Claiming Strength . . . and So I Write!

He gave a wonderful speech. He told of the trials of learning in his late 50s that his company was moving to Omaha, Nebraska and realizing that he was going to have to redefine his life if he wanted to stay near Charlotte. He had always wanted to write a book but everyone told him that he couldn't do it. He knew he could and over the course of three and half years he defied anyone to say otherwise. Few believed in him, but he chose to claim the strength to move forward. As Dave Spohn, author of Trumped in Charlotte, ended his speech, he looked straight at me and said, "Blythe, there is no such thing as writer's block!"

Ouch! Somehow I knew that he was going to say that but he did manage to catch me off guard. I haven't written anything in two months. I have felt blocked, spiritually weak, in a holding pattern with little to say and certainly nothing with any profundity. So why bother? Why waste anyone's precious time reading something that has little to communicate?

Have you ever felt that way? As if nothing is moving forward. Life just is. It isn't exciting but it isn't unexciting either. It just seems on an even plane--no risk taking necessary but no challenges either. You are learning but nothing earth shaking--just the same old lessons that you never seem to get right the first time so the opportunities to practice learning just keep coming and you wonder when you will ever get the lesson right! Life is routine. Life just is.

There was something forceful and eye opening in his words as they echoed in my memory, "Blythe, there is no such thing as writer's block!" I realized that I had to move forward and just do it. The scripture speaks again and again the phrase, "Be strong and courageous." It was as if those were Dave's words to me. "Blythe, be strong and courageous."

The dictionary defines strength as mental power, force or vigor. Many were the times that God exhorted believers to go forward in force and vigor knowing that even though what they were about to attempt appeared totally illogical, God would equip them with the strength to accomplish.

Last year this time, I was frantic in my preparations for leaving my job as a minister. I was excited. I was taking a leap of faith that didn't make a lot of logical sense to others but like Spohn I knew that I could do this. I knew this was the path God had for me. Questions wafted my way: "What are you going to do? How are you going to live?" I could not buy into the doubt I heard in the questions. My response was always the same, "I don't know, God will take care of it." And God did. God gave me the same strength that he gave Dave to move forward toward his dream.

Dave's words called me to claim that strength again. They reminded me that we have the choice to view life from a "life just is" perspective or we can claim every moment with a "Life is!" perspective. Do you hear the difference? The first perspective is a go along to get along mentality and the second chooses to find verve in the seemingly mundane moment knowing that life is unfolding as it should, that the holding patterns are simply part of the construct of a greater plan to which we may not be privy but one that we are called to trust.

Maybe that is the great lesson--learning to claim strength enough to trust every moment to God's care and in so doing to discover that every moment of life is . . . and it is fabulous because God is with us, working for us!

In the mundane routine places of this day, I pray that we will each find the strength to trust God's way and celebrate that life is! Amen.