First Baptist Church of Herndon

Nothing to Write About

Linda Soller | Sep 08, 2014

About a year and a half ago my good friend Ellen said she was going to start a writing group that would meet at the church. She was writing a book and thought surely I would want to join since I wrote a blog. Funny thing was, I’d never really thought about joining a writing group. I liked writing my blogs, but did I really want to join a writing group when I had nothing to write about? While I wasn’t jumping up and down with excitement, I was intrigued with the idea. At our first meeting the group was small, but Ellen’s enthusiasm was big. She had a vision. During the first year we had authors, an editor, and a publicist come speak to us. It was fascinating and you had to be a log not to pick up on the excitement and fun. Early on someone said let’s publish a book. It was probably Ellen. Alright maybe I threw the idea out there, but I didn’t know it would be so well received. Whoa nelly! I wondered if this might be moving too fast for me. What kind of book could I write? As it turns out the book was to be a collection of writings by anyone in the group who wanted to contribute. I had no reason to worry. At meetings we wrote, in between meetings we were writing, and when we were in the same room we talked about writing. The members were not necessarily the usual cast of characters, so it was fun to share this newly recognized common interest. At the Artisan Tea in late October of 2013 we sold copies of our first Chapter Four book. I have to say it was very exciting for us. Yes, we were happy to autograph the books! Who am I kidding, we nearly tackled people so they would let us autograph the books.

Often in year two of an activity the energy starts to dissipate and it can become harder to get people on board with new ideas. To avoid such a lull our little writing group decided we needed to publish a second book, and even before that Pastor Roberds published a Lenten season devotional. It was like a big snow ball of writing was rolling along the Sunday school building hall and taking us over. In the early stages we lost one of our members. He had been so enthusiastic and his passing made it clear that when God calls you to do something you need to jump right on it because you just never know how much time you have. The second book felt more like work, in part due to the fact that we all contributed more entries to the collection, so there was more planning /editing, and partly because Ellen said she intended to share the publication responsibilities with all of us. She is generous that way. Once again we dove in, bound and determined to make Volume Two bigger and better. The exercise gave us a new appreciation of all the work Ellen had put in to making our first book happen. By July 2014 we had our second book ready to sell. Our ever supportive church congregation was excited for us and we felt very accomplished.

So why is any of this important to you? Well you need to know so you can buy a copy of the book, I’m just kidding, well sort of. It’s important because it’s another example of what can happen when you let God lead the way. I am pretty sure God pushed Ellen in to launching the writing group. The rest of us responded to the invitation. It would have been easy to say, “I don’t have anything to write about.” Done, creative juices squelched, no new meetings to attend, moving on. But instead the answers were things like, why not, or I’ll give it a try, or I’ll come and just see what it’s about. Result – new friends, new experience, new way to reach others for God. Not everything we write is religious in nature, but it does come from the heart, and is offered without pretense of being something more than just our writing.

Yesterday the Chapter Four group had a reading/book signing at the Reston Public Library and we have another set for the Sterling Library in December. I am not making that up. Life can change in an instant if you let it, and God can do great things with each of us if you let him. I don’t think you will see Chapter Four – A Collection of Writings, Vol. Two on the NY Times best seller list, but then that isn’t the point. The fact that it exists at all is its own little miracle of faith and perseverance. And I thought I had nothing to write about!   Have a great week!  :o)    Linda