such a dark, dark world. Is there light in you? Then hear my call to you, and to all in whom truth is burning.

Oh Christian, please paint the light!

Please show us beauty. Show us people, in all of their splendor and sin. Write redemption, if you will; write true, enduring love; write friendship, justice and hope in the midst of oppression. Paint for us the light. Show us what it means to be human, but more, what it means that He is God.

Write, Christian, if you can — write truly. With all your heart, avoid being trite. Please don't write pat answers or platitudes. Please seek out the truth. When your God says "Seek my face," let your heart answer, "Thy face, O Lord, will I seek." See Him in Jesus, and then write for us. Write what you see.

Please write simple, clear words. Write with passion, conviction and biblical authority. Please write with compassion, for what you write will make its way into the hearts of others. Your words will shape them. Write because He is Lord, because He was crucified and because He is risen again.

Oh, Christian, paint the light! Shape for me visions of families that do not break up, where fathers love their wives and sons and willingly die for truth. In story and song, show me purity, chastity and virtue. In drama and dance, tell me stories of children who grow up to leave selfishness behind and become what God would have them be. In poetry and prose, write the earth in its glory, in its mists, its ice, its rainforests and mountains — and let me see in it not the cruel hand of arbitrary nature but the wise hand of a Creator who is God.

Tell me true stories, about your ancestors, about the past, about the people you know today. Tell me of the work of God. And tell me stories that if they are not true, deserve to be.

It is dark, my friend. Paint the light.

Oh Christian, pierce the darkness! Write with imagination and fervor; write of Middle-Earth and Narnia; write of days you have never seen and places you can only imagine. Do not fear art, do not be afraid of creativity; for it is God who spoke the world into being, God who conceived of and created all we see; and to create any small thing is to follow in His likeness and celebrate His gifts.

Please, my friends, show me truth. Show me what life is, but most importantly, show me the Father.

Dear friends, dear sojourners here, let your minds be renewed and transformed by Christ. Let Him sharpen your thinking and make your understanding clear. Seek out truth and pursue it; love wisdom and knowledge because they are also gifts from Him; seek to grow in faith. And let your faith, your understanding, spill over in the words you pen, the pictures you paint, your dances and dramas and songs.

Paint the light. The world is dark, my friends, and we are needed. (Paint the Light)

As a student at a secular university, God is enlarging my heart for my peers and fellow writers, both those who are lost and those who are followers of Jesus Christ. My hope is that Christian writers will be encouraged to "let their light shine" through their work to those in darkness. So I want to reiterate and specify the call to writers: write the light. Together, let us discover what it means to let the light of the gospel shine through our writing!

Here are (some of) the purposes of the blog:

1. To be a source of encouragement to Christian creative writers to 1."write the light" and "walk in the light" i.e. pursue holiness and purity in daily life
2. open their lives and work to a community of believers who are also passionate, gifted writers (or aspire to be!) so that they might be held accountable and spurred on to grow in Christ-likeness and their ability to write well and powerfully

2. To provide a place for the work of Christian writers to be shared

3. Through the sharing of that work, to create a community of writers that
1. give intelligent, insightful, thoughtful, and provoking feedback about the mechanical, stylistic, and thematic aspects of the work
2. compel one another, as Christian writers, to be authentic in our work, to convey every subject (whether we write comically or deeply) from a Biblical worldview, to portray truth as God has defined it and beauty as God has shown it in His Word and Son
3. encourage one another to reject worldliness in the perspectives, subjects, and answers we convey to our readers through our work
4. help one another grow in our passion for God and for writing skillfully for His glory

4. To discuss and explore how the gospel and God's Word speak to and apply to specific aspects of writing and struggles writers face

5. To suggest contemporary (and other) Christian poets (or writers of any genre) for the community to read

...

In many ways, God is doing something entirely new in my life and heart. Because of this, part of the purpose of this blog is also to chronicle all that God is awakening and doing in me with the expectation that God will be solidifying His call on my life in the days to come. My prayer is that my journey will be a great encouragement to your own walk with the Lord! I'm excited about the future!

More to come!
Please feel free not only to comment on the blog but also to email me your work! It would be a privilege to read it and possibly post it!

'Til then...
Any thoughts on how to navigate through writer's block in a Godly way? Here are some of mine (hopefully, these can be developed in future posts):

Make sure your conscience is clear before God? Spend some time with the Lord, allow your heart to be searched by the Holy Spirit, hold your life up to the light of God's Word.

Remember the gift of revision! Just write something. Ask God to give you more insight, creativity, inspiration! He will in His timing! (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Write from a place of humility, recognizing your utter dependence on God to write anything of eternal value.

Write from a place of enjoying God.

Ask God for inspiration! He is the source! (Psalm 87:7) Look everywhere (and anywhere) for God's handiwork. He is always at work, and the world is His!

Write the Light: Walk in the Light (Part 1)

The "God who said,‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in [my heart] to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6)! My prayer is that God would empower me to let that light shine forth in my writing. I want to write the light. If you are a Christian and a writer (especially a creative writer), my hope is that you also will embrace the charge to write the light.

"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." I John 1:5-7

To become a skilled writer, we write, revise, read, write, revise, write, etc. But to become a skilled writer of the light, to reach those in darkness with the light of the gospel, we must seek to walk in the light.

In the next few posts, I will expound upon the reason for this blog, and what God has done in my own heart and life in regards to walking in and writing the light. May God richly bless you as you seek to glorify him in all that you do!