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This is Only a Test

Laura Elliott2 Comments

I work at a university, and we’ve just had a test of our emergency alert system. Perhaps this should be a post about gun violence, mass killings, terror . . . but it’s not. It’s just me, writing a post about writing a post.

This is only a test. (Or perhaps the ravings of a mad writer. You decide.)

I know, I started this blog with the promise of regularly appearing words. I won’t make more promises, but I can tell you that I’ve been testing the waters of wordsmithery once again. I’ve just submitted my first actual piece in many months to my editor over at Revive Our Hearts.

Writing again was strange. Not writing has been stranger. The piece I just submitted was one I put off writing for at least a month. I felt paralyzed, you know? It was a story I had to tell, but not one I ever would have chosen. Who wants to write about a terminally ill child for Christmas?

Who???

Thankfully, the piece (I hope) is less about a terminally ill child and more about the only Truth that will get her friends and family through these days of darkness. One way or another, the post will appear in this space in due time, but for now, with no pomp and circumstance, you’re stuck with this lackluster post about writing a post.

This is only a test.

I’ll leave you with a limerick, because, why not?

In Silence Cell I’d lost my pen,

Now alas! I’ve found Home Keys again.

Writing’s joy is brought back,

Though cheery mirth hard Truth lacks,

Words in hand, Christ is King. Amen.

 

Grace and peace, friends.

-LJE

 

 

 

 

What’s Holding You Back?

Laura ElliottLeave a comment

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Previously published on the Revive Our Hearts True Woman blog, this post will give you a glimpse of how I moved from fear to joy as I began to write again after a decade-long break! Original content can be found here: 

While scrolling through my email inbox recently, the title of the latest True Woman blog post jumped off the screen and into my 6 a.m., early-morning, not-enough-coffee existence. It might as well have been flagged, “Important”; “Read Now”; “Urgent.” But it wasn’t, and I didn’t. I kept right on scrolling toward my latest credit card statement and the thirty-minute crockpot freezer-meal recipe of the day. I had no plans to read that post.

But it bugged me. It bugged me for nine hours, until grudgingly I resumed my position on the couch, tablet in hand, to read “Why I Write” by Erin Davis and to ask myself why I don’t. Now, the temptation here is to launch into a belabored litany of explanation of why I wasn’t writing—which happens to be my thing, but I’d rather reserve some space for exhortation as to why you should do your thing, whatever that is. So in brief, let me share with you three reasons why I wasn’t doing my thing: Continue reading →

The Blog That Wasn’t

Image Laura Elliott1 Comment

Morning coffee - Mock up set of smartphone with notebook and cup

I wasn’t planning to start a blog. I wasn’t planning to have a website. But awry I’ve gone, having found myself on the course of mice and men, by the grace of God and His inscrutable ways . . .

I’ve started a blog. I have a website. And here you are (for some inexplicable reason), reading! Here’s what I want you to know and what I want to remember:

  • It’s supposed to be fun. Creative. Relaxed. Whimsical. Fun! As Providence would have it, I went looking for a job that was less structured and number-y than my bookkeeping position (I deal more in words, you recall). Well, I found a great job in the business office of a local university where, you guessed it, I do a lot of numbers! There, I work. Here, I’m hoping to have some good, old-fashioned merriment.
  • I’m going to break some rules. Normally, I’m a rule-follower–big time! But when it comes to this creative space, I’m going to break the rules of blogging. I’m planning to cover too much ground: theology, the arts, politics, cooking, music, family, education, law, the sciences, entertainment, poetry, and one of my deepest passions, Biblical womanhood. Why so many things? See above. (It’s supposed to be fun.)
  • Just because it’s fun doesn’t mean it won’t be serious. I’m an introvert and a thinker. I’ve heard it said that some people think as a means to write; some people write as a means to think. I’m of this latter variety. I’ll undoubtedly make some mistakes thinking with my fingers. I’ll say the wrong thing the wrong way to the wrong people. But I’d love to create a space where we can have a discussion–a dialogue–where grace and mercy and listening and reflection actually happen. A place where we can disagree and discuss without attacking one another.
  • My chief desire is that God would be glorified in this space. From Him and to Him and through Him are all things (Rom. 11:36)! That laundry list of categories I want to cover? They all belong to Him. That is so exciting to me! I hope it is to you. If not now, I hope that as you read you will see His hand and how His plan to redeem His creation touches every aspect of life.

Here’s the thing: I wasn’t planning to start a blog. I tried to take a break from writing. But after about a month of nudging words to the periphery of my mind, the words began to find me. While I was vacuuming. While I was showering. While I was at work, my fingers tapping the number pad with ever-increasing efficiency, regularity, at a measured tempo that begins in the business office and ends with an MBA.

Come what may, I’m starting a blog. Thank you, dear reader, for investing in this space.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Oh LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:4 (ESV)