My First Love | Olivia J

"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on," -Louis L'Amour

Writing will always be my first love. Everything else is just varying degrees of side hoes.

Taking God out of the equation, which seems counterintuitive, writing will always be my first earthly love, because it springs of a place of God.

My dad, when describing the musical genius Adam Young, always says that God just came down and dropped a little bit of glory, a smidgen of pure talent into Adam Young and blessed him. Not that I can compare to the electropop god himself, but it seems like it's the same concept.

Writing will always be my first love, because it's something so essential to who I am; it can never be removed. You can take the person out of the writing, meaning you can, with all that's physically possible, stop me from writing. But you can't take the writer out of the person, meaning no matter what, I'll always be a writer.

When everything is wrong, when even God seems far away, I always have my words. I'll always have my writing.

Because, while it might seem like I'm glorifying my writing, I'm not. My writing is a direct connection to God, and I know that He's listening, despite what I feel, despite if I ever hear anything back.

Writing will always be my first love, because when the whole world falls away, I know I'm a writer. I know that this is who I am in Christ, and that is my destiny and my fate. I know that because there's a spark, a never ending flame of passion, that can never be snuffed out. The spark that makes the words explode out of me in screaming color. The spark that makes my words touch people in their wounds. The spark that makes my heart cry to tell stories, to hear stories. To be a story.

Writing will always be my first love, ever since I drew terrible pictures of people and scribbled landscapes when I was four. I made my mom write down the narration and dialogue, and then we stapled them together. From that point on, my feet were set. I fell in love, as much as a four year old could, with stories, with art.

Writing will always be my first love. No questions asked.

~The WordShaker

Our Personal and Christian Identity

"A writer's goal is to weave the ordinary into fine silk ad the truly extraordinary into diaphanous clarity," -C.J. Heck

Without our identity, we are nothing. 

Not even the summation of our broken parts, because not even that defines us. Without our identity - our identity in Christ, within ourselves - we are easily tossed by the seas of life. 

Our identity - as children of God, and also as individuals - is the foundation of everything else in our lives. 

If you foundation is in another person, they'll fail. If it is in yourself, your sin nature will always prevail. If it is in your talents, you'll fail, or someone won't appreciate them. 

The only anchor that draws me back from my feelings, from my failures, is the knowledge of who I am. And some days, when the wind screams, the rain is a torrential downpour, and I am just a sailboat caught in a hurricane, I hold steadfast to the unshakable iron of who I am. 

Not what I think I am, not what anyone else says I am. But who God says I am. 

Find your identity. And then never let it go. 

~The WordShaker