Writing with Wisdom*

There is a vulnerability that goes along with creating faithbooks. Because these books reflect your heart and soul, you may feel like you are laying your most intimate thoughts and prayers and hopes and dreams out on the coffee table for everyone to see. Anytime you allow yourself to be transparent, you become a candidate for rejection.

In order for my editor to fully comprehend my vision for faithbooks, she asked if she could borrow my faithbooks. She kept them for two weeks. Upon returning them to me, she said, "I have read every one of your faithbooks." As I drove home after picking them up, her words continued to drive at my heart. No one outside my family had ever read "every word" of my faithbooks. As I pondered the words in my heart, I began to feel a sense of nakedness. I felt as though my soul had been exposed. Because my editor is also a good friend, the cost of transparency seemed even greater. If a stranger reads my faithbooks and judges me, I have lost nothing. However, if a friend reads them and rejects me, then I have lost a great deal.

There is a risk involved in creating faithbooks. So why do it? Why put your heart and soul out on the coffee table at the possibility of exposure and pain? Sometimes, we have to work through the issue of what others will think about us. We have to remember that our identity is in Christ and not in our faithbooks. Faithbooks are just a tool we use.

Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." When we are free in Christ, fear does not control us. II Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." We do not have to let the fear of what other people will think keep us from creating what the Lord would have us do for our families.

It is the love we have for our families that can motivate us to write down our prayers for them, or journal about the mighty acts the Lord has done on our behalf. It is the power of love, through the Holy Spirit, that can give us the strength to be vulnerable. It is through our weakness that Christ can make us strong (II Corinthians 12:9-10).

Let me challenge you, the next time you are going through a difficult situation, to ask the Lord to show you how to turn pain into power. It might take years before you are able to understand the fruit of the suffering, but if you trust Jesus, He will reveal to you His redemptive power.

The next time you are going though a situation involving rejection, loneliness, discouragement, or tragedy, remember that it is through these crises that God can take the opportunity to reveal His compassion, love, and hope to you. When you allow the redemptive power of Jesus Christ to come in and heal your wounded heart, you will begin to see that you are truly better having gone through the pain than if you had never suffered.

Suffering comes into our lives for many reasons. Sometimes it is due to our own mistakes, and other times it is because we live in a sin-filled world. So often, we perceive pain as being negative, something we should try to avoid at all costs. I have found, however, that many times, it is pain that promotes change and causes new life to spring forth. Often times, what we perceive as a painful situation is the Lord bringing about growth and change in our lives.

If the only things we record are the parties, picnics, vacations, and parades, our children could grow up with an unbalanced perspective of who God is. If all their lives they grow up reliving only the good things that happen in life, how will they recognize the hand of God's grace and mercy that has carried their family through the hard times in life?

Oz Hillman states, "As we enter a walk of faith with God, He allows each of us to experience trials, testings, miracles, and challenges in life that are designed to provide 'faith experiences' that demonstrate tangible evidences of His work in our life."

When you dare to be vulnerable and include the mistakes and failures you have faced, and what the Lord has revealed to you through those struggles, the journaling of these events reflect part of the fingerprint of God on your family.

Don't give up when you are going through the "rough spots" along the road. The Lord is faithful, and He will never give up on us. Use the therapeutic power of journaling to express your emotions in your faithbooks. We do not have to be destroyed by sorrow; we can bring our broken hearts to Jesus and allow Him to bring blessing out of these tough situations. Failure and heartache can be an incredible teacher when we invite the redemptive power of the Holy Spirit into the process.

Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).

Each of us will experience various degrees of pain. When all our faith is gone, we can know that Jesus' faith is everlasting. When a trust has been broken, we can know that Jesus is trustworthy. Through the pain, we can find that God truly cares about us, even though it may take time to hear His voice in the midst of the pain. As we work through painful issues, instead of dwelling on the source of the pain, let us dwell on the One who rescues us - the Source of healing, restoration, and redemption - Jesus. He is the only One who can teach us how to live a life that is restful, that is full of His peace and His joy.

As we walk out our lives on this earth, we can either "survive" from crisis to crisis, or we can "use" these crises to motivate us to dive deeper into the Word, to grow stronger in the Lord, and to let something powerful be built in our lives. Vulnerability is a part of faithbooking. As you pray about opening up your life in Christ to those around you, remember that it is Christ who sets us free! As we freely lay our lives before Him, He is faithful and will carry on His good work in us "to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6).

If you would like to gain a better understanding concerning dealing with the difficult times in your life, you may order the tape series "Tears, Truth, and Tragedy" from Walking with Wisdom.

*excerpts from Pictures With a Purpose by Naomi Shedd