Transparent Christian Magazine

IN 1592, SHORTLY BEFORE HIS CAPTURE by Elizabethan authorities, Robert Southwell, a Jesuit priest, published a book called “St. Peter’s Complaint”. Southwell dedicated his book “To my worthy good cousin, Master W. S.” The dedication itself touched on the duty of poets. He said writers should not waste their gifts on vain pursuits such as romantic love or popular theatre. He said the duty of poets was to glorify God. London was teeming with writers at the time, great writers, writers with large names that we still use today. Southwell, a gifted writer himself, encouraged these young talents to write religious poetry and spiritual works. Because Southwell was Roman Catholic in a Protestant state, and in a time when religion in England was a serious, if not deadly game, he was captured, tortured, and eventually executed as a traitor, and by a gruesome means of execution. It was the power of his own words that made him so “dangerous” in the eyes of the state. Still, when Queen Elizabeth read his book, it was said that she wept.

Southwell’s words are just as true today as they were over four hundred years ago. Like him, I too am convinced that the duty of poets is to glorify God. By the way, if the word “poet” is a confusing one, we can substitute the word “writer” instead. The Internet has made a “writer” out of almost everyone it seems, and it is incredibly tempting, as well as deeply satisfying, to raise one’s voice in the marketplace of ideas. Technology has provided each of us a pulpit, a stage, a microphone. These are hard temptations to master, and there are few restrictions. We are not likely to have a Simon Cowell there to tell us that we should embroider instead, or raise fish, anything but write. That brings me to the central point of this article—that as pleasurable as writing is, it is first a craft, and, according to Southwell, one that should not be taken lightly.

If I encourage you to put a little love into everything you communicate, I don’t mean that everything you write has to be glazed with honey. I mean only that you put the best of yourself into your writing—each e-mail, each blog, and so on. Approach the act of writing as if, through your words, you are offering some piece of yourself. In truth, that is exactly what you are doing. No, not everyone is a poet, any more than everyone can sing on pitch or make beautiful melody. But, if God put a soul in each of us, and he did, he also made it beautiful. The soul expresses itself in beauty. It always has. Our greatest artists have always known that. But beauty comes in many forms, and there is perhaps nothing more beautiful than a line condensed to pure meaning, crafted with care and simplicity, making understanding easy. All of us are capable of that.

The whole point of writing is to communicate a thought to someone else as plainly as possible, using applicable conventions of the English language. It is not about sounding clever or using big words. To achieve simplicity in writing is perhaps more difficult than you might think. Let me encourage you to think carefully about what you write, and not just to check your spelling or punctuation, but also to take out the unnecessary word or repetitions. Be merciless with those tired sounding clichés. Cast them out. Flee from them as you would death. Be attentive to the Simon in your head. One writer, Fran Lebowitz, referred to her internal editor as a Nazi prison guard. We don’t have to go to that extreme, but thinking editorially doesn’t hurt.

Take the time to study the craft, to study the architecture and weight of a line. Actually read what you are about to post before posting it. Say it out loud. Get your ear involved. Get in the habit of rewriting, that is, going over a piece of text until it shines, until all the lumps are gone. Read great writers. There are many of them still out there, both Christian and non-Christian. There are bad writers out there as well, and their numbers are increasing. But they have something to teach us too, even if it is simply what not to do.

Well-crafted text has the power to inspire. It can be a witness to faith itself. It has been said that “God is in the details”. I believe that. Being vigilant over the smallest elements of what we write and how we write it is critical to well executed text. And the ability to communicate well is not just for the professional wordsmith. Look at the lives of those who spent time with Jesus, particularly the twelve apostles. With the exception of Matthew, and perhaps one of the Simons, for the most part they were illiterate fisherman. After spending time with Jesus, they became no less than poets, divinely inspired craftsmen. John, my personal favorite among them, later in his life wrote, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God . . . ” You don’t just sit down and write such things. That kind of writing comes only by way of inspiration, by great seasoning and love, and by time spent with the master himself. There are other examples of this, but I suspect you get the meaning.

Each time you open your mouth or set down words on paper, have God in mind. Writing is as much of a calling as preaching or singing. Each word is an obligation fulfilled in him. Good or bad, correct or incorrect, each thought you convey carries weight, presence, and meaning. Each misspelled word and every misplaced comma has meaning as well. It says we don’t really care as much as we pretend to, that what I am communicating isn’t as important as I claim it to be. Put your heart into it. Even the most casual piece of writing deserves your best efforts.

There is so much left to say about good craft, but here are a couple of scripture passages to think about when considering your next piece of writing: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” (Proverbs 18:21) And I particularly like this one: “My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skilful writer.” (Psalm 45:1)

By the way, Robert Southwell’s cousin, the one he dedicated his book to, was William Shakespeare.