Thursday 18 February 2021

A Bag of Goodies!

 by Anusha Atukorala


In Jan 2019, I flew to Sri Lanka for a family reunion. My Mum was a well known journalist for almost 70 years, so we put together a book that comprised some her articles. We her seven children came from the corners of the globe to celebrate Mum’s life and work at her book launch. It was precious time, filled with love and laughter, family and friends, food and fellowship.

 

Before I returned home to Australia, my sister Sal gave me a generous gift—a voucher from a clothing store. The blouses and skirts in the shop didn’t catch my eye, but I did find something I loved—a spacious canvas bag! The eloquent black and white pattern on it called out to me like a kookaburra’s laugh and the bag fit snugly on my shoulder. I knew I’d find good use for it back home. However, as the months rolled on, I found I didn’t have much reason to reach for it. The thing is, that I had numerous other handbags that were more useful because they, unlike this one, contained numerous separate sections that helped carry the innumerable small items I usually take with me. Did I choose the wrong gift, I wondered!

 


Last year, when winter’s icy chill had waned, when birds began to twitter and colour-splashed flowers danced in the light of day, God wooed me to my backyard. I have been spending hours there with Him every day, enjoying the beauty and solitude. I use an interesting assortment of items for my Quiet Time—a folder containing worship songs, one with lyrics of songs I’ve composed while a third is crammed with spiritual tools that nurture my walk with God—prayers, pictures, reminders, blessings.

 

And of course I take my well-worn bible, a notebook and pen, my reading glasses, sunglasses and even my phone, in case I need to take pictures. I’ve a few tissues for when tears drench my blouse—as they often do in God’s presence. I take a book I’ve created, crammed with evidence of God’s love for me and thoughts I reflect on daily. There’s a book on prayer by Richard Foster and another on healing by Agnes Sandford, both which have been a help in my journey with God this past year.

 


One day, as I collected my Quiet Time Treasures to take to my garden, I dropped my packet of tissues and my reading glasses. Clumsy me! Like a feather falling from a bird in flight, an idea dropped into my mind then … soft and sure. I went to my bedroom at once and found my new but unused bag. I placed my folders, Bible, pen, tissues, books, folders, phone, notebook, sunglasses and reading glasses inside it, slung it on my shoulder and with a steaming cup of English breakfast tea in hand, went out to my favourite spot in our backyard. Why hadn’t I thought of it before?

 

I had a bag of Treasures and oh how it enhanced my morning routine! No dropping items on the way anymore! Since then, I’ve kept my bag filled—I don’t waste time any more, gathering my belongings each morning for my time with the King of kings and Lord of lords.

 


Did you know that you also have a bag of goodies which you can dip into daily, on order to enhance your life as a Christian writer? Let me warn you though. There could be unfortunate scraps inside our bags which should not be in there. Things like …

Procrastination.

Negative thinking.

Self-put-downs.

Comparison.

Rejection.

Past mistakes … and more. Lots more.

They get in the way of doing God’s work, so let’s discard them.

 


Here are some of what you might need in your Writer’s bag of Treasures:

1.     Jesus

2.     God’s love

3.     Your calling

4.     The Holy Spirit

5.     Books on writing

6.     An uncluttered self

7.     Faith, hope and love

8.     The Word planted in you

9.     Writing ability. Writing ideas

10.  Christian  Writers Downunder

11.  Life lessons learnt from the past

12.  Family. An anchor and a catalyst

13.  Friends. To help us on our journey  

14.  Courage to write. Clarity of thinking

15.  Perseverance. Hope. Wisdom. Knowledge.

16.  Good books that teach us as we enjoy them

17.  Writer friends who walk the journey with us

18.  God’s forgiveness and mercy for past failures

19.  2020. A year with many experiences to write about

20.  The realisation that you have something important to share


You are rich in the things that matter. Did you know that? Which of these have eluded you of late? Which of them you do need to put back into your bag before you go out to your writing space today?

 Let’s walk together into the rest of 2021 with a song in our hearts.

Jesus has called you. He has called me. He has called us.

Let’s join hands and change the world, one word at a time.

We have our bag of treasures. We have Jesus. We have each other.

What more do we need?




  Anusha’s been on many interesting detours in life, as a lab

 technician, a computer programmer, a full time Mum, a full

 time volunteer, a charity director, a full time job chaser, until

 one golden day (or was it a dark moonless night?) God

 tapped her on her shoulder and called her to write for Him.

 She has never recovered from the joy it brought her. She

 loves to see others enjoying life with Jesus and does her mite

 to hurry the process in her world through her writing and

 through her life. The goodness of God is her theme song

 through each season, as she dances in the rain with Jesus.

 


Her first book Enjoying the Journey contains 75 little God

 stories that will bring you closer to your Creator. Her second

book ‘Dancing in the Rain’ brings you hope and comfort for

 life’s soggy seasons. Her 3rd book, ‘Sharing the Journey’ is

 a sequel to 'Enjoying the Journey' and was released in March

 2020 and comprises of more God stories to bring connection

 and hope as we share the journey of life together during

 Covid's challenging season.

 

Do stop by at her two websites to say G'day! She'd love to see you.

 Dancing in the Rain 

Light in the Darkness

Dancing in the Rain: https://www.booktopia.com.au/dancing-in-the-rain-anusha-atukorala/book/9781925380118.html



Sharing the Journey: https://www.booktopia.com.au/sharing-the-journey-anusha-atukorala/book/9780648713869.html

 



9 comments:

  1. I absolutely love that bag, Anusha! And such a great idea for all your things for your morning chats with God. I must admit, those scraps do seem to fall into the bottom of my bag and I have to dig all the way down to take the out, but your encouraging words remind me God is a constant joy in my life and he'll always be in my 'bag'. :)
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much for your encouraging words dear Kirsten. yes, those scraps do get in don't they? Well done for pulling them out when needed. May God and you do great things together in 2021. Looking forward to reading all about them in due course.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Anusha, for sharing another part of your joyful journey with us. Your writing is challenging and inspiring, as usual. xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Anusha, for sharing another part of your joyful journey with us. Your writing is challenging and inspiring, as usual. xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you so much dear Janelle for taking the time to read and comment. So glad you enjoyed it. God bless you my friend and may God take you on many wonderful writing adventures in 2021.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great idea, Anu, the natural bag ( I have one as well that I take everywhere with me!) and the spiritual one. Thanks for another encouraging blog post. xo

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for these lovely thoughts, Anusha. We are away baby sitting at the moment but when we get home I will find a bag especially for my Bible and special writing notebooks. Love to hear of your mother. We have long had an interest in Sri Lanka. We had a lovely family from Sri Lanka in Wynnum, our home suburb in Brisbane. He was Siri Mendis. He had a jewellery shop there. He was also involved in Mendis Tea from Sri Lanka and had a lovely little restaurant in Brisbane. We really enjoyed a special curry there. Mr. Mendis was a close friend of my uncle who had a hardware shop close by. Uncle George and Aunty Sylvia visited Sri Lanka because of this and went to the tea plantations, He was a great movie maker in the big reels days so we often sat and watched his movie of his visit to Sri Lanka in the church hall , in his home and elsewhere. I also have other friends from Sri Lanka and we sponsor a little girl there near Hatton. God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks so much dear Nettie for reading and for commenting. Good to hear you too have two kinds of bags - the natural and the spiritual. I'm glad you enjoyed the post. May you find many wonderful God moments, blessings and God adventures in 2021.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely to hear from you dear Heather. Happy baby sitting! I hope you find the perfect bag for your Bible and special notebooks. I'm sure you will. So good to hear of your long term interest in Sri Lanka. Sounds like you have many connections with Sri Lanka and some friendships too. So glad. And that's lovely that you are sponsoring a little girl near Hatton. God bless you both for the way you minister to His world.

    ReplyDelete