The more I write about writing, about how blogging can make us feel small, and the more I read about writing, and the power of our words, the more I want to reach through this screen and just shake you.
I want to grab you by both shoulders, look you in the eyes and tell you,
“So, do you see now?”
“Do you see how much your story matters? How no one can tell it quite like you. How intricate the patterns of your life are and how much He loves being the only One who can see the whole picture that makes up you.”
My friend Annie Downs put it so beautifully I wanted to cry:
“He made you once. You were worth the work that first time. Then He threw away that mold because one of you is enough for Him. You’re enough. You are the sacred painting, the original. The best bowl of onion soup in the world.”
~ From Head To Foot: All of you living all for Him
You are. You’re delicious! (Unless of course, you don’t like onion soup and then kindly substitute beef goulash or that amazing broccoli-cheddar soup they have at Panera, or – if you’re my husband – pepperoni pizza.)
You get the point, though. Just exactly who you are is God’s idea of a once-in-a-lifetime recipe.
I have another friend, another Ann, who is also a writer. She’s funny and also a little bit Audrey Hepburn, don’t you think?
And it takes her hours and hours to write. It never comes easy or fast. She labors over her words, erasing, back-spacing, praying and often accidentally deleting what just took her eons to produce.
She has six kids and a house full of chaos just like you and me. She wonders if she’s any good at this thing we call writing and she worries about how her words will be received. She sometimes eats snickers bars at midnight.
Her life has been a messy journey so far. She’d be the first to tell you so. In fact, I believe she once called me “Messy Lisa-Jo” in a talk she gave on the topic of writing and how in sharing our messy selves with one another we simultaneously encourage the community and worship our Maker.
And as we talk about stories – how they get born and make their way into blog posts and then books – I’d love if you could visit with me and her and a bunch of other wonderful women who love to spend time in the written word. Because after six years of blogging she has a book now. And we have a book club over on (in)courage that will be reading it together. She’ll be there. Sharing insights and glimpses into what it took for her to write it. The good, the bad, and the very very hard.
And my hope is you’ll realize she’s not so different from you. Each night you both sit down to tap out the lines of your day to share with someone else. Because it’s what you feel called to. Because it’s how you honor the God that made you both. Because it’s part of what makes you the best bowl of onion soup ever.
And we’re in this thing called life that He’s given us – together – all the way.
“The table still needs to be cleared. The bowls washed. The bread put away. Snow falls in the dark white, on a barn roof. I can’t imagine what deeper layers of my wounds [giving thanks] will gently peel back to heal, but I take her sleeping hand and trace the lines of her skin and I keep counting blessings to keep on remembering to keep on walking out into the unknown.”
~ Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts.
I needed this today, you have no idea how much. I share my story to inspire, to remind people that there is hope even up against the impossible. A year ago I didn’t expect my daughter or myself to survive labor and delivery, but we are both here and that is just incredible to me.
Thank you for doing it, Tahnie. Thank you for sharing the good the bad and the almost impossible – the world needs to hear it!
This is such a powerful book. The testimony Ann gives is so full of Him. So full of Love!!! I am so thankful that she shares her heart with us. What an encouragement!!
Amen!
I am so looking forward to this.
Deidra – you won’t believe how amazing it is – how each chapter grows and the love song crescendos and it’s a book to live by.
Lisa-Jo, you are from heaven, and you always make me cry happy tears. Thank you so much for continuing to give us this sweet soul encouragement. I adore you!
And I can’t wait to get my hot little hands on Ann’s book and to join in the club! YAY!
Can NOT wait to hear your thoughts on it – it *is* all that and a bag of chips!
Bravo, Lisa-Jo! I stand up with you, and grab them by the shoulders, and say “Hey you there?! Wake up and dream!”
Love you. Love Ann. Love these gifts.
Yes – here’s to the women who write, here’s to great soup, here’s to community! :)
Ann’s book is changing me. I chose Eucharisteo as my word for the year after starting “One Thousand Gifts” just before Christmas.
Thank you Lisa for this post today. I sometimes feel like my story is too boring to share, but I love writing so I mainly write and blog if no one but for myself. Today though I truly needed to read these encouraging words. Thank you.
Did your parents find you boring? Do you think your kids are boring? Nope – God finds you unique and fascinating and fabulous! Never forget it! :)
GREAT post. :)
Thanks Lisa Jo for these words. I struggle with my blogging because God has called me to be transparent about my diffiuclt year last year and a nervous breakdown in order to help others avoid the same or heal. Sometimes I don’t feel like writing. SOmetimes I still want to hide.
I look forward to meeting you at Blissdom!
Bernice
Are you too busy to be yourself?
I look forward to meeting you too, Bernice. And blessings on your for being faithful in the hard story telling – the soul sharing. That is brave and we need that kind of brave in our world!
Reading this helped me process–and write about–my day. I called it “today was an onion.” :) Thank you for being you and please keep on doing it.
http://partofthemain.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/today-was-an-onion/
Your words just felt like a hug – thank YOU for that!
I’ve never done a book club before, but I’m crazy excited about this.
Thanks for being such an inspiration to me lately. 5 minute blog posts. Book clubs. You’re just shaking my world up. :-)
To inspire Ms. Inspired to Action? Now *that* is a compliment of epic proportions!! :)
How do you always know the words for me, Lisa-Jo? I walk away as if I’ve just been wrapped in a warm blanket of love. And after nine hours on a cramped airplane leaving a newly beloved country (Italy) behind, I need your words more than ever. I needed to hear that mine matter, that this whole sharing of my messy heart through this clacking keyboard is worthwhile. Thank you.
Love, so much of it from the very bottom of my heart!
*sigh* But sometimes…often actually for me…it IS boring…the pace of life seems excruciatingly slow and there are huge gaps of nothingness…I long to write things beautiful, things meaningful, things witty and charming, things that touch the heart so deeply it brings tears…but somehow it never comes out on the screen the way I feel it in my heart.
I know…I deserve a good shaking… ;-)
On this journey with you all… Messy Doris
You’re talking right to me, aren’t you? That I would dare to imagine or think that the beauty of Ann’s words were quick or easy. Or yours, for that matter. Perhaps you type in five minutes. But the words of wisdom, the truth and laughter and inspiration – that has taken hours to craft, months to develop, years to format.
What an honor, to become a part of this community of reaching women. Looking forward to sharing in the joy of a thousand gifts, we all pass to one another, regifting as only Jesus makes possible.
“regifting as only Jesus makes possible.” – oh that’s beautiful. Yes, exactly that!
Ann is a treasure! So are you. So, apparently, am I. (Didn’t you just tell me I’m delicious? :)
The gift of One Thousand Gifts has changed my life. How lovely to share that journey with you and Ann and others. I’ll be there.
I love your writing and am adding your blog to my blog! Your post has encouraged me tremendously—thanks so much!
When I feel like there’s something wrong with me, I remember that I am what God made me. But then sometimes, it feels like an excuse to be inferior. I can’t find the balance.
Yes. Our stories matter. The call to be authentic, and to share them, and to not be afraid to connect with others. It’s a good good thing. Thank you for the reminder, and for talking about the book club. Powerful, life changing stuff, this authentic connecting.
lisajo, loved this post:) it put into words why i’ve loved blogging…and pastor’s wifing:) nothing is more fun than seeing God in the lives of individuals. i’ve loved getting to know a lot of women over the years, watching how God uses them in such special ways in all kinds of circumstances.
I’ve loved being able to influence some of them. Blogging is just another way we can influence others. it is so much better than controlling them. I like people who think and feel more than robots who want me to think and feel for them. That is way too much pressure!