My son and I were having a conversation the other night about writing. He loves to write. Takes after his dad. We were talking about writing on deadline and how to get motivated to write. He said that when he has specific assignments, such as pre-determined page lengths, it is more difficult for him to write. There seems to be a writer’s block with that pressure. My love for writing began at a young age. In my teens, I wrote about the daily happenings mostly every day. Writing made me feel free. It helped me get my thoughts together. It started a life-long habit of recording daily events. God gifted me with some small ability to communicate to others, to serve God through words. This is an example that may help you.
The Lord impressed upon me these verses in Ezekiel 3:18-21, “When I say unto the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand. Yet if you warn the wicked, and he turns not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. Again, When a righteous man turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous sins not, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also you have delivered your soul.”
These verses have inspired me and motivated me. At the same time, they have kept me pursuing humility and a servant’s heart. In January 2002, the Lord put it on my heart to begin writing The Daily Jot. It started by me writing whatever came to mind and sending it out to my email list, which was about 35 people. Over the years, it has grown to the tens of thousands. Aside from Holy Spirit motivation, there is a human side that constantly motivates me to write. It comes through experiences that inspire that old farm boy stick-to-it-ness. One such experience happened in Ghana in one of the most poor and dangerous Muslim slums. William Agbeti had arranged with the Imam for us to preach the gospel to school kids there. Yes, you read it right, and it was a small miracle.
Walking to the school, we passed through some of the most impoverished areas I have ever seen, and also it felt spiritually hostile. We were able to teach some young children about Christ; feed them; sing with them; and love on them for a short time. I remember this one little boy who looked up to me with those deep brown eyes and reached his left hand out to touch me. We had a Holy Spirit moment that brought me back to those Ezekiel verses and the compassion of Christ. For some small time, we were privileged to serve and blessed by it as well. Looking into that child’s eyes, I’ll never forget it, is motivation to use the gift God gave me to serve him, and by serving him, to serve others. Over the weekend, be encouraged to seek the Lord and find or renew your inspiration in Him to serve. If you do, you will never have writer’s block.
