Writing for a Future Generation

I have a confession to make. I’ve already made it to God, but now I feel led to share it with you. It’s about writing. The confession is I have become so consumed with writing to please others and get published, I have forgotten why I enjoyed writing in the first place.

 I began writing because it was a way for me to remember what great things God has done in my life. I wrote in journals. I poured out my heart and hurts, thoughts and prayers into crisp new pages with the smell of new leather in my nose. Many days there were ink stains on my fingers. The clean new pages quickly became worn, wrinkled, and used but were marked with love and tears. They held such great memories… treasures from my heart. Sentiments that when read back over made me completely sure that God was speaking to me through the events in my life, even though I may not have realized it at the time.

 Reading back through old journal entries I discovered writing that was uninhibited and void of concern about correct punctuation. I didn’t write wondering whether someone would “get it” or not.  In my journal entries, I found raw emotion – hurt, anger, and confusion, but also joy, hope and love. In a talk I gave recently at a church, I likened reading over old journal entries to looking back over the ground you have covered in an airplane. I can see where God has taken me and how each curve to maneuver and each mountain to climb worked together to form a beautiful landscape.

 I began writing in journals because I wanted my children to know about those winding curves and high hills. I know there will be many curves and hills for them to encounter, too. But mostly I began writing because I wanted them to know God is faithful. He sees and comforts us through each trial.  He rejoices with us in each victory. I want them to understand even though we sometimes feel forgotten or distressed, “God is living, eternal and unchanging. We can trust him to help his people in this generation just as He helped his people in past generations.” (NIV Life Application Bible notes on Psalm 102)

 I will still seek to write something for publication, but I will focus on writing that glorifies God and makes a future generation want to praise the Lord, even if the future generation is just my own children.

 Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord. Psalm 102:18 NIV 

I wonder if when the Psalmist wrote this, he knew we would be reading it now, so many years later. This particular Psalm is anonymous.