Young Writers Society

For those of you out there who, like me, are pretty self-deprecatory. You don't accomplish much and, as a result, you don't expect a lot from what you do. You know you're not measuring up to God's standards and you know that what you're doing is downright wrong sometimes. You feel inadequate. God set a pretty high bar and somehow He expects you to reach it, twirl on it, do gymnastics, jump off and soar to the heavens in a graceful flurry of motion. You stand there, looking up at the bar, knowing, just knowing you can never get there.
You're not intelligent enough. You're not spiritual enough. You don't read the Bible enough. You're a sinner. You're weak-willed. You have too many things riding you down like homework, relationships, family. It's hopeless and the bar is, like a zillion feet away. You can't even really see it except as a tiny speck in the distance.
But God didn't create you to fail.
God created you to do your job. What is your job? Well, it is, according to the first question in the Catechism, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Essentially, this means, "Glorify God in your thoughts and actions with joy."(Or, another way to look at it, "Glorify God by enjoying Him forever) Most people find the joy part hard, since a Christian's life is pretty miserable. If it isn't, though, something's wrong with your relationship with Christ.
Consider the prophets. I'm thinking of one in particular I read about earlier today, but think of the prophets in general. The Israelites persecuted the prophets. It was not a nice job. Some, like Jonah, tried to run away from it. Indeed, lots of prophets tried to. Consider Moses, who led the people of Israel out of Egypt. He knew he'd have problems. He tried to tell God he couldn't do it. He said he couldn't speak in front of a bunch of people. God said, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”(Exodus 4:11-12)
This guy protested a lot of his life. He fought God long and hard, but with God's help he led several thousand Israelites out of Egypt, across a sea and through a wilderness.
Because that was what God made him to do.
Jeremiah. The book starts off, pretty much, with God telling him that, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
So he'd been planning this for a long time. He'd plotted everything out, worked out all the details and everything He wanted Jeremiah to do before he was conceived.
Do you know what Jeremiah says? (Hint: he doesn't say, "Wow, that's awesome, God. Thanks; it's an honor to be used by you.")
He says, "I'm not ready. I don't know how to speak; I'm only a child."
Now let's think. God had a plan for him that He formed before he was even born. He'd been with him his whole life, shaping him into what He wanted him to become and then, all of a sudden, He appears to Jeremiah at the wrong time and says, "You're a prophet."
Well, naturally, God realized that this guy wasn't ready. He agreed to come back a few years later and see if everything was in order then.
No, actually, He said Jeremiah would do exactly what He told him to do, say what He told him to say and enough with the backtalk, you're a grown man, get over yourself.
Here's the thing: God doesn't operate on our schedule. we operate on His.
In other words, if God says you're ready to do something, He's not mistaken; He hasn't mixed up the dates.
So back to the original thought here. Actually, that thing about Jeremiah was the original thought, you just didn't know it.
Ha.
You are God's creation. God planned out who you would be before you were a twinkle in your mama's eye. He's been with you your entire life, shaping you, molding you, pummeling you into who He wants you to be. He tells you what He wants you to do, and you do it. He tells you what to say, and you say it. He gives you words and He gives you guidance because He knows your limitations. He knows you can't reach that bar all by yourself; He never intended you to. He sets the bar so high so that you realize that no, you can't jump that high, but God can.

Well said.

Wow, I just wanted to say it's amazing to read this, it almost exactly how I feel sometimes. Also the style and tone you wrote it in is just an attention grabber, something I want to read to the end, instead of just skim over quickly. Everything is just... I guess I can't find the right words. The only flaw I found in it was the comparision of Him to Red Bull, but that's more of a personal thing, rather than a general opinion... Really, I was glad to be able to read this, thank you for sharing!

<..> Kat

Love IT!!!!!!!!!!

Keep writing,
~FW~

Hey there. So, in general, I found your solid point a tad refreshing. It's not every day when someone decides to bring up a point in the bible to something they write. I'm aware there're quite a few Christian writers on this site, it's just not every day I run into something quite like this. A lesson on a plate, if you will. I commend you for taking a slightly more blunt approach about this piece.

Now there were some things I saw to be a little off with your writing. Your pacing perhaps being one of these things. It seemed as if you were just spitting through line after line in attempt to try and see through your basic point. Now I noticed this mostly because I have a tendency to do this as well during a first draft of writing. I usually like to go back through whatever I've written once or twice before posting it as is. My advice would be to slow it down a bit. Take the time to really savor in all your ideas. Let them all flow into one clear thought.

Another few things I found myself noticing were, first off, some of the way you came across saying and explaining things. Almost as if you were stumbling just happeningly over your thoughts and thinking, like "Yeah, that's what I mean to say." Not everything seemed to read off so cleanly in that aspect to me. This for example:

So back to the original thought here. Actually, that thing about Jeremiah was the original thought, you just didn't know it.
Ha!

This here seems a bit childishly said. Especially for this being all written based upon one's spoken lesson of God. I would think there'd be some greater articulation evoking maturity. I think some things could be written to fit the vibe you'd like to send across in that sense.

That being said, there was one more thing I wanted to point out. Not for the sake of creating an argument, I think the bible is beautiful and its word is one to strongly live by in the life of all believer's. But in your spoiler below you wrote this:

P.S. If you ain't a Follower of Christ and you feel uncomfortable/offended by this in any way, you can suck it.

Now I'm not one to usually preach, but I do feel strongly against hypocricy. Telling non-believers of Christ they can "suck it" isn't a very Christian thing to say. In fact, the Christian the to do would be to humbly say something in regards to non-believers feeling against your writing, or the scripture included, or the lesson or point you were trying to send across. It sort of washes away much of what you were just trying to say basically.

But anyway, this was a nice first draft I think. Could possible use some improvement. I hope you didn't take anything I may have said to offense.

-Smylin'