Enough To Excel (Love Thy Reader, Part 2)
“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law,” Paul wrote in Romans 13:8.
As a writer, I grapple with the idea of loving my readers. I don’t write merely for myself. I don’t even write for God alone. He has placed me here, in this world, so I write for readers–to love them in obedience to God.
Excellence has to be a part of that. Love and excellence go hand in hand. Where we don’t love, we can’t be bothered. When we care passionately, on the other hand, our best hardly seems good enough. If we love our readers, we’ll work at the story, at the sentences, at the themes. If we love our readers, we’ll revise. If we love our readers, we’ll apply ourselves with dogged commitment.
Maybe ironically, that means listening as well as writing. I can’t write in real love to people if I don’t know who they are, what they care about, what hurts them, what makes them catch their breath in wonder. The more I go into the world and get to know people, the more I’m fueled to keep writing. It’s a two-way street.
Nor does writing in love, with excellence, always mean preaching a sermon (yup, I know, this is getting to be a recurring theme around here). Sometimes it means crafting a really worthwhile escape, because you know something? People are tired. They’re weary and hurting, and sometimes they need to get out of here for a while and go somewhere they can rejuvenate, re-envision, refresh. Escapism is a bad way of life, but Sabbath is beautiful and needed. We can help.
We write with love, too, when we let our imaginations go and burst forth and make places and characters that inspire, that enervate. Lord of the Rings is a work of imagination, through and through, but it’s imparted real courage to me. Thank you, Master Tolkien, for your love.
I know this has all been said before. But for me, love helps put it into new perspective. This profession may be one of the most isolated on earth, but it’s not all about the writer. Far from it.
Thoughts?
What an “excellent” perspective! I’ve been talking about True Art over on my own blog and this just fits perfectly. It may be a week or so but I’ll be using this article to talk more about Art and All That soon!
I wish that we could communicate this concept to others: one example: those who want to sing in the choir or sing solos on Sundays. Mostly, they think that if their hearts are right (meaning, I want to do something for God) they should be allowed to do this even if they have no singing skill nor intent to practice. It is nigh on impossible to ask them to love their audience the way God loves their audience and prepare better or use the giftings God HAS given them instead of the one He hasn’t.
This concept was in my mind, but your article has brought it to the surface. Thank you for loving me!
Thanks, Esther :). Send me a link if you use this post in your own discussion. It sounds like you’ve got some great thoughts on this too.
Hast hit it indeed, friend Rachel! More often I tend to think about how a Christian can show love for God, and glorify Him, through all our endeavors — including creativity that results in music, writing, etc. Yet until now I’m not sure I directly considered how such pursuits are also a way of loving people.
Excellence does not just honor and love the Lord, but also honors and loves others! Adding to that: I might say that a writer who shows a reader more of Him, His truth and love, also loves them more, because the reader then “gets” more of Him.
Increasingly I begin to say, I hope lovingly, to those who reject certain genres (or even question whether one can know anything for certain about God without losing a sense of Mystery): is that not an unloving attitude? “Love” is so often defined apart from Biblical truth, then read back into Scriptures such as “God is love” and used to “prove” a false love, one that is pandering, sentimental, or void of truth. Thank Him for writers, and Christian artists of any type, who understand Biblical love, and reflect it from Him to their readers, listeners or viewers.
And I echo Esther’s gratitude: thank you for showing readers love through this column!
Stephen, thanks for your thoughts here. You said, “I might say that a writer who shows a reader more of Him, His truth and love, also loves them more, because the reader then ‘gets’ more of Him.” I’m planning to talk more about the message in Christian fiction in a future post on this topic. In all our discussion of what makes good literature and whether or not Christian fiction should have strong messages, I think this issue of loving our readers should be central and too often is not.
(Ponders, and anticipates more on this topic) ‘Christian Hedonism’ and the Christian writer … ?
I hadn’t thought in terms of “loving readers” either, though I desperately want to show Christ in a fresh, invigorating way. To whom? Not to the furniture obviously, which means I want to communicate this to real people.
I guess it’s just hard to envision loving these nameless, faceless people who might someday read what I’m writing. It’s easier to think of pleasing and representing Christ who is with me.
But one part of your post I want to question—your comments about escapism. As a Sabbath rest, I think we may have twisted the idea a little. Wasn’t that originally to be tied with worship? So I don’t know if we can justify watching football Sunday afternoon (my favorite pastime) or reading an escapist story as providing Sabbath rest.
I have yet to decide what I thing about recreation. It doesn’t seem to be covered in the Bible. Stories to reveal truth, most definitely. But an afternoon at the movies? Evenings in front of the TV?
Yet in so many ways, recreational experiences enrich life. But where does escape fit in? Does it enrich life?
I suppose I should make a discussion of recreation one of my own posts. 😉
Becky
I should clarify that I’m not necessarily talking about Sabbath in the sense of “recreating on Sunday,” but more in the sense of what I see as one of its underlying principles: that God wishes rest to His people and gifts them with it. It’s interesting that when Pharisees criticized the disciples for plucking grain on the Sabbath, Jesus did not answer, “Sabbath was made for worshiping God,” but “The sabbath was made for man.”
So while I may choose to set Sundays aside to focus on the Lord, when I choose to rest and recreate at other times, I thank God for His gift of rest that restores. And I think that’s something writers can help give to others.
And I do think the Bible talks about recreation (literally re-creation), though of course not in the forms we have now. David clearly spent time just contemplating nature; plenty of people spent time feasting or just enjoying each other’s company. One of the most fascinating (and liberating!) stories to me is in Nehemiah, when God instructed the people to partake of “the joy of the Lord” as their strength. He told them specifically how to do it, and it wasn’t by praying or fasting or serving: they were to “eat the fat, and drink the sweet, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
You might find it useful to read a book by Josef Piper titled Leisure the Basis of Culture. It’s around in new editions, so not hard to find. Piper wrote in the immediate aftermath of WWII, when the focus was on rebuilding socities which had been shattered. He posed the question of what and how the rebuilding should proceed. What is life for? What kind of a society do we want to live in? Is it one committed to Total Work, where any sort of thinking about larger issues is a dereliction of duty.
I think, in spite of what Pieper points out about leisure, that we have come to live in a world of Total Work.
The book opens with a quote from Psalm 45: Be at leisure and know that I am God. Obviously there’s more to being at leisure than blobbing in front of the TV. But there’s also more to leisure than just getting ready for more work.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with healthy escapism on a Sunday afternoon. I think of the pharisees and saduccess who dictated what a person could do on the Sabbath. Escapism in the dictionary says, “an inclination to or habit of retreating from unpleasant reality, as through diversion or fantasy.”
Even retreating into His Word or taking long naps are a form of escapism. There’s nothing wrong with going to the movies or reading a novel or watching your favorite shows provided that these forms of escapism or recreation don’t preclude God.
But I love what you wrote about loving your readers. It is more than just writing a book for them to enjoy. I’m learning that as I work to create the required online presence that it doesn’t have to be a chore, but one of joy as I connect with new people and forge new friendships. You never know when you might meet one of those network friends. You never know why God puts a reader in your path.
You know, part of what got me on this whole thought-journey was attending a business of writing conference where they said that these days, marketing is just making friends. I realized how much of “marketing” myself can actually be loving and serving other people. Revolutionary!
Becky:I hadn’t thought in terms of “loving readers” either, though I desperately want to show Christ in a fresh, invigorating way. To whom? Not to the furniture obviously, which means I want to communicate this to real people.
I guess it’s just hard to envision loving these nameless, faceless people who might someday read what I’m writing. It’s easier to think of pleasing and representing Christ who is with me.
I dunno. I think if intercessors can find it in their hearts to pray for strangers, surely we as writers can do the same for readers. Moreover, wasn’t it Paul who expressed love toward Christians he’d never met? Admittedly, it’s more of a conscious effort, I think. But still. And in loving our neighbor, in love our brothers in Christ, don’t we please and represent Christ?
But one part of your post I want to question—your comments about escapism. As a Sabbath rest, I think we may have twisted the idea a little. Wasn’t that originally to be tied with worship? So I don’t know if we can justify watching football Sunday afternoon (my favorite pastime) or reading an escapist story as providing Sabbath rest.
I have yet to decide what I thing about recreation. It doesn’t seem to be covered in the Bible. Stories to reveal truth, most definitely. But an afternoon at the movies? Evenings in front of the TV?
Yet in so many ways, recreational experiences enrich life. But where does escape fit in? Does it enrich life?
I suppose I should make a discussion of recreation one of my own posts.
Nikole:I don’t think there’s anything wrong with healthy escapism on a Sunday afternoon. I think of the pharisees and saduccess who dictated what a person could do on the Sabbath. Escapism in the dictionary says, “an inclination to or habit of retreating from unpleasant reality, as through diversion or fantasy.”
Even retreating into His Word or taking long naps are a form of escapism. There’s nothing wrong with going to the movies or reading a novel or watching your favorite shows provided that these forms of escapism or recreation don’t preclude God.
Yeah, I gotta admit, while, yes, it was a part of worship, and, yes, as a whole we take it too lightly these days, I don’t know that “The Bible doesn’t talk about recreation” means we should never have any. My dad’s saying has always been, “Work hard, play hard,” and I guess I figure there’s something to that.
And I’m growing to be of the opinion Sabbath just looks different for different people. For me, sometimes getting dirty and sweaty outside is more restful than sitting inside reading.
But either way, if reading is, or can be, a form of Sabbath, then I think part of loving the reader is to engage in worship when we write. If we do everything as unto the Lord, then we write as unto him. We read as unto him.
I will say: Jesus had a habit of disappearing to pray. Elijah ran from Syria to the Sinai Peninsula. Moses ran from Egypt to the backside of the desert. Paul spent several years in Damascus before going to see the apostles in Jerusalem.
I’m just saying…
But I love what you wrote about loving your readers. It is more than just writing a book for them to enjoy. I’m learning that as I work to create the required online presence that it doesn’t have to be a chore, but one of joy as I connect with new people and forge new friendships. You never know when you might meet one of those network friends. You never know why God puts a reader in your path.
I just wanted to quote it….
“The more I go into the world and get to know people, the more I’m fueled to keep writing.”
There’s a paradox inherent in the writing life. When we are with people we can’t be writing. When we are writing we can’t be with people.
I’ve written short comic pieces over the decades, stuffed in around everyday activiites. They were about odd things that happened to me or people around me. I always wanted more time to write longer things. Now the kids have grown up and taken off on their own. We’ve paid off the house. I’m retired and can get up every morning and do whatever I want. Yet when I sit down at the keyboard to write a short (or long) piece about something interesting that has happened to me, I realise that nothing at all has happened to me lately.
I suppose that’s what fiction is for. I’ll just have to start making stuff up.
Blast, I wish I had thought to say that during a too-long and -involved discussion I had yesterday via Facebook with various Christians over Halloween.
While believers may have varying opinions over how or if to recognize that day, it just made me cringe to see so many people saying that the only way to redeem the time was to spend the whole day witnessing, or handing out tracts to trick-or-treaters. (I suppose that’s better than trying to be so “not like the world” that we don’t even do that less we somehow give the Devil “perks” even by witnessing on that day; but in that case, I kept wanting to ask the “contrarians” why on Earth they were even on Facebook!)
One guy literally bypassed the “if you carve a pumpkin you give demons a back rub” type of reasoning (I hope that doesn’t sound snarky, but that’s a logical deduction of such notions) by throwing out an ascetic argument: you should be witnessing and doing Spiritual Things more anyway! In reply asked (kindly, I hope!) that similarly I could say he’s wasting time on Facebook; instead he needs to go out there and witness more. He shot back the same question. I don’t think he ever got my meaning.
Also, Christians who base their lives on zealously overcorrecting The Problem(s) (however they perceive it/them to be) rather than trying to be like Christ out of love for Him risk neglecting the very ways of enjoying Him you mentioned, Rachel. The Psalmists saw God revealed and glorified primarily through His law, but also in nature, feasts, prosperity, victory. That doesn’t mean we live for those things, but we ought not fear them either. (Last night my wife and I read through Psalm 18. Wow!)
Ray Ortlund, on The Gospel Coalition’s blog, noted the dangers of excess either way:
Thus, to push away recreation or call it “escapism” in a negative way could be a rejection of God’s gifts — trying to be more spiritual than Him — as much a rejection as being a Godless hedonist and living only for those gifts.
[…] Read the whole thing here. […]
The problem I have, Stephen, I guess, is with the term “escapism.” I like what Rachel said about Jesus’s answer re. the Sabbath—that it was for man. We do need to refuel.
I’m not convinced we actually do that by recreation, but it’s a fact that man has played since he was made. At least ancient civilizations such as the Mayans had structures which appear to be ball courts. And we know that Samson gamboled over whether or not the guests at his wedding could figure out his riddle.
I love to play. Love it. We were a game family when I was growing up and as an adult I continue to love competition.
But I also know that escapism—the real deal, not just getting lost in a story—is unhealthy. I don’t know if we writers are doing readers any favors to give them vapid stories shorn of all but warm fuzzies.
Seriously, is it any different to medicate someone with a story than with alcohol or drugs?
Becky
Here I might differ with your definition of “escape” (and again, I agree with you that escapism as a lifestyle is unhealthy!). I escape much better into a well-developed novel, written with artistic excellence and true insight, than I do into warm fuzzies. That’s less like re-creating and more like being drugged.
For me, the question isn’t whether recreation is good or biblical, but whether our forms of recreation are the best. Kinda like we know eating is good and biblical, but that doesn’t justify a steady diet of pop and cheez-whiz.
Thanks for the reminder that love calls us to care enough to be passionate about what we do, passionate as well as careful to produce what is accurate and excellent. How often we also need to be reminded to listen, listen, and listen again.
Rebecca said, “I hadn’t thought in terms of “loving readers” either, though I desperately want to show Christ in a fresh, invigorating way. To whom? Not to the furniture obviously, which means I want to communicate this to real people.
I guess it’s just hard to envision loving these nameless, faceless people who might someday read what I’m writing. It’s easier to think of pleasing and representing Christ who is with me.”
Depends on your definition of love. Since a biblical definition of love describes not how we “feel” toward these strangers but rather how we “act” toward them, then writing an excellent book is, indeed, biblically loving them.
😉
Sorry to get in so late after my comment above, but somehow I can’t find a way to keep up with these posts…*looks at the bottom of the page for a “subscribe by email” button.*
Nope. The “subscribe to this entry’s comments is checked”, but I have never received any emails.
Hmmmm…
Esther,
Stephen here — I believe we’ve met? howdy-hey — acting like a stranger to the site, and checking the subscribe option for myself. It should use the email address I put in the above box. But let’s see …
Hello, self. This post should send a notification email to your inbox. Testing …
(By the way, self, you most certainly did not recently post Guest Blog — Jonathan Rogers. Taking credit for others’ work is most rude and unprofessional.)
Greetings again, self. I believe we’ve met too. Esther is a mutual acquaintance.
(By the way, self, I know I didn’t write that entry. Forgot to uncheck the other box.)
I seem to have solved not just one, but two mysteries. The subscribe-to-comments plugin had not yet been set up all the way — and that was also why I kept getting emails in my box that had nothing but {name} on them. I thought they were spam. So now you/I/we can switch to another plugin. There.
Good Sméagol, always helps.
I apologize profusely for not yet knowing the etiquette for quoting others’ blogs, then posting that fact in their comment section: I tried google, but this time it failed me. I tried calling E. Stephen (why yessir, I do believe we’ve met!) but that failed also, as he and his wife (my daughter) are on their way to an evening out with friends and are not answering the phone. So if I’ve made a huge faux pas, please forgive and instruct this lowly blog novice.
Hoping it is not bad manners to post such, below is a link to my blog thoughts on your blog thoughts…
http://esthersholdfast.blogspot.com/2010/10/art-and-all-that-part-vi.html
Thanks for fixing the subscription plugin doodah. I am anxious to see if it works this time!