This Fortifying Friday, we're excited to welcome Susan May Warren back to Seriously Write to encourage you as you head into your weekend.Here's Susie!
Why I Love to Write
God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. ~Eric Liddell
I love this quote by Eric Liddell, champion runner (from Chariots of Fire) who went on to become a missionary to China. I love it because he’s completely aware of both his gifts, and the joy of using them for his Savior. I couldn’t agree more. God made me a writer. And I feel His pleasure when I write. I know that the words He puts on the page are as much to bless me, as they are (hopefully) to bless others. Because I love to know God’s pleasure.
He also made me a teacher. And when I work with writers who want to purse the gifts God has given them in writing, I feel God’s presence, giving me wisdom, and enjoying with them their journey. I feel the pleasure of God when they suddenly get a new idea, or a problem is solved in their manuscript. I love to teach.
Which is why I spent a lot of time (when I’m not writing!) teaching at writer’s conferences, helping writers through my fiction editing service construct their story, why I started www.mybooktherapy.com, a blog and community focused on writing craft, and why I wrote the beginner’s writing book: From the Inside…Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you. I love it when I get a note from someone I’ve been able to encourage, telling me that they’re getting published. My heart sings. God is good to allow us to do what we love for the One we love!
I love it that God longs to delight us with His pleasure, and that He does it by giving us gifts that he intends for us to use with joy. David says, in Psalm 16, “You will fill me with joy in your presence.” I believe he’s talking both about the future, in heaven, and here, now, on earth. God gives us a portion of that heavenly joy when we rightly use the gifts He’s given us. My hope for all writers is that they will embrace the gifts God has given you, and as you use them for His glory, you will feel His pleasure!
God bless you on your writing journey!
Susan May Warren
Founder, www.mybooktherapy.com
Susan May Warren is the award-winning author of seventeen novels and novellas with Tyndale, Steeple Hill and Barbour Publishing. Her first book, Happily Ever After won the American Fiction Christian Writers Book of the Year in 2003, and was a 2003 Christy Award finalist. In Sheep’s Clothing, a thriller set in Russia, was a 2006 Christy Award finalist and won the 2006 Inspirational Reader’s Choice award. A former missionary to Russia, Susan May Warren now writes Suspense/Romance and Chick Lit full time from her home in northern Minnesota.
