I hadn’t intended to
write about things for which I am thankful, it seems a bit cliché since its
November but that’s exactly what I am about to do.
I wasn’t able to attend
the ACFW conference a couple of months ago. I had a choice: go to the
conference or invest in my fellow Thistles’ first writer’s retreat. I chose the
Thistles this year.
In case I haven’t
mentioned it before, along with belonging to ACFW, I also belong to a local
writer’s group. It’s called The Thistle Club. We chose thistles as our emblem
because, among other things, they are tenacious.
Anyway, I felt a little
denied this year not being able to attend ACFW’s conference but I believed that
the retreat would be God’s vehicle to speak to us Thistles as His children and
as writers. And you know what? It was and He did.
So, firstly, I want to
thank God for showing up and spending the weekend with us. I stand amazed at
how He knows exactly what we need, when we need it.
Which leads me to the
next thing for which I am thankful… the blessing that is the ACFW newsletter,
specifically the current edition. If you haven’t had a chance yet to read the
November newsletter, I highly recommend you do.
I appreciate Michael
Ehret’s notes on Bill Myers’ Second Keynote Address, because they laid the
foundation for Allen Arnold’s presentation – “The Wildness of Writing with God:
‘Have fun, God.’” Arnold’s presentation was apparently a well-articulated
version of what God also spoke to the Thistles during our retreat.
God is so cool.
Arnold’s definitions of
the "Realms of Creativity" really hit home with me personally, and at
their heart confirmed what God has been speaking to me for a while now.
So, secondly, I’m
thankful to God for His timeless, and timely, Word, and to Michael Ehret for
sharing his notes. If I have learned nothing else lately, it is that the
writer’s life is not accomplished alone. We need God and each other if we are
to finish the race God has set before us.
The greatest part about
all this is that God already knew what we would need from the beginning of time
and has already prepared it, we only have to ask.
Thank you, God, for
being You - yesterday, today and forever.
Humbly
submitted by H.T. Lord
