Writing Through the Pain to Comfort Others

by Matt Patterson
Some 20 years ago, I sat down at my desk in a noisy newsroom and began to bang out my weekly newspaper column for a small daily in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

I covered the courts and crime beat for The Daily Mining Gazette, but I tried my very best to distance those stories from my column.

I tried to present my readers with a different side to the guy whose by-line was normally associated with misdemeanors or felonies.  The column was my opportunity to show readers I was human and that I actually had a sense of humor.  And as a relative new father, my young daughters were normally my subjects.

But on this particular column, this was going to be difficult and special simultaneously. It was our first daughter’s birthday.  I wanted to relay in this column how much she had taught and touched me in what seemed to be a very short time here on earth. This column was about my two-year-old daughter Emily, who about a year prior, had passed away after a brave battle with leukemia.  Emily was also born with Down syndrome.

This column – as short as it could be – walked readers through her birth and eventual death.  It told them of our shock and dismay at hearing words like Down syndrome and leukemia.  It was short and sad. It was touching and a tribute.

For me, it was a release.

Two decades later, God has turned my tragedy into blessing and grief into mission.

This newspaper column has turned into a book – My Emily – and this book is my small effort to help families who have special needs children, little ones battling cancer or those heartbroken parents who have lost a child.  Writing the column, the book and even this column is comfort for me. It’s an opportunity to perhaps help or touch someone.

Many of us have similar stories to tell.  For some of us, it’s hard and for others, it’s not.

I look back and view the newspaper column as my release.  The effort with My Emily became a very passionate desire to share a story and to help others with a testimony of a hurting family, an amazing little girl and a faithful God.  In Ecclesiastes it reads, “Two are better than one … If one falls down, his friend can help him up.”  This book is my tool to reach down and help others up.

Ask yourself, “What’s my purpose with this work?”  Is it to help you gain clarity or a release from a particularly difficult experience or time in your life?  Will it be a work that will turn into a mission or ministry of sorts?

I have recently learned one simple practice that can improve your writing.  Pray over your work.  I’ve learned the hard way that when I don’t pray I’m distracted, unorganized and unproductive.  The Bible tells us to, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Please take those few moments to close your eyes and ask for God’s help as you begin to share your heart and your testimony.  Your writing will improve, as will your relationship with God.