Why Write?

Mazzy Adams

I’ve been a fan of Time Team for many years. Classic episodes from the British television series, which enjoyed a twenty-year run from 1994 – 2014, can still be enjoyed via their new YouTube channel, together with new episodes. As their website states, this ‘ground-breaking history series presented by Tony Robinson helped to popularise the field of archaeology’. While I’ve no doubt that statement is true, it was my father who piqued my personal interest in archaeology when I was little more than knee-high to a grasshopper. 

Cyrus Cylinder (Image by Prioryman)

In the mid 1960s, in connection with his work, my father was involved in a tour of archaeological artefacts and replicas that came through our hometown. I still remember him holding a replica of the Cyrus Cylinder (pictured above) while he explained how those strange markings were an ancient form of writing, called cuneiform. The actual words were commissioned by Cyrus the Great, the same Persian King spoken of in the Bible. I’ve never forgotten the thrill of seeing those 'words' that had been written more than two thousand years before I was born; words that people living thousands of years later had learned to read.

Fast forward a few decades, and I can still remember that same little girl's intense concentration as she wondered which ancient princess had also gazed upon these pretty lapis lazuli beads long ago.

I see that same excitement in the intrepid Time Team experts when they uncover ancient artefacts, or notice discoloured patches in the soil or strata which, to their trained eyes, reveal a wealth of information about the people who occupied the land in centuries, or millennia past. Other experts read the lumps and bumps in the landscape, or old hand-drawn maps, or written records that describe everything from the purchase of land and cost of construction materials and wages to the ideal qualities of a Roman soldier. Satisfaction and certainty grow when archaeological discoveries are confirmed by written records and vice versa. 

I must admit that, while I find the process of Time Team’s explorations fascinating, it is the affable, often mischievous, way host, Tony Robinson, brings the whole story of discovery together that clinches the program’s entertainment value for me. 

Nevertheless, uncovering one piece of archaeological information, no matter how intriguing, does not reveal the entire story; it takes two, three … or many … pieces to bring the stories of our predecessors and their interactions with each other, with creation, and with the spiritual realm, to life.

Image by JamesDeMers from Pixabay

I don’t know about you but, when God shows me something three times in succession, I pay attention. In recent weeks, on three separate occasions, in three different ways, via three different sources, I've been challenged about the importance of leaving a written legacy for future generations. 

On the first occasion, the challenge arrived via a comment from my beloved, who tempered my concern over the monetary cost vs return aspect of writing and publishing by saying, ‘But now your book is out there. You’ve created a written legacy.’ 

Two days later, after a blessed time spent lifting up the Name of the Lord in praise and worship, I sat with a bunch of writers at the recent Brisbane Omega Showcase to listen to an inspirational message by Andrew Stone of Stone Creative. Andrew’s key verse was Psalm 45:1:

My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skilful writer.

There, in the midst of the manifold wisdom he shared, God reiterated His message as Andrew spoke of how words could transcend time and space. ‘Your book will outlive you,’ Andrew said. ‘When you write, you’re going to speak to generations.’

Once, twice … I might have missed the subtlety of the third iteration of God’s message, had its impact not already begun to settle deep into my spirit.

It came a few days later, as I watched a dramatic piece of historical fiction which implied King Alfred the Great had a passion for writing things down in English because a written message could not be forgotten, or misrepresented, as easily as a verbal message. 

But … television … fiction … I decided to check out the historical accuracy of the reference.

I found it in the printed pages of my trusty, if voluminous, Norton Anthology of English Literature, which speaks of ‘a king totally committed to, and actively engaged in, learning’ who could ‘see “the footprints” of former lovers of knowledge’ and was ‘determined not to allow recent forgetfulness and destruction to obscure those traces forever’. As a direct consequence of that commitment, I’m able to read a contemporary English translation of King Alfred’s Preface to the Pastoral Care more than 1124 years after his words were first inked onto parchment.  

Unfinished Business 

I’m looking at another page now, one I printed out in 1988. It holds the words of a two-part duet I composed back then, based on Psalm 102:18-22. 

‘Let us record,’ my first verse says, ‘for a generation to come,
Record … what the Lord our God has done,
So that a people yet unborn will know He came,
So that a people yet unborn will know,
And praise His Holy Name.’   

There’s a second verse and a chorus. I can still hear the melody, complete with the interchange of parts and harmonies in my head. I can read the letters I added to indicate which chords to use. But I lack the expertise needed to record the tune in musical notation, or competently play it on a musical instrument. Without that record, as a song, it remains an unfinished project, its melody a fading shadow.

Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay

I hear the words of Psalm 102:3 echo and I ask myself, will I let my words, like my days, ‘vanish like smoke’? Or will I heed verse 18 which says, ‘Let this be written for a future generation.’

On one Time Team episode I watched recently, they uncovered an ‘unfinished pot’. It had softened over time in the damp surrounding soil because it had not been fired. An expert commented that, in all likelihood, the maker of the pot had not bothered to finish it off in the kiln because it was not intended for daily use, but only as a vessel for holding a grain offering to the gods, buried with the dead …

It all makes me wonder …

What kind of literary vessels are we making? Are they filled with the fruit of our experience, with offerings gleaned from the harvest of wisdom and blessing we have reaped during the rich and the harsh seasons of our lives? Will they endure as a legacy for future generations? Or are they temporary? Unfinished? Perhaps discarded because they’re chipped, or broken, or not worth the effort … half-hearted enterprises buried in the ground of failure, sacrificed to the gods of death …

Here's the challenge:

If our literary vessels, filled with the words God gives to us, are to endure as a legacy for future generations, we need to finish them, and dare to submit them to the fiery kiln of public scrutiny. Sure, there’s a risk that some of our vessels might crack in the kiln. The heat may reveal imperfections, but isn’t it worth taking the risk if it means future generations will one day discover the whole glorious story?

What unfinished project is God prompting you to finish so that future generations will benefit? 

 

Mazzy Adams, Author, Genre Rebel
Intrigue and Inspiration with an Upmarket Down Under Vibe

 

A published author with a passion for words, pictures, and the positive potential in people, Mazzy Adams happily identifies as a bona fide genre rebel. Her picturesque, tongue-in-cheek writing style injects a quirky Down Under vibe to intrigue and inspiration alike. Mazzy's debut thriller, Licence to Die (GRUnGE.001) hit the market in September, 2022. Mazzy also employs her think-outside-the-box neural pathways and passion for words, pictures, and the positive potential in people to guide students through the perplexities of English written expression. Best of all, her wonderful husband, amazing children and delightful grandchildren make Mazzy’s otherwise ordinary life most extraordinary. For that, she is eternally grateful. 

Discover more and connect via https://mazzyadams.com

References:

Cyrus Cylinder image attribution: Prioryman, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Quotes about Alfred the Great selected from page 109 of The Norton Anthology of English Literature Eighth Edition Vol 1 Greenblatt, S. Gen Ed. published by W W Norton & Co New York

Time Team website: https://www.timeteamdigital.com/

Critique Survivor

 

October, 2022: I [Barbara McKay] attended my first Omega Writers Conference at Kingscliffe, NSW as a CALEB finalist. At 78 years of age, I was probably the oldest participant, but with 2 Tim. 1:7 ‘God has not given us a spirit of timidity, or cowardice or fear’ uppermost in my mind, I head-butted my fears.

Nola Passmore from the Toowoomba Chapter of Omega Writers (Quirky Quills) drove me to the resort. I pretended to be intelligent in my conversation. After that weekend, I joined the Toowoomba group.

On the 4th Feb, 2023: came the directive: ‘Bring two pages of writing, double-spaced, for those who will critique your work.’

My children’s story (about 500 words) was about rescuing an injured koala. We broke out into small groups, landing me with fellow Chapter members, Adele and Pamela, who took time to read my story. I felt as if I were in a court of law: The judgement of my writing began—with both written and verbal words.  

In feedback, I received comments such as:

‘Show [do] not tell’ 

‘POV – whose point of view?’  

‘Clearer story progression needed’

‘Use strong verbs’ 

I was in a daze as I walked away and spoke to another new writer to the group, about our ‘Crit Session’. For me, writer’s block set in. For two weeks I contemplated ‘Point of View’ when writing. ‘How do I re-write this story?’ I asked myself.

The 17th Feb (two weeks later): Pamela sent a message on the Writing Messenger thread.

‘How are you going with your story, Barb? I can see the picture you painted with you writing. Look forward to reading it again.’ 

Shock set in as I read her words. I responded. 

‘O dear, Pamela, a writer who is taking me seriously! [I feel like] I’m sitting in the Year 6 classroom listening to the teacher explaining “Point of View”. How do I write from the perspective of an 8-year-old? And you, the teacher, will not let me out of the classroom till I do this task?’

Pamela responded:

‘Oh Barbara. I don’t want to see you give up! [A]bsolutely—you can write from an 8-year-old point of view. It could be fun!’  

She added:

‘I rather think we who have been writing a while have developed a kind of rhino hide. And have forgotten how very hard it is to be in the early days, feeling so vulnerable at sharing your work.  You and Donna are so brave.’

Pamela’s words were the stimulus I needed. ‘I’m not scared of these authors,’ I told myself.

I sent a text asking a question about a suitable thesaurus and ‘Point of View’.

Dear Mazzy, who was on Day 1, Post Surgery, responded from her hospital bed with very encouraging words, and personal exhortation.  

In tears, before tackling the re-working of my koala story, I wrote:

Those Omega writers in Toowoomba … giving us a critique of our work, and then having the audacity /courage to check up on me to see if I have rewritten it. 

Maybe, the Holy Spirit is giving me a gift revealing to me that, ‘Yes, I can write’, but also saying, ‘You can improve, and [those] girls are here to help you.  You go girl!’

Maybe, God is saying [to me and all of us who write], ‘Release your uncomfortable, uneasy thoughts to Me, for I am a God full of compassion and love.  Yes, you are overwhelmed and refuse to write, but hey, people say, “you have a gift”, so keep writing.’

Thanks, Omega Writers from Toowoomba.  You are the best!

Barabara McKay is a new student to the classroom of writing (year 6, that is 😉) and determined to leave a written legacy of her life for her family and the generations to come. A minister's wife for forty-one years, she now resides in the peaceful town of Crows Nest, Queensland, writing adventures of the highs and lows of her life and God's faithfulness in every circumstance.

Daring Risk

Recently countless people around the world mourned the passing of Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologist and founder of RZIM. When I heard this news, I thought how much poorer humanity was for this loss. I was equally moved by the extraordinary legacy he left, fuelled by his heart to respectfully and compassionately seek out the questioner behind each question: helping the believer think and the thinker believe.

The start of his legacy can be traced to a step of faith and obedience when, as a seventeen-year-old, God met him on a bed of suicide. He vowed to leave no stone unturned in his pursuit of truth. In hindsight we see an extraordinary life, but as he began stepping out in the early years of his journey, I expect he faced many obstacles. His obedience to the call of God on his life may have been seen as risky, for the potential cost it could incur.

Photo Credit Elijah Hiett @elijahhiett- Unsplash

The more I reflect on this, it seems risk is often a companion of obedience, and obedience to God (with all its risks) a companion of legacy: Dare we trust His version of our lives over our own?

As Christian writers, our lives encompass much more than our writing journeys, but in the writing context I believe the coupling of risk and obedience can be evident as we dare to write truth in a culture that is aggressively post-truth.

Whatever genre, I suspect many of us can recall a moment we’ve felt the risk of writing what the Holy Spirit’s laid upon our hearts. It may not have been hot sweats and clammy palms (although it could have been that too), but I’m sure you’re familiar with that tussle of “dare I?”.

It could be an open reference to faith in your general market novel. It could be cutting that risqué scene that would make your story “edgier”. It could be including those uncomfortable, gritty elements that honestly portray humanity at its lowest. It could be letting yourself be vulnerable enough to write about your own brokenness. It could be putting down the pen for a few hours on a tight schedule to remind a child they’re well loved. It could be writing into a new genre. It could be using the word sin to depict the flaw that runs through every human heart, for which the only cure is a Saviour who willingly gave all to rescue us from our sinful condition and recklessly pursues us with His love.

Each of our writing journeys are different, as are the wrestles we face. We can each write a legacy that touches a different part of our inherently broken world. Fact is, being counter-cultural is very risky, no matter how gracious you are (and gracious isn’t really my strongest point—working on it!).

The question is, dare we be obedient to penning words that make us tremble when they’re whispered into our heart from the ultimate Creator? What if those words risk public humiliation? What if they risk being misunderstood? What if they risk losing friends or being shunned by family? What if they risk losing possessions?

What might we risk by our obedience to His drawing?

Then again, what might the souls those words reach gain? Could they be words that point a searching heart towards truth?

Photo Credit - Ben White @benwhitephotography - Unsplash

Fact is, we all blow it and are all largely risk averse, but I am confident in the kindness and mercy of a God of second chances. I also believe each step of obedience to Him can write a lasting legacy. It may not seem much at the time. We may never know the impact of our written words. But who knows what legacy we’ll leave when we’ve passed from this life to eternity, if we but dare take a risk.

Adele Jones is a Queensland based, award winning author. She writes young adult and historical novels, poems, inspirational non-fiction and fiction short works, along with juggling family responsibilities and a ‘real job’ in the field of science. Her first YA novel Integrate was awarded the 2013 CALEB Prize for unpublished manuscript. Her writing explores issues of social justice, humanity, faith, natural beauty and meaning in life’s journey, and as a speaker she seeks present a practical and encouraging message by drawing on these themes. For more visit www.adelejonesauthor.com or contact@adelejonesauthor.com