At our December gathering I was blessed to receive some wonderful gifts including a set of CDs from the Writer’s Workshop which I began listening to over the break. One session that stood out was called, “Writing with Authenticity: Persevering Through Pain”. The speaker, Angie Williams, said something I won’t forget, “Never waste a good trial.”
For someone ‘walking through the valley’ or desperately clinging to hope ‘in the midst of a storm’, this may sound trite, yet coming from Angie who has experienced great personal tragedy including the loss of three babies, breast cancer and other heath issues, these words ring true. She gives the following advice:
View trials as opportunities to craft faith-building messages for others.
Sometimes when we speak out of our pain, we communicate best.
How can you minister to hurting people if you’ve never had any pain?
After you undergo a test successfully, you are eminently qualified to give
an open declaration of how you overcame it by the power of God.
Commit that to paper and it will bless others.
Don’t allow suffering to embitter you. Allow it to legitimize your writing.
Touch people where they hurt and they’ll come back for more.
Now perhaps I’m more selfish than most, but when a fellow songwriter tried to console me during a trial by saying that I may get a great song out of it, I was not comforted. I didn’t care about getting a song. All I wanted was for the pain to go away and the situation to work out the way I wanted it to. Yet, I did write a song — not for the sake of touching others, but for my own sake, because songwriting is an effective way to deal with pain. King David did it. He expressed his joys and sorrows in the psalms and set an example that songwriters have followed for centuries.
At our January meeting, I shared the story of Karolina Sandell-Berg, the ‘Fanny Crosby of Sweden’ whose 650 hymns influenced the revival that swept through the Scandinavian countries in the late 1800’s. What I did not share was that when this minister’s daughter was 26 years old, she was enjoying a boat trip with her father, when the boat lurched suddenly; he fell overboard and drown before her eyes. Although Lina had written many hymn texts before, following this tragedy she poured out her heartbreak through hymns expressing her faith and child-like trust in God.
Help me then in every tribulation
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith's sweet consolation
Offered me within Thy holy Word.
Click here to listen to the song.
Here are a few closing thoughts from Angie Williams:
Your writing can go where you will never go. It can meet people you will never meet.
What you write will change lives – many lives!
This was certainly true for the psalmist, for Lina Sandell-Berg, and countless other faithful songwriters whose songs have provided a legacy of comfort for generations.
May it be true of us as well.
For someone ‘walking through the valley’ or desperately clinging to hope ‘in the midst of a storm’, this may sound trite, yet coming from Angie who has experienced great personal tragedy including the loss of three babies, breast cancer and other heath issues, these words ring true. She gives the following advice:
View trials as opportunities to craft faith-building messages for others.
Sometimes when we speak out of our pain, we communicate best.
How can you minister to hurting people if you’ve never had any pain?
After you undergo a test successfully, you are eminently qualified to give
an open declaration of how you overcame it by the power of God.
Commit that to paper and it will bless others.
Don’t allow suffering to embitter you. Allow it to legitimize your writing.
Touch people where they hurt and they’ll come back for more.
Now perhaps I’m more selfish than most, but when a fellow songwriter tried to console me during a trial by saying that I may get a great song out of it, I was not comforted. I didn’t care about getting a song. All I wanted was for the pain to go away and the situation to work out the way I wanted it to. Yet, I did write a song — not for the sake of touching others, but for my own sake, because songwriting is an effective way to deal with pain. King David did it. He expressed his joys and sorrows in the psalms and set an example that songwriters have followed for centuries.
At our January meeting, I shared the story of Karolina Sandell-Berg, the ‘Fanny Crosby of Sweden’ whose 650 hymns influenced the revival that swept through the Scandinavian countries in the late 1800’s. What I did not share was that when this minister’s daughter was 26 years old, she was enjoying a boat trip with her father, when the boat lurched suddenly; he fell overboard and drown before her eyes. Although Lina had written many hymn texts before, following this tragedy she poured out her heartbreak through hymns expressing her faith and child-like trust in God.
Help me then in every tribulation
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith's sweet consolation
Offered me within Thy holy Word.
Click here to listen to the song.
Here are a few closing thoughts from Angie Williams:
Your writing can go where you will never go. It can meet people you will never meet.
What you write will change lives – many lives!
This was certainly true for the psalmist, for Lina Sandell-Berg, and countless other faithful songwriters whose songs have provided a legacy of comfort for generations.
May it be true of us as well.
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