Blogging for His glory?

When I was a little girl, I used to love to write stories and did so with abandon. I liked writing about fanciful adventures and places, and injecting my stories with vivid colors and characters. As I've grown into an adult, writing has remained one of my passions, but it has become a more painstaking process for me. I'm not sure what best explains that. I've had various theories--some having to do with a failure to actively sharpen my writing skills, or allowing my imagination to be dulled by television and movies, or just being too timid or self-conscious to complete an idea, much less to share my thoughts with other people in a tangible way. Sometimes I've just felt downright uncreative.

For several years, I've been making commitments to write more. I've felt called by God to do it, felt a personal desire to glorify Him in it, and yet if you added up the sum total of what I've written during those years, it's pretty piddling. Having my first baby in March 2010 allowed me to procrastinate on the writing a bit longer.  I've started but never finished a number of personal essays, stories, or reflections on life and scripture. I've felt more convicted over time by my own lack of commitment, my own risk aversion, and my tendency to choose to use my free hours to do chores, read or watch TV, rather than attempting to reflect upon and communicate what God would have me share.

But God is gracious and, well, resourceful. Even as I have failed many times to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, He has been honing my ability to notice the drama and beauty in the commonplace, to see the unique stories playing out in the lives of His people, as He actively works in the world. Even though having a baby allowed me to put off writing for many months, God has used the experience to enliven my imagination in an amazing way. Motherhood has become another lens by which to understand the way God works out His plans and displays His love for us. (More on all that later!) Our recent move from Charlottesville, VA to Santa Barbara has shaken me further out of my comfort zone.

God has also been using the people in my life to kick me into action. My husband has encouraged me for years to pursue my writing more faithfully. Several months after our arrival in Santa Barbara, the pastor at Christ Presbyterian, our new church home, picked up on a brief conversation about my interest in writing and invited me a few weeks later to contribute to this blog. It's a seemingly small thing, but I know that God is at work in it, gently prodding me onward.

I realize that this is a humble blogging venture, but it feels  like a promising (and structured!) way to explore how God can speak through me about the world He created and intends to redeem (and is in fact redeeming even now).

So let me just say that I am grateful for the chance to write here, to share stories I remember, about real people and settings, to acknowledge the brokenness in this world, community, and in my own life, and to seek Jesus in the midst of it all. I'm genuinely grateful for anyone who reads and considers what I have to say. I’d love to hear from you!

At the end of the blogging day, I hope to awaken myself and others to the beautiful stories unfolding all around us and to get a glimpse of how they might fit into the GRAND NARRATIVE with a mighty and loving Savior at the center.