Write it Down!

 

Another writer shared recently that the date for her monthly post on the More Than Writers blog always seemed to come around unexpectedly, despite it falling on the same date each month – I definitely related to that! 

     Before I knew it, we were into November and my post was due, so, struggling for inspiration, I browsed online to see if there were any notable events this month. I had heard of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which stopped earlier this year, but I learned that November can also be referred to as National Life Writing Month – rather than writing a novel, people focus on writing memoirs or stories from their own lives. 

     It is a topic I’ve been reflecting on recently. Our minister recently moved to a different church, and, at his commissioning service, an extract was read from a book that his new church had compiled recounting their history. The extract was from the 1960s, but apparently the book goes back 150 years with stories of how the church has developed and how God has worked! 

     Our church is only nine years old. We don’t have much of a history yet, but I’ve been privileged to have been part of it from the start, and I know that already we have stories that are worth recording and remembering.

      I was delighted when, inspired by the other church’s book, someone decided that she wanted to start gathering our church’s stories so far to create a book for our tenth anniversary next year. I have offered my services to help with the writing for people who have stories to share but don’t feel equipped to write them themselves, and I’m looking forward both to the process of compiling the book and the final result. 

     I think it will be helpful for us, who lived through the early years of our church, to remember the journey, and hopefully it will also be inspiring for future generations to read about what God has done.

      It’s certainly a prominent theme in the Bible. We see Psalms such as 78, 105 and 106 which recount the history of the Israelites, especially their rescue from Egypt and their journey through the wilderness, and there are numerous occasions where God instructs prophets to write down what they have seen or heard so that these things will be remembered – Isaiah 30:8, Jeremiah 30:2, Habakkuk 2:2, Revelation 1:19. 

     If you’re looking for a writing challenge for November, maybe you could consider writing about an event from your own life. It could be for your own personal reflection, or it could be to share with friends and family, in a blog post, on social media, or even in a book. 

     I know that I am always fascinated by others’ stories, and writing them down can be a great way to remember and testify to what God has done!

Lesley Crawford blogs at Life In The Spacious Place and contributes regularly at Gracefully Truthful. She has written One Big Story, a Bible curriculum for school groups and contributed to various anthologies, including the ACW anthology, "Merry Christmas, Everyone" and "The Jesse Tree Anthology".