A PEACEFUL PARTNERSHIP by Liz Manning

 

Rebekah Lyons in her book ‘Rhythms of Renewal’ comments:

‘God didn’t design us to create on our own. He made us to create with Him, to tend to His creation…He wanted [men and women] to work with Him in creating something beautiful, something life-giving.’

She goes on to prompt her readers to ask:

‘Does my [writing] bring a sense of peaceful partnership with God?’

I’m not sure ‘peaceful partnership’ is the first phrase that comes to my mind about my writing. Recently, it’s been more ‘wading through sludge’ or ‘Jacob-like wrestling’.

The hot weather, the emotional weight of working with people with terminal illness, ongoing family issues, and continued over high expectations of self all serve to drain my physical, mental, and creative energy. Even the things I love to do (like writing) or the things that I know do me good (like writing) become an effort.

I think the problem may be because I have in my head a golden image of a writer:

A separate space with comfortable chair, right height desk, and an inspiring view. Not to forget a cake tin and coffee machine to hand (but never any weight problems or heart arrhythmias). Plenty of uninterrupted, unresented time to compose. Ideas jotted down throughout the day in a notebook or electronic device, always on hand because the writer only wears clothes with suitable pockets. Prose or poetry flowing from pen or keyboard if not easily, at least readily and with a sense of satisfaction.

I know, it’s ridiculous.

I think I had a similarly golden view of pregnancy before I had children. I believed all the media hype of the glow of an expectant mother going through a natural and wonderful experience.

I was to be proved very wrong, spending most of my pregnancies exhausted, anxious, and with my head down a toilet, ending up in hospital both times. So much for the glow - more a sickly greyish green hue.

So when I consider those two words, ‘peaceful’ and ‘partnership’, I find I need to think about what they really mean.

Peaceful doesn’t mean easy. The Hebrew word ‘shalom’, with its wider definition of wholeness, speaks to me more of a sense of purpose and rightness, of doing what we were made for. Maybe that’s why it’s so frustrating when my writing’s not going well?

But we also have the joy and encouragement of a partnership.

We are meant to be writing because God has called us to it, designed us for it, shaped and honed us to make us better at it, painful as that may prove.

But perhaps it’s more than that: He doesn’t leave us to just get on with it. He sits alongside us, encouraging us and cheering us on, enthusing over our talents put to good use, writing His own story on our screens and paper but also on our lives.

We are meant to be creative. We are meant to take after our Heavenly Father. He loves to work with us. It’s worth remembering.