#TellHisStory Featured Writer: Amber Haines
During 2013, dozens of talented writers are joining me to cheer you on in your storytelling. These guest-writers will share a few helpful words with you right here every Tuesday night, to encourage you as you #TellHisStory. (Come back after midnight to link up your God Story by clicking here. You are free to share ANY story that God lays on your heart.)
And now, I’m delighted to introduce you to a positively exquisite writer, Amber Haines.
When it’s time to write, there are at least a million things to want out of it. Sometimes I crave the release, as if white space were my therapist or as if there were a dam that might break. Often I’m a jumble, and writing is how I sort. But sometimes I write because I just want you to love me. I want to move you. I want to make you battle-cry with me. Sometimes I just want you to be happy. I want to laugh with you.
When I write, I want for good things, but all these things have added up to a great deal of pressure. I become terrified of messing up, which is exactly what ego building does. It forgets the low places of our stories, hides from them. Ego aims high, like for pedestals and soap boxes. Word by word, we are always building someone’s kingdom, and if we are building our own, that high horse eventually kicks us on our rears.
Seek His kingdom first. Somehow this feels like news to me, but recently I’ve been praying “Your Kingdom Come” before I write, and I’m watching a boldness and zeal bolster my story every time I lay my own kingdom aside. When seeking first the kingdom, it shoos the pressure to be acceptable to others or to compare myself with others. I’ve even begun to be glad when others do well, because it’s about the Kingdom, not me. If I’m writing to build God’s kingdom, then I am free to write it as God has given, and it begins to have everything to do with how little I have to offer, how Jesus himself is the builder.
Word by word, pray it; His Kingdom is mighty. Don’t be afraid of letting it come in your words. It’s the low way, the only way to be near God.
Amber Haines has 4 sons, a guitar-playing husband, theRunaMuck, and rare friends. She loves the funky, the narrative, and the dirty South. She finds community among the broken and wants to know your story. Amber is curator with her husband Seth Haines of Mother Letters (published April, 2012). They are in the process of learning how to live in true community, to care for the orphan, and to love the broken body of Christ. Read her blog HERE, and tweet her a little HERE. Keep up with TheRunaMuck on Facebook HERE.
YOUR TURN: How have you had to lay your own kingdoms aside while writing?
oh such good stuff Amber. “Your Kingdom come” will not be whispered before I write… thank you for a reminder of the ultimate goal. (pst…us “four boy” moms must stick together…good to find another one).
Dang I love your words and you.
Dear Amber
I want to go as far as to say that it the “narrow way”! That life we live in Him, being seated at the right hand of our Pappa God in Jesus, our Resurrected Lord.
Blessings and love you just as you are, sweet friend.
Mia
Beautiful reminder that nothing is really ours, it’s all for Him and is His.
Amber, I love your writing, because I love Him, and His presence shines through what you write. He has gifted you with an extraordinary ability, to be sure, but moreoever, He has gifted you with Himself. I see His relfection in your words and more still in your desire to have all of Him and His kingdom. You are a young writer, aged in wisdom–His wonderful wisdom. Keep manifesting His presence to your readers. Keep disappearing behind the Cross. May He continually bless and enable you to do just that. Cheers for His Kingdom–His alone!
Blessings,
Lynn
Yeah Amber!
Thank you, Amber. I have learned so much about writing and seeking the scary, real freedom of His Kingdom come through your words. He is beautiful through you and the lines you lay down. Bless you, and thank you.
Thank you for your sweet story. I edit for my husband Robert, He writes continued fictional stories, but today it is all on one page. enjoy his awesome story. http://musingsbyrobert.blogspot.com/