Day 5: Sloth
“Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Writing is hard work. Not just the simple act of putting pen to paper, or fingertips to keys. No, I’m talking about the effort that is required to shape each thought, turning it and placing it for maximum impact … and then sitting back and bracing oneself for the aftermath.
As every writer knows, to write well is to expose oneself to the universe. To write deeply, thoughtfully, and well is not unlike preparing to bring a child into the world (so I’m told). There is the thrill of first discovery – the signed contract, perhaps – followed by an interminable period of preparation. Writers don’t have to give up caffeine, but there are other considerations. Has anyone ever been asked to write about suffering or loss, or (God forbid) good parenting or patience, and not had the heavens rain down ample anecdotal material?
God doesn’t care about our hitting the bestseller lists nearly as much as He cares about the state of our souls. The labor may take place while we’re alone in the office, sitting before the computer … but the lessons transpire in almost every OTHER room of the house. Courage!
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
(Prayer is popularly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi)
Please join me now in praying: Our Father…
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