Ever wonder
why we do what we do? I know I have.
What makes
one person to be an accountant, or another an auto mechanic, or another person
becomes a music teacher, or even another to become an undertaker? To each one a special niche in life is given,
found, or even carved out of the unknown.
We do what we do. Don’t we?
As for
writing, there are many reasons we do what we do as writers. For me I know it’s often cathartic. It’s a Platform
as Michael Hyatt says. Or maybe it’s a
combination of both – catharsis and platform all rolled into one.
Recently it
came to mind that I’ve written for three reasons. Maybe a few more, but if I’m honest as a writer,
these are three reasons I have to hold up as cause and motivation for doing
what I love to do.
Firstly, I
write because of Passion. Passion for
writing, passion for God, passion for the human drama, passion for justice,
passion for humor, passion for relationships, passion for creativity in verse
and thought. But nonetheless Passion and
I believe that is good – as cause and motivation.
When you
look up the definition of Passion there’s quite a list of understandings that
drive the meaning of the word and it’s use.
I guess each of us has to choose which particular definition we will use
as we decide why we do what we do. But
regardless of which specific definition we choose, Passion is a MUST for life,
relationships and especially for writing.
Secondly,
I’ve written because of Pain. And likely
I’ll do it again. But I’ve heard it said
of great and influential writers, and even of inventors and entrepreneurs, that
pain and conflict often drive these people to express and discover things that
benefit more than just themselves.
Study a good
Storyline. Somewhere in the elements of the story there
is conflict, pain, crisis, goals and things to overcome. And as the characters of the story rise to
overcome, they are driven by the ouches of life, and ultimately they find the
joy and refreshment of victory over some rugged and low spots life has brought
them.
I believe
Pain is at the core of God’s love for us.
A Pain that came from our decision to be away from Him doing our own
thing, so He did something to overcome that pain; He offered His own pain for
our gain.
Pain makes
us think about things differently. Pain
causes us to have a passion to escape and abate the vicious ouches life tends
to puts on us. Pain is the analog of
pleasure. And without both we have no
esoteric point of reference to understand life and a relationship with God and
others.
So Pain can
be a great motivator in the life of a writer.
But thirdly,
I’ve written because of Poison. Poisons that
came from the lies I’ve believe to be true about myself, God and others. Poison is the lies that have been plied
against my soul and the Truth of God.
And the problem with poison as a motive for writing is it always does
just that – it poisons someone. Oh I may
think I’m just being honest, but in reality I’m drinking in and sharing a
deadly gall. And all in the name of
being pithy, eloquent and even brutally honest; and isn’t honesty the best
policy?
I wanted to
point out the gravity of writing with a poison pen. And I wanted to confess my use of such poison
in my writing over the years.
Passion,
Pain and Poison tend to find their way into all of our writing from time to
time. The real challenge for me is to
avoid the use of poison as a vindictive and vengeful forum of expression.
Please forgive me if my pen has ever shot
poison in your direction. It was really
meant for me. I just never had the
courage to give it over to God. I never
really trusted that He kept all the books, or that He could be trusted to make
all things right.
So I’ve
asked God to forgive me. And He
has. And now I ask you to forgive me. Poison must never be my cause and motive for writing
– ever again.
