Why am I here? (You may find this post provocative)
I recently attended a work conference where I was challenged in my thinking regarding self-sufficiency. You might think, I rely on God, I pray, I ask for help, that’s not an issue for me. But self-sufficiency may not always be immediately obvious.
In our lifetime, the way people think and approach life has drastically changed. The Modernist view of the world in the late 19th and mid-20th century was rooted in reason, science, and the belief that humanity can actively improve the world. But post-modernists in the latter part of the 20th century rejected absolute truth, viewing reality as subjective, fragmented, and constructed by language and power. A postmodernist would say, “I need to keep increasing my ‘share’ in the world”—and, in some ways, as writers, we subscribe to this view because, ultimately, we want to share our books with the world—and the more we sell, the better. But one of the pitfalls of this view is what Psychologists call ‘toxic independence.
What’s wrong with independence?
Nothing, unless we become an island, believing we need only ourselves. We are made for relationships (how many times did you hear that in church?). We are a product of others, through our inherited characteristics, the influence of genetics, and growing up in a social construct that doesn’t exist independently—its meaning, value, and rules come through human interaction, our culture, and a shared belief—you might say we are relationally entangled, and as Christians living in community, we understand this full well.
So… what are a writer’s pitfalls?
Writing can be a lonely occupation. You are inspired to write. It might be a book, an article, a poem, or perhaps a song, so you go to your special place and begin the process on your own. Some of you churn out thousands of words each week, and you do it alone. If you’re like me, you need a quiet place of solitude to pour out your words. Naturally, we hope our words might have influence in the world we live in. But what systems do we rely on, and how do we measure our influence? We look for tools like statistics, SEOs, GEOs, newsletters, blogs, social media, we ask for reviews, we check our ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ and the number of people who’ve opened our newsletter this month. Now, before you throw rocks at me, please understand I’m not criticising any of these things—they are important systems, providing we don’t totally rely on them.
But who is this really for?
If I’m being honest, I ultimately do these things for myself. I can philosophise and spiritualise it, and tell you that advertising my ‘brand’ affords me the opportunity for more book sales, which means my readers will (hopefully) meet with God through my words, and have their lives changed—and yes, that is absolutely the end goal, but is the money we make, (however small that might be) a driver, or a distraction? Do we pray for more sales? Do we consider the number of books we’ve sold to be a measure of our ‘success’ as Christian writers? If we do, we may be in danger of a slow fade—a subtle change of focus. What if your writing had an audience of just one?
Where is my focus?
The Word tells us in 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” Do I write because God first ‘wrote’ in me? He gave me unique fingerprints, and a voice that is mine alone—so there is no one else on earth like me… or like you, and we are not an island—we need each other, and we need Him. But is my focus on me, on what I can do, say, or write? Or am I joined with others, in community, under the authority of Christ himself, and led by the Spirit? These are the questions I struggle with.
We are no longer in a post-modern age. Society, having rejected absolute truth, is now looking to move past pure irony and cynicism and search for new forms of sincerity—we are currently living in the age of Metamodernism. Now, I don’t pretend to understand it all, but these are interesting times. Our world is full of people with no real foundation to their lives—they are seeking answers, so as writers, this is an exciting time to be alive because we have a unique opportunity to speak into the vacuum. But this is not about us. It’s about HIM. We are “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4:14. We are alive now, so let’s use our time wisely.
“Who knows … perhaps you were made … for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14
Thank you🩷