Writing my way towards God's reign

I have never been one for blogs.  I have never been one for technology, for that matter.  I have a persistent distrust of computers, cell phones, and especially any thing that begins with I-.  They are barriers, opaque windows behind which to hide.  Technology keeps us from the real world - a world in need.  Most days, I would do well to get off Facebook, put on a compassionate heart, and give away something I don't really need.  Most days.  


But I also know myself.  In my own life, writing has been a painful and beautiful process of self-discovery.  On my good days, words seem to rise from within me like steam off the Tennessee pavement after a thunderstorm.  And with each word that I can bottle, at least briefly, before sending it out into the world, or sending it up to God, I come to know myself a little better.  "So that's what I really care about," I find myself saying.  Not until I read the pages of my journal back to myself do I know my own calling.  Not until I read my own handwriting can I see the handwriting of God at work in my small life.  God's words echo in my head, calling me to become the woman I was created to be.  Yes, deep down, God dwells within us, itching to be believed. 


And, as an avid reader, I know the bridge that words create between us.  And the bridge that words create to the Kingdom of God.  Stories told and re-told become the reality for which we so desperately long.  Only if we can begin to imagine stories of a world without poverty, and without violence; only if we can share these stories, and share them again; only if we can incarnate these stories in our wild and precious lives - yes, only then will God's reign break through in whispers and shouts of wonder.  


So I write.  I write because I have the privilege of literacy.  I write because I have the privilege of technology.  I write because I have a story or two that I've promised to tell.  And I can only pray for the grace of storytelling.  I can only pray for these words, and the I-Book (yes, that starts with an I-) that will help me along the way.