Hard work is it's own reward. . .
. . .that's a proverb that we've all heard and I believe there is a whole lot of truth in it.
It has certainly been true in my case over the past week or so.
I've been working on the second part of my first foray into theological postings. It's been hard work; reading and studying and thinking and praying are all hard enough, but writing! That's hard for me. And the difficulties goes up expotentially when the topic is one of a theological nature.
I posted the first part a week ago, thinking that it would force me to get busy and actually finish the work. I thought it would make it easier to commit to getting the writing done, but it hasn't. Not that I haven't been working steadily, mind you, but it just seems so far from ready.
I read others' postings and they just seem so effortless. I often wonder if they just sit down and start typing or if they ever agonize like I do. Today's post at Pyromaniac is a good example. From the reader's perspective, it seems as though the posts just roll out and simply appear for us. We don't see the study and the thought (or, in the case of Phil and others the years of education, ministry experience, and the wisdom of years of serving Christ). We see the final result and are awed by the apparent ease of it all.
I wonder if I'll ever really be satisfied enough with this current installment to actually publish it. Silly, isn't it? I've got just a handful of regular readers and very few people will ever read it. And yet, the hard work really has been it's own reward. To meditate upon Christ's obedience in His temptation and its implications for me (and for you) has been a type of reward--a blessing beyond measure.
It has certainly been true in my case over the past week or so.
I've been working on the second part of my first foray into theological postings. It's been hard work; reading and studying and thinking and praying are all hard enough, but writing! That's hard for me. And the difficulties goes up expotentially when the topic is one of a theological nature.
I posted the first part a week ago, thinking that it would force me to get busy and actually finish the work. I thought it would make it easier to commit to getting the writing done, but it hasn't. Not that I haven't been working steadily, mind you, but it just seems so far from ready.
I read others' postings and they just seem so effortless. I often wonder if they just sit down and start typing or if they ever agonize like I do. Today's post at Pyromaniac is a good example. From the reader's perspective, it seems as though the posts just roll out and simply appear for us. We don't see the study and the thought (or, in the case of Phil and others the years of education, ministry experience, and the wisdom of years of serving Christ). We see the final result and are awed by the apparent ease of it all.
I wonder if I'll ever really be satisfied enough with this current installment to actually publish it. Silly, isn't it? I've got just a handful of regular readers and very few people will ever read it. And yet, the hard work really has been it's own reward. To meditate upon Christ's obedience in His temptation and its implications for me (and for you) has been a type of reward--a blessing beyond measure.
posted by Kim from Hiraeth at 8:04 AM
6 Comments:
You could not have paid me a finer compliment. Thanks. I ocassionally teach writing to college and seminary students, and I always tell them that writing is grueling, arduous, hours-long agony for even the best of writers. But you know something is really well written when after all the agony, the finished product looks like it was the easiest, most natural thing to say.
So I'm glad and very flattered that you think it looks like writing is easy for me. Perhaps you'll be equally encouraged to know that it's not.
Oh Kim, please post it when you're done.
I think I've mentioned before on my blog that when I finished each of my attributes of God posts I felt like I'd been in a knock-down-dragged-out wrestling match. I didn't want to have the least bit of it wrong when the subject matter was so important.
But you know, I'm never going to get it completely right. I just have to live with that.
Phil,
Thanks for your note! It is comforting, somehow, to know that writing can be hard for you, too.
Becky,
You're right; it is the subject matter, isn't it? Doing the first part on Adam wasn't nearly so hard; he sinned and we all know it and we live with the constant results of that. If I don't get it quite right with Adam, well, he was a sinner like me and he probably deserves it somehow (tongue placed firmly in cheeck!) But to write about Christ! It feels a like heavy weight to me; what if I make a mistake?
I'll make you a deal. How about this? When I finish it, I'll send it off to you and you can look over it before I hit the publish button, OK?
I'm with Rebecca, about the post it part.
I can really identify with you because there are many, many unpublished posts about theological subjects in my stash, too.
And I agree with you about Phil, too. I have in my mind that he must speak off the cuff just as he writes, but apparently, it's work for him, too.
It's a deal!
did you get it yet?
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