Why I Write

Hello again. My youngest is a little over two months old now, and I have had a growing desire to write again with each passing week, so here I am. It feels a little crazy to be jumping back into this hobby, I’ll admit.  My little baby is still so demanding, and I am finding a hard enough time managing some of the basics of life right now. But I want to write again and have things to say, so I shall try.

Years ago, I was discouraged from writing altogether when I confided in someone I knew that I hoped to make a living out of writing someday. I was told there was no money in it (which I believe to be true at this point!) and that I’d be better off finding a stable career. On other occasions, I have let discouragement eat away at me when I have seen what few followers I have for my blog, and although that does not upset me so much anymore since I’m largely focused on other things now, I can still be discouraged when I see that few people have read a blogpost that I felt was especially worth reading.

On days when discouragement weighs me down, I wonder what’s the point. Why do I put the time and effort into writing something that seemingly has such little impact? But then I think of Eric Liddell.

Eric Liddell was born in China to missionaries in the early 1900s, and he eventually became a missionary there himself. But he was also a fast runner and saw that God gave him an ability for the sport, so he competed in the 1924 Olympics in Paris before submerging himself onto the mission field.¹

According to the movie Chariots of Fire, which is based on Liddell’s life (and where I first learned about his story), his own sister tried to discourage him from racing at one point. She didn’t understand how he could entertain such a notion when God had called him to be a missionary to China. She saw this “hobby” of his as a waste of time and distraction. But Liddell gave her a response that not even she could argue about.

He told her,

“I believe that God made me for a purpose. But he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”²

Eric Liddell

Much like Liddell, I believe that God made me for a purpose too, which includes a number of roles at this stage of my life. But I also believe that God gave me an ability to write. And although I would not quite put it in Liddell’s exact words, I sense God compelling me to use both this gift and the words He gives me to bring Him glory. So, although I may never make any money with this talent or make a huge impact from it, I write because I know it pleases God, and that alone is enough. I pray I’ll never lose sight of that.

My friend, I hope you can sense God compelling you to use the gifts and abilities He has given you too, especially on those days when others (or your own inner voice) would discourage you. Let’s not give into the voices that would try to dissuade us from doing what God has intended for us to do.

After all,  “…am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

Let’s choose to seek God’s pleasure and to walk into the good works that He has created for us to do.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10

1 https://www.christianity.org.uk/article/eric-liddell

2 https://firstliberty.org/news/how-an-olympic-runner-and-a-postal-worker-gained-strength-through-faith/#:~:text=Liddell%20promises%20Jennie%20that%20he,%2C%20I%20feel%20His%20pleasure.%E2%80%9D