The Writing Ideal

Recently, while teaching my youth group, I quoted a favorite author of mine, N.T. Wright. My lesson, and Wright’s quoted topic, was worship, and he had this to say about it, “When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship. Those who worship money become, eventually, human calculating machines. Those who worship sex become obsessed with their own attractiveness and prowess. Those who worship power become more and more ruthless.” His unspoken implication is, therefore, that we should worship Christ and in doing so, become more like Him. Cue applause.

But my mind is sometimes a bit mathematical in the way it reasons. Wright’s statement is easily boiled down into a formula. If you worship X, you display attributes of X. Just as we can determine one angle of a right triangle from the length of two sides, and one side from an angle and the remaining side, I thought I could flip my Wright Worship Formula the same way. Instead of determining my displayed attributes by knowing who or what I worship, I wondered if I could figure out the object of my worship by looking over the main characteristics of my life.
Though I may regret it later, I’m going to share them with you here.

I love to write and talk about writing.
I love to read and talk about reading.
I cannot turn away from a good writer who addresses, in tandem, any two of the following subjects: relevance, spirituality, theology, creativity.
I get really excited about a neat concept.
I get even more excited about a neat concept expressed with a brilliant delivery.
I want to be a full-time writer/lecturer someday.

It would be easy for me to go on, but I’ll assume that I’ve given you enough to make my point (and enough to make myself look shallow). Even though God finds His way into what I write, what I think, what I read and what (hopefully) I speak about, the key is always the written word. I do not generally get excited about God during worship unless the lyrical concept is great. Revivals rarely rouse me unless the speaker is witty or intriguing.

I display attributes of the written word therefore, I worship the Writing Ideal, my idea of being or becoming the perfect writer, storyteller, and orator. Coming to this conclusion was quite a shock as it is, I suspect, for some of you. A long time ago and three unpublished novels away, my creativity stemmed from my fellowship with my Creator, but as is the case with many things like worship, art, and business, the focus gets turned around and the tail begins to wag the dog.

As terrifying a revelation as this was, the solution to my problem was also its saving grace. I can escape this lions’ den, not by not writing, but by remembering why I write. The why and how is the last principle that I’ll throw out before I lose my place on this soapbox. As much as I want to write, I eventually reach a point where I’m ready to call it quits, at least for the night. My love for God, however, pushes skyward my capacity to love anything that can be used to honor Him. It breaks the glass ceiling that holds the leash of my ability to love. By writing for God, I can exceed my natural ability to want to write, and by putting my Writing Ideal second-place to God, I can enjoy it more than if it were in first place. Tying back into Wright’s earlier quote, putting money second-place to God allows you to enjoy the money without fear or guilt. The same is true if you put sex second-place to God. Power, when placed behind Christ, comes piggybacked with the responsibility of good stewardship. And writing, when second to Christ, opens doors to imagination that, through our own dedication and ability would remain, not only locked, but wallpapered over.

~JM