On writing.

I recently read an article by Jon Foreman (the lead singer of Switchfoot, and probably a potential best friend, should I ever meet him) and he wrote that "Poetry can get under the skin without your permission." I love the truth of this statement, and I would say the same applies for anyone who desires to craft words into some sort of meaningful outlet, whether it's poetry, music lyrics, prose--it all has a way of creeping into the veins of the artist and shaping itself into something uncontainable, irrepressible...wild.

I am just finishing up a journal. I love completing something, writing until I can't write anymore and then saving those words, knowing that they're on a page on my bookshelf. I can access them at will. I can open the pages and find sacred thoughts, yearnings, and words that my hand produced. I write because it's the one creative outlet I feel like I'm actually decent at. I write because it's fun. I write because I get excited at the prospect of someone reading my words someday (is that vain?) :)

More than anything, I have realized that I write to glorify God. The words that spill from my pen onto the page are no accident. I can look back in a completed journal and find exactly what I was feeling on any given day, whether I expressed it as a prayer, as a poem, or as a simple catalogue of my day.

Starting a new journal for me signifies starting a new season of life. As I record the last words in my well-worn friend, I think about how excited I am to experience new blessings and new trials in the year to come. It's been a good year--a hard year, but a good year. The ride continues.

My prayer is that God continues to allow me to enjoy what He has given me, to His glory.

Here is an excerpt from my journal that I wrote when I was riding on a train in Lisbon, Portugal (a beautiful trip, by the way--more on that later).
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Why is it that I search for beauty? I found myself trying to constantly stray from anything remotely ugly yesterday as we were traveling around the city.

God made us to long for beauty--Himself, namely. Things eternal, not of this world. Yet not everything in life is pretty. Sometimes it's ugly, hard, what-have-you.

I might be too idealistic. I might be in this stage of "maybe the next thing will be more beautiful than this" (see Ecclesiastes 3, which came to mind later). But what if it isn't? God doesn't promise ease, nor does He promise beautiful, happy circumstances all the time.

Therefore, in everything, whether it be physical surroundings or my lousy spiritual state, I should seek out God...even in the not-so-breathtaking moments.

He is there.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-foreman/goodness-precedes-greatne_b_322551.html