Nine Years Later - Wegner

Officially Easter is over but this week I can’t help reflecting on the first time I wrote a “resurrection” article. It happened in the spring of 1999 and it marked the beginning of a weekly syndicated column that continues to reach an unknown number of readers. Only a couple of hospital admissions have interrupted my perfect record.

On that nine-year-ago morning my husband and I had taken our customary walk to town. While he waited on the sidewalk outside, I opened the mailbox and discovered a new publication in our mail box. The paper, Estevan Lifestyles, had just been launched and, I noted, it was being distributed in neighbouring communities (that’s what we were). Even better, it was free.

As a newly minted writer, I’d been covering community and farm events for Carlyle Observer. I looked this new paper over and decided to submit an article - after all, if this opportunity would bring as much personal enjoyment and fulfillment as did the Observer assignments, it definitely was worth risking rejection. Drawing on the one writers’ conference I’d attended, I reviewed overlapping readership, one time rights, and simultaneous submission information. Then, I started writing.

It took days to complete that first piece. If memory serves me correctly, it consisted of about 300 words, 15 hours of intense perspiration and nearly a dozen discarded hard copies. My nervousness in submitting the piece was matched only by the jubilation I felt when it was accepted. I’m amazed that nine years later my readership has expanded to include other Saskatchewan weeklies, a few websites, and an ever growing email distribution list. Not in my wildest dreams could I have known that writing would become our primary source of income.

As writers, it’s not always easy to believe that those first, tentatively scribed, writings could lead to a vocation or a ministry. Sadly, it’s even harder many non-writers to value what we know to be our gift from God. One of the greatest motivators I’ve ever received was a remark made to me soon after my first articles were published: “Writers are a dime a dozen and you’ll never make it,” this person said and at that moment something exploded in my soul. “I’ll prove you wrong,” I whispered to myself, “the Lord and I will prove you wrong!”

When Zerubbabel and his co-workers began rebuilding the ancient Judean Temple, God had something to say to those who doubted the ability of His servants: “Who [with reason] despises the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10)

If God doesn’t, we shouldn’t...and that’s enough to make me sing!

Situations That Challenge - Lawrence

Marianne Williamson, in her book, The Gift of Change, says that whatever situation we find ourselves in presents us with a lesson that shows us our next step forward. When I ended up in the hospital on my 70th birthday, I have to admit that I had to search deep within me to find the lesson God was asking me to learn.

Being presented with sudden blindness in one eye because my blood thinners caused me to bleed into that eye was difficult to handle. A further difficulty presented itself in that because I had to cut down on my blood thinners to prevent bleeding there was a possibility that I could have a stroke. I had plenty of time to think and pray back then, in November, as I couldn’t read or do crossword puzzles and I was tied to my bed by an intravenous so I couldn’t do much walking about or visiting others.

Writing is important to me and, I believe, it is God’s calling for me, I had to look hard to see what God was asking of me. Was God asking me to give up writing as a sacrifice to the Divine glory? I could do it if I had to but I think that God would ask me this only if there was something else to take its place. During the eight days of being in the hospital I did not come to any conclusion of God’s next assignment for me but I kept searching and hoped God would make it clear to me in due time. Of course, patience is always a lesson I can learn more about so that’s what I have concentrated on.

As the weeks have gone by my eye sight is improving and my blood results are stabilising. Practically, I have learned that I can read the computer screen if I make the font larger; and that I can read and do crossword puzzles if I have a good light. Because I can do these things, I realise that I can also continue to write. I have a lot of writing stored in my computer files and, over the last few days I have begun to look at what I have and to see whether I can expand on it and make it into another book of meditations.

Before my loss of vision, my writing had grown stale and I was perhaps even a little bored with it all. When I was faced with the loss of writing I became more aware of its value to me and others. This event woke me up to the gifts God has given me; and brought me to realise that there is a lot yet to be done for God’s glory. Thank you, God, for the opportunity to grow in wisdom, grace, and patience; and to discover the gift in change.

Judith Lawrence
www.judithlawrence.ca

Author of Glorious Autumn Days: Meditations for the Wisdom Years and Grapes from the Vine: Book of Mystical Poetry available at http://www.lulu.com/

Old Dogs: New Tricks - Lawrence

Things have gone a little awry in my writing life the last few weeks. My computer has been slowing down and showing signs of aging of late, and I was told that a new one would be coming my way in anticipation of my 70^th birthday. This made me very happy but, knowing that new is not always without problems, I made haste to finish publishing my Family History Photo Book while I still had the computer with which I was familiar.

I now have my new computer (though I am still only 69); it is a lap-top and is red in colour. It is beautiful. However, as I suspected, it is presenting me with a few problems. First and foremost, my H.P. photo programme doesn’t work with the new Vista operating system and I am finding it difficult to get used to the Digital Image system that I now have.

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, is, I’m sure, a familiar saying to most of us. However, I know that this is not true. Haven’t I just learned how to format my Family History Photo Book, upload it to www.lulu.com and publish it to rave reviews from my family?

The difficulty I am having with the new photo system, I suspect, is not so much my inability to learn something new as my being unwilling to take the time and effort to do so. I liked the old H.P. programme; I was familiar with it and didn’t have to think too much about how to use it; I am like a child who has been given a beautiful new red balloon but blubbers over the loss of the blue one that burst.

When N.J. asked, in a recent e-mail, that TWG authors try to insert a photo of themselves alongside their blogs, it was one more reason for me to gripe at the shortcomings of my current Digital Image system. When this blog appears on August 17^th, 2007, with or without a photo of the author, the reader will know whether I have mastered, at least to some extent, my new Digital Image programme.

God gives us gifts and, in order to receive them, we have to put down the ones we currently hold in our hands. We want the new but we don’t want to part with the old and familiar. I love my new computer but I do miss my H.P. photo programme—okay, enough already! I thank God, for my new computer and for the challenge it brings me to stretch my mind and learn something new.

Website: www.judithlawrence.ca