First of all, I should continue practicing writing when I don’t feel like it. That is, I should be able to churn out everything that’s on my mind into paper (or Evernote) even when the rest of my being is telling me that I’d rather do something else. This should continue to apply even when I’m sick – like the first week of February, man, that was brutal. If I’m not able to face a screen, I would write on paper… and if I really couldn’t make it to a thousand words, then it shouldn’t be a problem, as long as I am able to make a record of what’s going on in my mind and the rest of me for that day.
I should continue practicing my writing even with distractions around. I should continue to write even when the environment isn’t necessarily suitable for me to think and write. Like right now, I’m in the company of other people, and although they’re minding their own business it’s still ideal if nobody was around.
But that’s the thing. If I write in conditions that aren’t ideal, I practice the integrity of the words coming from the mind to the print; I practice my focus, and my commitment to getting a good collection of thoughts out of my system and into the records.
I should continue practicing my writing, and I shouldn’t stop at just a thousand words. It appears that I need to write, and keep on writing, not only for the clarity of my thoughts daily, but for my church service’ upcoming website. I should also refrain from counting my write-up for my Sunday messages as my daily thousand-word requirement.
If I was able to get remedial two-thousand and three-thousand words out to make up for the time I was sick, I should be able to easily go above a thousand words a day if I need to. Besides, there are 52 weeks a year, meaning there are at least 52 Sundays in a year, and I could push for writing my messages in advance and in sequence, just so I can spend the rest of my time thinking of other things.
If I could schedule pictures and videos to be posted ahead of time, then I could certainly schedule articles to be posted ahead of time as well.
And besides, one thing that I noticed while I was pushing past a thousand words, was that I was forced to go deeper into the less-accessed areas of my mind, pulling out thoughts that have been asleep for far too long. The longer I go, the more thoughts come to the light of day, in terms of both quality and quantity.
With all this said, I will try to start, beginning today, to keep my words reserved for this Sunday’s message separate from the daily thousand word quota. This means that I may also be posting more than once in a day, and I guess that’ll be nice, just to be sure I wouldn’t break my streak.
And yeah… I have a feeling my notebooks miss me as well. Maybe I should allocate some time to write on the notebooks. Maybe I should go back to writing, journaling on paper, not necessarily creating an overlap with what I intend to share with every thousand words. I mean, I should probably go back to hitting the Bible every day, and writing what thoughts and ideas come up on paper. It may not be the same approach I did countless times before – A Proverb a day; there may be other approaches to reading the Bible.
I couldn’t shake it. I mean, I know I keep saying we should enjoy the Living Word more than the Word, but there’s something about the Bible – Something about the overall theme, down to the specific verses, something to gather from it as our lives change with every day.
It’s not like there are other books, or other podcasts with timeless lessons we need to be reminded of with every day… I don’t know, call me biased for the Bible if you must, but you get more than just timeless lessons from the Bible – The way I see it, because the Savior the Bible points to is alive both now and forevermore, it couldn’t be helped but to say that the words we get are alive. The Living Word gives life to the Word we read.
As mentioned earlier, you’re reminded of some lessons when you read anything else, sure… but chances are the Bible verses you read would teach you today, FOR today. Just as you are taught in the past by the same verses, for the past. That’s pretty much what I mean when I say that the Living Word gives life to the Word you read.
Actually, let me correct myself there… Because see, the Living Word doesn’t just give life to the Bible, but it points you to life, no matter what you read. I say this because I appreciate Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Stop’, not only for how it just sounds so aggressive, but also for the words he chose to sing – ‘Too many religions, but only one God, I don’t need another Savior’
I appreciate Heath Ledger’s Joker laughing in triumph, enjoying his temporary position of absolute power over the Batman in the interrogation room scene. As he laughs, he taunts the protagonist, saying ‘You have nothing – NOTHING to threaten me with! (You have) NOTHING to do with all your strength!’…. and I certainly imagine Paul the Apostle with the same sort of smile on his face while he was writing, ‘O death, where IS your sting? O hell, where IS your victory?’
See, if we were able to see such parallels with life and light because of the Life and Light in us, in these supposed ‘secular’ mediums, how much more would we be overwhelmed by the Bible?
I guess all of this serves as a reminder for me not to keep the Bible on the side, when it comes to celebrating the eternal Life we have with Christ, in this reality. We see it everywhere, sure, but you’re guaranteed to be overwhelmed by what the Bible gives us each and every time we read it.
After all, if I can’t stop writing about the goodness of God, I should also be able to see the eternal benefits in reading about it.
Funny, I started with writing about writing, and I ended with writing about reading.
What a beautiful part of the wheel that won’t stop turning.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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