Reading God by Emily Owen
When I was three, my aunty taught me to read. We’d lie side by side on the carpet, my little finger tracing the letters as I sounded them out: J-a-m. Jam!
When I was twenty-one, I sat in a hospital clinic chair. I
needed to learn to read again. Not letters on a page, but words on lips, in
preparation for losing my hearing a few weeks later.
Two different types of reading. For years, I have read using
both the ‘on the page’ and the ‘on the lips’ methods: not simultaneously,
though if I can learn to look in two directions at once, I’d be up for the
challenge.
Stephen King said, on the importance of reading for writers:
I imagine that many of us in ACW have overflowing bookcases,
and so encouraging us in the importance of reading books would be rather like
teaching my grandmother to suck eggs.
To re-jig the above quote slightly, and I hope not
irreverently; ‘If you want to be a Christian writer, you must read God.’
Whether or not our writing is overtly Christian in content, if
we are Christians, and we write, God is in our writing. Guiding us. Inspiring
us. Helping us.
Reading God.
We ‘read God’ every time we open our bibles. As our
soul-fingers trace the letters, He’s there; speaking to our hearts, rejoicing
with us when a heavenly penny drops, smiling over us in delight. Jam!
Before I slip into above mentioned teaching about eggs, I’m
going to flip (sunny side up?) to the non-words on a page type of reading.
If you want to be a Christian
writer, you must read God.
If I want to lipread someone, I must make sure they are not
too far away for me to read their lips. So I move, if I can, until I am in the
best place to see them. For me, that will usually be facing them. For some
lipreaders, slightly to the side is best. But if I don’t move, I struggle.
If I want to read God, position is important, too. Although
I know God can, and does, speak into any position – how many of us have had
flashes of inspiration for our writing whilst focussing on something else
entirely – for me, there are times, often ‘staring at a blank screen’ times,
when I need to take a deep breath, stop panicking, and re-position my heart
before God. Bringing it back to Him. It’s amazing how often the blank screen
disappears after that.
My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways
If you want to be a Christian
writer, you must read God.
Last week was Lipreading Awareness Week. My memory took me
back to sitting in that hospital clinic chair, waiting to learn how to lipread.
I had my notebook with me, ready to write down recommended reading - ‘A-Z of Lipreading’
or some such – and the steps I needed to follow in order to nail this lipreading
thing.
As the hearing therapist began, my pen was poised to take
copious notes.
“You need to look.”
My pen slipped from my fingers. That was it?! No top tips?
No ‘do X/Y/Z and you’ll be a gold-standard lipreader’?
More pointers did follow, of course, but none more
important.
You need to look.
If we are to read God, and His heart for us and for our
writing, we need to look to Him.
Perhaps looking to God is a part of life. And perhaps, like me with lipreading, it’s still good to be reminded of the importance of looking.
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord...
Psalm 121:1,2a
If you want to be a Christian writer, you must read God.
Lovely post, Emily. One group I belonged to years ago had as its favourite chorus, Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Same idea.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I remember that chorus - what a good one to have as a favourite.
DeleteThis is extremely brilliant making us Christians aware of so many life issues we hardly give thought to [ a sudden change or loss of something taken for granted] and making us realise on different important levels the need for us and our readers to see, hear, know and look to God when they read our work . Thanks for bringing out Psalm 121 to remind us at that point when 'the screen goes blank'. God bless you richly. Fantastic post!
ReplyDeleteThank you. That's a lovely point about our work pointing readers to look to God, as well as looking to Him ourselves.
DeleteThank you, Emily. This is a very timely reminder to me, for someone who often looks everywhere else first and then finally to God. Barbara
ReplyDeleteThank you, Barbara, yes it is easy to find ourselves looking elsewhere first.
DeleteVery true, Emily, and I love the way you put it. Never thought of knowing God as 'reading' Him before, but it's true!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Katherine.
DeleteYou were such a delight to teach to read, Emily. I'm sure that God is still delighting in teaching you to continue to read Him, day by day, even though you have now 'progressed' from j-a-m to c-o-n-s-e-r-v-e-s. Love, Aunty xx
ReplyDeleteReally lovely thoughts here, Emily. So true. This morning heard a homily on ''those who do the will of my Father are my mother, and brothers, and sisters..." which linked back to similar in the Old Testament. The 'will of (the) Father' is something to think of when we're writing - not necessarily only specifically in non-fiction 'about Christianity/being Christians' but the underlying slant of the narrative in fiction, and our attitude towards our 'characters'. (Personally, I don't like to hear when a writer says s/he is 'killing off' a character... but then I'd probably do something in my writing that person could see negatively - whatever, always good idea to be conscious of our Heavenly Father and building His Kingdom...)
ReplyDeleteThank you. That's interesting about the will of the Father in our writing, and in our attitude towards characters. One for a blog, perhaps! Yes, always good to be conscious of God, in writing and otherwise.
DeleteAs always, I love your blogs and they never fail to make me look at life in a slightly different way. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ruth.
DeleteThis is wonderful, Emily and, as a partially deaf person myself, I really appreciate the way you compare lip reading to the way we look to/read God. Beautiful post.
ReplyDeleteThank you. There are many parallels between lipreading and looking to/reading God, aren't there: I particularly discovered that when I found myself cropping this blog.
DeleteThis reminded me of when I got my multi focal glasses with the small, narrow frames. Most of the glasses area was taken up with either the long distance seeing (to drive and such like) and the short distance seeing (for reading) with a very tiny band for middle distance. Now most people don't need middle distance much, but I'm a psychotherapist, so I need it every day, sitting 2 metres across from my clients....
ReplyDeleteBy the time I had sat for several sessions with my head perfectly still, in the exact viewing point of my clients' faces, I discovered that they were thinking I was angry with them, or not understanding them, and therapy was going badly. I, of course, realised that this narrow view of them just wouldn't work, so back I went to get larger frames with a wider band to enable me to both see and respond better!
That's why I found the book, When God calls a writer, so helpful, it brings God right into your writing. I suspect I'm going to find that more difficult to do with my university course in creative writing, unlike this supportive group of Christian writers, it's hard to find anyone that wants to bring God into any area of their writing.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that book, thank you for highlighting it. You'll know God is guiding you in your writing, even if others on the course don't. I think bringing God in can be true even if it's not overt. I hope and pray your course goes well and, alongside support from ACW, you find new support and inspiration from people you study with.
DeleteDeep and thought provoking as always Emily. Thank you
ReplyDelete