Writing out of times of devotion by Claire Musters

I was really encouraged to read Liz’s piece yesterday about writing for joy again, as I am hoping that perhaps what I describe here will give you and your writing another boost – as it did me and mine.

 

I know many of us have experienced really tough circumstances and emotionally draining losses recently, and that affects every part of our lives – including our writing. I have had an increased workload, alongside supporting my son as he was doing school work from home (he started back at school Monday), but it has been the writing work that has been more difficult to cope with. There have been days when I haven’t been able to concentrate well; when I’ve felt I’ve had nothing to say.

 

Last weekend I attended an online retreat with spiritual director and author Sharon Brown. It was a mad scramble for me to be ready to sit down and focus, after a night of little sleep. It had also been a difficult week, finalising and sending off a manuscript and the next day attending my nan’s funeral virtually then interviewing a young black man in our church about issues of race soon afterwards. So my body and spirit were pretty much spent. I had given everything I thought I had left in me – and then some.

 

While I struggled to keep my eyes open to begin with, I soon found the retreat to be a source of such richness – and space. Sharon led us in a lectio divinia, which is a slow, meditative approach to reading a passage. She read out Psalm 130 once, then on the second read through asked us to consider whether a word or phrase jumped out at us. Mine was ‘the depths’. We were given time to write about our response. When she moved on to focusing on Jonah 2, I noticed immediately the fact that ‘the depths’ appears in that passage too. In fact, I found God reminded me of something he had said to me when my mum died in February, and I ended up having a very visual experience in my mind that expanded upon that. I was soon furiously scribbling my heartfelt cries and longings down, alongside descriptions of the scene and my emotional response to it.

 

My grief found an outlet during that retreat – but my personal writing was also kickstarted too. I haven’t done much writing in my paper journal at all since mum died, and even the computer-based journal I’m keeping about dealing with grief, and learning to lament, has not been added to much since lockdown began. I’ve been too busy, too overwhelmed, too wrung out by dealing with other people’s struggles and challenges (I am on the leadership team of the church my husband is pastor of).

 

Throughout this week I’ve been dropping our son to school then engaging with the daily lectio Sharon supplies on her ministry website. On Monday, a passage that preachers and teachers often use to focus on suffering, Romans 5:1–5, revealed a new phrase for me to ponder: ‘we have peace with God’.

 

It was wonderful to hear how Liz was encouraged and helped by the writing prompts given through a Scargill Writers Zoom meet up, and do remember we have four brilliant Zoom events throughout July being put on by ACW, which I’m sure will provide inspiration to many of us. But, for today, might I suggest that you ask God to open up the time you spend before him, so that it not only draws you closer to him, but also breathes life into your writing too. 

Claire is a freelance writer, speaker and editor, mum to two gorgeous children, pastor’s wife and worship leader. Her books include Taking off the mask: daring to be the person God created you to be, Cover to Cover: Ezekiel A prophet for all times, Cover to Cover: 1–3 John Walking in the truth, Cover to Cover: David: A man after God's own heart, Insight Into Managing Conflict, Insight Into Self-acceptance and Insight Into Burnout. Her latest addition to the Insight Guides series, An Insight into Shame, was published in May 2019 and her latest Cover to Cover: Exodus God’s epic rescue was published in April 2020. She has also written a devotional on disappointment and loss (available some time this month as an eBook, and later in the year as a physical book) and is writing a book on marriage alongside her husband. She also writes Bible study notes and magazine articles. To find out more about her, please visit www.clairemusters.com  and @CMusters on Twitter.