why everyone should write

waltz with words. it’s good for you.

It was a Sunday evening a few months ago. As I laid in bed with a fresh week ahead of me, my thoughts accompanied me. I was reflecting on a piece I wrote where I had such a strong stance and belief about myself in light of it. It dawned on me quickly though, that maybe what I thought was untrue, even to a moderate degree— and that? That was humbling.

Because of that, I thought, if writing teaches me anything, it teaches me how little I know about myself. There’s a C.S. Lewis quote that says:

“First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.”

When you write about your feelings, your experiences, you will meet confrontation. You might be confronted by your past beliefs, or a part of you that’s yearning for change and greater realizations. You may be confronted with the truth, exposing your heart and realize how you thought you felt, or what you thought you believed isn’t entirely true.

I realized that as I write these memoir type essays and chronicle my thought processes, thinking I have a fully accurate understanding of my heart, I sometimes end up feeling muddled and contemplative, soberly realizing I don’t have all the answers.

These realizations are a part of the reason I think all of humanity should write. It is no matter if you’re an award winning novelist or not. It’s an invitation to exploring the pathways of the mind and the heart and it brings up questions and reflections that we can engage with God with. 

When I write while being mindful of God, there is an intentional experience I get to be apart of. When I sit down and ponder God and write, beautiful things happen, and glorious surprises open up before me.

Whether it’s writing a poem where I muse about the Lord, or write about how something made me feel, inviting God into the writing process makes it all the better. God can be experienced through words, through writing and that blows my mind.

So, these are my quick little thoughts on why you should write with God, and unto God. You’d be surprised what it can do in your heart, and what you find.