August 22, 2017

A time to write and a time to be a sponge


When I asked a group of Christian poets and writers what one thing they need most in their writing lives, a common response was “time!”

The King James Version (KJV) of Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven,” and then that entire chapter goes on to put all sorts of usages of time into perspective.

As poets and writers in Christ, we also need to know, there’s a time to pray and a time to listen…

• A time to read and a time to study

• A time to revise and a time to edit

• A time to soak up everything around us

• A time to write again.

Keeping a notebook or laptop handy can help even snatches of time become productive. For instance, when I wrote inspirational romance novels, I worked out my best dialogue while hanging clothes on the line. Now, my best poems usually come when I’m watching wildlife from our deck, whereas insights for devotionals often arise after discussing the Bible with Christian friends. The important step then is:

Take a sec to write it down before that inspired word is forgotten!


These little writing times might not multiply quickly, but they do add up! For instance, commuting to work can be a good time to work out a plot or record notes about a new project. Washing dishes might provide time to ask, “What do I feel drawn to write?” then listening to the answer that fills us with the most enthusiasm, so we can hardly wait to get to it.

Interruptions can produce insights too, though, for, in God, no time is wasted. If words seem to plod along, it just might be time to take a break, elevate those tired feet, and get refreshed enough to write again.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017





August 17, 2017

Leaving every stone unturned to bread


As my Bible Study group discussed Luke 4, we read about the temptations Jesus endured in the wilderness. Significantly, those tests of faith came immediately after His baptism in the Jordan River and immediately before His ministry began.

Each of those tests ultimately tempted Jesus to do something to stop the crucifixion – the final sacrifice to undo the works of the devil and remove every trace of sin inherent in every race of people. But the temptations began on a very human level of weakness – hunger.

After fasting for 40 days, Jesus became so close to starvation that Satan tried to take advantage of this weakened state. In the first temptation, he challenged Jesus by saying, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread,” Luke 4:3, English Standard Version (ESV.)

For one thing, if Jesus had done that, He would have been trying to prove Himself – something God doesn’t do throughout scripture. (See Exodus 3:14.)

For another, if Jesus had given in to hunger and temptation, the results would have been magic or sorcery, rather than the power of God.

Later, when the Lord turned water into wine and fed many thousands with a few little fish and a small amount of bread, He used what was there to perform, not magic, but miracles! He took something natural and real and expanded its potential – something we might pray for at every church picnic or potluck when we have less food than people!

Jesus wants us to reach out to others and feed His sheep without holding back in fear or stinginess, but He would never, ever tempt us to turn stones into bread! Why?

It would be a lie.

In the desert terrain where the temptations occurred, an abundance of wind-smoothed, rounded stones actually look like big loaves of bread. But rocks were not meant to be eaten. To make bread from stones means totally changing what something was meant to be into something that’s untrue to itself and to God’s creation.

Bread is what it is. We are who we are.

May we become our most genuine and truest selves in our lives in Christ.

May we become all God created us to be in The Way and Truth of Jesus’ Name.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

















August 1, 2017

Write with salt, not sugar


Chemically speaking, various salts can be formed by combining a base with an acid. For example, common table salt (NaCl) consists of sodium chloride with neither element something you’d ever want to eat by itself!

There’s nothing sweet or saccharine about salt.

There’s nothing flowery in its inorganic matter.

Although people and animals must have some salt to survive, too much of this essential mineral tastes like ocean water or brine, which can make us gag!

Cliché though it is, a little salt goes a long way.

In light of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13, however, that cliché brings hope. Figuratively speaking, the Lord said we’re to be the “salt of the earth,” a concise way of defining how we're to be, speak, act, and write effectively.

We might not feel as though we’re being effective or making any difference, but as we interact with the world through Christ-centered words, actions, and prayers, even a little saltiness goes a long way.

To get some ideas of how to sprinkle salt into our relationships and writings, let’s consider some of the power salt has:

Salt kills weeds.
The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur with nothing sprouting and no vegetation on it, Deuteronomy 29:23.

Purifies water

Then he (Elisha) went to the spring, threw salt into it, and said, This is what the Lord says: “I’ve healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land barren,” 2 Kings 2:21.

Adds flavor and seasoning
Is tasteless food eaten without salt? Job 6:6.

Salt also has the power to:

Keep food from spoiling.

Draw out infection.

Melt ice.


Those factual aspects and properties of salt gives us a few of its literal meanings, but sometimes we understand more by speaking or writing figuratively. That’s what Jesus did by calling us the “salt of the earth,” and what I aimed for in the following poem from my book, Outside Eden, published by Kelsay Books:

Shaking Salt

We want
We taste
We crave this old
enhancing

Thirsty
Body cells
Electrical charges

never brackish

Our pores exude
Tears
Oceans
Preservatives
Washers of wounds

Blood pressure
Bread leavening
descending
rising

Too much
Too little
ruins a thing

better tasting
Humor taken
with a grain

Plain speech
peppering

Salt of earth salt
of earth
You are the


Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017













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