(Written in the midst of 2020)
In this season of our world, or I should say of our country, many events may come to mind. Whether good or bad, history is being made in 2020, and if you're anything like me, you're feeling the need to write something about it. But in all of the chaos of pandemics, isolation, protests, riots, unrest, injustice, and over all frustration, where do you even start? As writers, we feel the need to capture something from this, but what?! With a multitude of opinions, emotions, and perspectives surrounding us, it's hard to know what to write or even how to write it. You feel as if something you write could be deemed wrong, terrible, dare I even say, sinful in the eyes of your audience. Writing the hard things is just that, hard. Writing what people are feeling but don't want to discuss is a difficult thing.
In history, philosophers were black-balled, even killed for doing so. We came to know them centuries later as thought-provoking men and women ahead of their times, but that didn't necessarily help them while they were alive. Even the God-ordained writers of the Bible to this day offend and cause debate across the world over their accounts in Scripture. So, what can we do?! Do we write what we feel will be accepted by audiences right now, or the emotions and reasoning of now, though it may lead to the metaphorical "death" of our writing careers? Speaking for myself, I am a people-pleaser by nature and this thought has come as a stumbling block for my writing. My problem is, there're sides to every conflict, but most only see two sides. History normally is written about two sides, the winners and the losers. Is that all history is made up of though? I don't believe so. I feel every person or group of people in history, winner, loser, right, or wrong, had failures and triumphs during their time on this earth. History, in my opinion, is meant to give us insight and knowledge into these successes and downfalls. As the old saying goes, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." But what form of history should be included in that statement?
Textbooks from school? Elders? Written or spoken accounts from varies perspectives and walks of life, even if not the same as yours? Diary entries? The answer I believe is this: History should be gained from all accounts of human interaction and emotion, because insight can be gained from any direction, if one is willing to look. God could have easily made the Bible pop out of thin air with no human hands ever touching it, but He didn't. Why?! Because the human account made for varying viewpoints, emotions, and lessons that could be recorded and learned about. Two people can read the same Scripture and gain two different revelations about it, the same as two siblings can grow up in the same household and come out with different perspectives and be opposites of one another. We were never meant to think like everyone else, we are uniquely made and our lives are uniquely shaped by the environments and stream of events we experience.
To get back to our question: What do we write about these events?
The conclusion I came to through my praying and complaints (and yes, I admit I do complain to God) was this: Write Anything. Just as you were never meant to be everyone's best friend, your writing was never meant to please, teach, or touch everyone it comes in contact with. There will be those who will reject your views and beliefs on a topic, making you question your abilities. But my friend, there will be those who come to your words with grateful hearts for what was read, because they needed to see someone else felt the same way or cares the same as they. Will it impact the world the way the great writers of the past have? I can't say that for sure, but just as Jesus left the 99 to save the one, your writing is meant to reach those who are truly in need of it.
For this reason, God created writers. The gift of written word is in itself a ministry: one that can adjust and form itself to fit into whatever part of time it has been placed. It's a gift not to be taken lightly or pushed aside as nothing. God has called your words to be a help and a blessing to others, I pray you never forget that in the times we live in.