I had a good time at the Lago Vista Writer’s Group tonight. It’s the second time I’ve attended and it’s been good. Tonight the home church I go to on Thursdays cancelled, which freed me up to stay till the end of this meeting. I’m glad. We all read something we’d written and shared it with each other. We shared constructive criticism after each person shared.
When asked about my goals for next month’s meeting, I realized how blessed I am. I call it a blessing, because I am in a creative zone, so to speak. Between now and the next meeting, I hope to have started to paint (illustrate) the children’s book that I wrote (about five years ago), write another chapter or two for my new book, my band has two gigs, I’m speaking at a church in Georgetown the Sunday after the two gigs, I have been painting, writing my daughters poems, writing letters and formulating a new song. And participating in a writer’s group is creative. And at work I’m doing some graphic design for some potential stickers, “clings” for retail grocery stores, and a “recruitment package” for the GO TEXAN campaign. Very fulfilling work… Wow, I’ve been creative lately! This is exciting. I call it a blessing.
I haven’t purposed to do any of this, per se. I haven’t sat down and told myself, “Self, get busy being creative. Push yourself. Get active. Do this, do that…” Nope, there is no plan in my mind with all this. But I like it. I’m glad it’s happening. I think creativity is something that needs an outlet. It’ll dry up (in a non-permanent way, I believe, so calm down, campers!) if there is no outlet (possibly), but my big point is that it FLOWS when there is an outlet. I’ve got some outlets now and it’s pouring. I love that. Thank You, Lord.
I’m being creative now by blogging. I need to get creative with a couple other projects, too. I need to write concert reviews for The Lumineers and Sara Berailles and movie reviews for The Internship and a couple other new movies I’m going to see in the next two weeks – Ring Bling or Bling Ring and Heat.
I thank God for this. He is a Creator. I love Him. I do not choose to follow Him because of emotion. Emotions are fickle. They change. They can change with lack of caffeine (drink up on the caffeine, people! Amen?), change with indigestion and circumstances (ever been cut off in traffic or stuck behind someone Type-A and S-L-O-W??). They’re not to be trusted. They’re temporal. But I can say that God has touched my emotions. God has allowed me to experience Him and His work in such a way that is “moving” and emotional. While I’d still follow Him if I never felt Him again the rest of my life (which are actually big words, because I would surely miss these amazing feelings and experiences), I am glad I probably won’t have to.
I have blogged before about how I am intellectually satisfied with the evidence of God in the world, history and in my life. Not that I’m the most intellectual guy in the world, but I do have some level of analytics going on in my brain. I’ve had my share of doubts and “show me something, God” presumption. I do love, LOVE, LOVE something experiential about God, though. I love “hearing God.” It’s not a tangible thing. It’s not something I can prove, though I do have some stories about “God things” happening that lined up with perfect timing that shouted at me that He was around. It’s not scientific, per se, but I might say it’s some of the best experiences I’ve ever had.
But I wanted to blog about something tonight. I was reminded in the writer’s group about encouragement. I was reminded about some research I did for my novel (Desert High). I went back to Edwards Air Force Base in California and back to my old high school (Desert High School) and the current football coach there invited me to practice. He even had me work with the placekicker a little bit and offer some encouragement. Anyway, this coach did something very unusual at the end of practice. I believe this was a ritual that they did each and every practice. He had the team gather in the middle of the field and they went around and various players shared something encouraging that another player did during that practice. “Bobby made a great block on that kickoff return,” one player would say. “Jim really sprinted hard in the wind sprint drills.” This and that.
Wow! That is awesome. If you ask me, more coaches might want to try this.
“That is good for the soul,” one of the ladies at the writer’s group said tonight after I shared this. I agree. In fact, I’ve said this before (in this blog and while speaking), but I believe that ENCOURAGEMENT IS LIKE FOOD FOR THE CREATIVE PERSON. I truly believe that. Not just creative people, of course, but we all need encouragement. This is one way we can be like Christ – one way to be Christian is to encourage people. Think about it. It’s like grace (unmerited favor) when we give encouragement to someone else (not just brothers and sisters in Christ, either). It’s a great gift. It helps.
Do it.
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