Finding God in the Corners
We find places where we can think, so we can pound out the words. These places are often sacred to us. Here we meet with God. Here we are inspired. Here we write the words he gives.
This past month, we tore up our nest. A relocation across town set us in motion for several weeks as we moved over a load or two a day, ripping up my places of quiet tranquility and turning them into piles of boxes in foreign locations.
On the final day, friends and family crammed everything that was left into a truck and then helped us haul it all inside the new place. Family returned the next day to help make order out of the chaos. Still, the new home felt cold, disordered, and alien. The bathrooms and quiet corners weren’t ours yet. In the darkness of night, I crept around in the house, feeling the strangeness.
We grew exhausted during the process, and the bickering began, the failed attempts at extending grace, the petty squabbles, all coupled with the many apologies. These lapses brought even more need for a quiet space to talk with God about both the internal and the external mess.
Would God meet me here in this unfamiliar place?
Yes! Yes, of course!
In all of this chaos and turmoil, I found that God was with me in the silence within my own head and around the corner where I stepped to figure out what had transpired that had provoked a conflict. God was with me under the covers at night where I sought refuge because he felt so far away, merely because I wasn’t in my usual spot. He was with me in the darkness of the wee hours as I left my warm bed and walked about experiencing the weird unfamiliarity of our new abode. Even then, I found God in every corner of the place. He was everywhere.
He gave inspiration for new work. He revealed future projects as I came across forgotten files. He provided even more corners and niches for silence and privacy in the arrangement of our new place. He met me where I was, speaking to me through the words of friends about the beauty and the hard times of life and how God meets us in those places. He wrapped me up in his love.
The Lord wants us to hear him. He wants us to find those places that allow us to commune with him. He will provide that space in the midst of wherever we are: in a crowded city, in a foreign land, on a mountaintop, in flight, in the wilderness, in conflict, and even in chaos.
When we turn our backs on a loud room, close our eyes, and fix our minds on him, he is there. We can even meet him in the darkness, seeking quiet refuge in a corner of our closets, when feeling shaken and out of kilter.
Dear writers, he wants us to find him, to seek his guidance, to listen in the quiet of our hearts for the gentle cadence of his voice, the soft warmth of his presence, so we can hear his words. But to do so, we must search for him with our whole hearts (Psalm 119). We must open our hearts and minds to whatever he has to say to us and be willing to act, to write what he gives.
If we do, we will be blessed with his presence, and the words will flow. Will we?
I found God in every corner of the place. He was everywhere. #SeriouslyWrite #Encouragement via @MelindaVInman
We must open our hearts and minds to whatever he has to say to us and be willing to act, to write what he gives. #SeriouslyWrite #Encouragement via @MelindaVInman
The Shadows Come
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| The Shadows Come |
Sequel to No Longer Alone
(WW1 Based on a True Story)
Germany threatens all of Europe. Millions have died. President Woodrow Wilson makes the declaration that the United States must enter the Great War to rescue our allies. Congress approves. Our story begins. In America’s heartland, everyone hunkers down to provide food for the world and resources for the war effort. A draft is necessary, and all young men must register. One by one, these are called to war. With this threat looming, Prentis and Avery raise the necessary horsepower, cultivate the needed crops, and contribute their labors to the Red Cross.
But crises at home, an insidious busybody, and one after another called up to fight in Europe bring the greatest dangers they’ve ever faced together. Then there’s the influenza pandemic. Will they survive the war abroad and the war being waged at home, threatening their love and their lives? Will their loved ones make it home again?
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| Melinda V. Inman, Author of Fallen; Refuge; No Longer Alone; and The Shadows |
Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the South. Her fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives.
Connections:
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MelindaVInman/
Website: https://melindainman.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00GFYI0RU
