Wednesday, June 6, 2012

From Your Lips to God's Ear





The Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus.
I have a dream.  One of the authors who has had a great deal of influence on my writing is Robert Fulghum, who wrote "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," along with seven other non-fiction books and a novel.  A little more than fifteen years ago, Fulghum was writing little essays for one of his kids' school papers when someone contacted him.  That person had read some of his essays and wondered if he had more like them, and if he would consider letting them get published.  "Sure," Fulghum said, and produced a whole drawer full.  He now has more than 17 million copies of his books in print, in 31 languages and 103 countries.  My dream isn't nearly so lofty, but is it possible that I could get published one day?

I found this in the comments section of my most recent note:  "Have you ever thought of being an author..... you have such a way with words..... could be a future in it for you!!!"  From your lips to God's ear, my dear friend.  Yes, I have thought about becoming an author.  I've thought about it a lot.  I sold the rights to a screenplay back in 2005 to a studio that never got around to filming it in the eighteen months it belonged to them, and for a while, I considered rewriting it as a novel.  I never went forward on that project, though, because I never felt it was the right thing to do.  If God gave me this talent, shouldn't I use it for His sake somehow?  Well, what should I write, then?

Some months ago, I mentioned wanting to write the story of the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at the well.  I was surprised to find that she's actually a named saint in the early Catholic and Greek and Russian Orthodox traditions.  She's my subject, and I'm telling you all so you can keep me accountable.  Feel free to ask me how the book is coming along in a couple of months.  I pray for the words to tell her story in a way that resonates with people today.  You can pray too! 

No comments:

Post a Comment