I had a good time at the Lago Vista Writer\u2019s Group tonight. It\u2019s the second time I\u2019ve attended and it\u2019s 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\u2019m glad. We all read something we\u2019d written and shared it with each other. We shared constructive criticism after each person shared.<\/p>\n
When asked about my goals for next month\u2019s 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\u2019s book that I wrote (about five years ago), write another chapter or two for my new book, my band has two gigs, I\u2019m 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\u2019s group is creative. And at work I\u2019m doing some graphic design for some potential stickers, \u201cclings\u201d for retail grocery stores, and a \u201crecruitment package\u201d for the GO TEXAN campaign. Very fulfilling work\u2026 Wow, I\u2019ve been creative lately! This is exciting. I call it a blessing.<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t purposed to do any of this, per se. I haven\u2019t sat down and told myself, \u201cSelf, get busy being creative. Push yourself. Get active. Do this, do that…\u201d Nope, there is no plan in my mind with all this. But I like it. I\u2019m glad it\u2019s happening. I think creativity is something that needs an outlet. It\u2019ll 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\u2019ve got some outlets now and it\u2019s pouring. I love that. Thank You, Lord.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 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<\/i> and a couple other new movies I\u2019m going to see in the next two weeks \u2013 Ring Bling<\/i> or Bling Ring<\/i> and Heat<\/i>.<\/p>\n
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\u2019re not to be trusted. They\u2019re 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 \u201cmoving\u201d and emotional. While I\u2019d 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\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n
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\u2019m the most intellectual guy in the world, but I do have some level of analytics going on in my brain. I\u2019ve had my share of doubts and \u201cshow me something, God\u201d presumption. I do love, LOVE, LOVE something experiential about God, though. I love \u201chearing God.\u201d It\u2019s not a tangible thing. It\u2019s not something I can prove, though I do have some stories about \u201cGod things\u201d happening that lined up with perfect timing that shouted at me that He was around. It\u2019s not scientific, per se, but I might say it\u2019s some of the best experiences I\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n
But I wanted to blog about something tonight. I was reminded in the writer\u2019s group about encouragement. I was reminded about some research I did for my novel (Desert High<\/i>). 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. \u201cBobby made a great block on that kickoff return,\u201d one player would say. \u201cJim really sprinted hard in the wind sprint drills.\u201d This and that.<\/p>\n
Wow! That is awesome. If you ask me, more coaches might want to try this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is good for the soul,\u201d one of the ladies at the writer\u2019s group said tonight after I shared this. I agree. In fact, I\u2019ve said this before (in this blog and while speaking), but I believe that ENCOURAGEMENT IS LIKE FOOD FOR THE CREATIVE PERSON. <\/b>I truly believe that. Not just creative people, of course, but we all need encouragement. This is one way we can be like Christ \u2013 one way to be Christian is to encourage people. Think about it. It\u2019s like grace (unmerited favor) when we give encouragement to someone else (not just brothers and sisters in Christ, either). It\u2019s a great gift. It helps.<\/p>\n
Do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had a good time at the Lago Vista Writer\u2019s Group tonight. It\u2019s the second time I\u2019ve attended and it\u2019s 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\u2019m glad. We all read something we\u2019d written and shared it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[243,3572,938,3573,1135,3575,2105,3574],"class_list":["post-23446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-art","tag-creativity","tag-doug-van-pelt","tag-encouragement","tag-football","tag-heart-vending-machine","tag-music","tag-painting","cat-17-id"],"yoast_head":"\n