Reading does, however, have a way of slowing down the process when you're hurrying to make a deadline. In fact, my latest project, "Beyond Belief--The Extraordinary Faith of Ordinary People and What We Can Learn From Them" has required a truckload of reading...
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This is followed by hours of reflection, and only then, hesitant writing. Here is a short blurb about the book:
~Beyond Belief recounts the stories of people who have endured some of life's darkest moments--a child's death, a friend's suicide, a cancer diagnosis--and gone on to forge a strong faith in God. They don't blame him for their trials. They don't question his motives or his intentions. Instead their stories help us reconcile the contradictions between what we have been taught to believe about a merciful and all-powerful God with what we experience in our lives. Beyond Belief explores the extraordinary faith of ordinary people, and what we can learn from them.~
These ordinary folks are friends of mine. Some were patients of mine. Some are family. You, too, probably know people with stories like these. Perhaps you're one of them, someone who has weathered a faith shattering tragedy or crisis. How did it change your image of God? Your relationship with Him? Your faith?
If it is a challenge for me to write the narrative that introduces these people, they may have agreed to attempt the impossible for me--to put grief, anger, fear, and guilt into words the rest of us can understand and learn from.
Sometimes the reading part of the process feels like procrastination, as though I really should be getting words on the page instead. But there is no substitute for knowing your subject. It's the only way you can bring your own heart to it.
How do you balance reading and writing? Dreaming and doing?
How do you feed your soul?
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A sure sign of spring: it's raining, not snowing as I write this...
jan
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