A Writer's Reflections | Letters to a Samuel Generation
by Rachel Starr Thomson
written November 2002
As I lately sat down to gather my scattered thoughts and write something, the thought came to me that recent issues of Letters to a Samuel Generation have been on the short side. This bothered me for a little while, as I wondered what it meant in regard to my spiritual life. Since I usually write articles based on what God is teaching me, did my lack of material indicate a dearth in my spiritual growth?
After thinking this over, I was able to say, with relief, that it did not. I am grateful to be able to say that the great Teacher continues to teach in my life as much as ever. Unfortunately, many of His lessons don't seem to translate into writing very well. If they were neat and tidy lessons, I'm sure they could be nicely formatted into a medium-sized article with a clever opening and a thought-provoking finish, along with three or four Scripture references and an abundance of colorful illustrations and moving, poetic language.
Alas, the lessons of God don't fit into semantic boxes any more than the Teacher Himself does. Rather than neat and tidy, they tend to be wild and unruly, and it does not help that they often come to me in vague snatches before settling down in my mind as layers of hard sediment to anchor my life on.
Perhaps some of you can relate to what I am saying. Surely my musical friends have experienced the frustration of taking something very important to them and trying in vain to communicate it through lyrics and melody. More than one of my dear ones dances, but how does one truly express the beauty and holiness of God through a series of movements? How does a painter explore the mysteries of Creation and Creator with color and line?
This frustration is not limited to the arts. How many of us have ever opened our mouth to try and tell someone else about the mysteries of our Lord, the Great I AM THAT I AM, and found that words, tears, and voice can never fully say what needs to be said?
So to all of you, my brothers and sisters, who with me live in the Light of a Lord greater than we have the power to say, let me offer a few thoughts of encouragement.
First of all, let us not give up trying to say the impossible. However you attempt to do it, don't ever stop! Press in, ever deeper; reach up, always higher. Chase your vague impressions down until they break over you with the power of a tidal wave. Memorize the Scriptures that speak to you and keep thinking on them, constantly, until they overwhelm you with the strength of meaning contained in their few words.
When we've come to be so full of the wonder of God that we cannot contain it any longer, then our words, our music and our dance, our paintings and our very lives, will begin to take on some of the nature of the Spirit that is inspiring them.
Secondly, may we never become so focused on the trivial that we forget to be grateful that our God is an I AM THAT I AM and not an I AM THAT YOU WANT ME TO BE. The mysteries of God cannot be found out by textbook. We can't learn all there is to know about Him in a few years of study, or even in a whole life of consecration. No matter how deep we go, His ways are deeper. His love, His mercy, His justice, His very nature is greater than we will ever know in this life, and maybe even in the next.
And that, for a race of creatures who are constantly cutting themselves off from true life by putting the period on the end of the sentence long before they should, is infinitely good news.
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