Written by John Mark Adkison
Something Clever. There you have it. I have written something clever. Something thought-provoking. Something revolutionary. Something that will change your mind. Something that will change your world. Something that will inspire easily agitated and easily fooled youthful idealists.Something that will make old conservatives point fingers and cause their jowls to quiver in distaste. Something that will be discussed, debated and dissected for ages and ages to come.It will be something someone will use in a speech. Something that will be written on classroom walls in crayon and construction paper.Something that will be etched out in gold along the archways of Ivy League gates. Something that will be written on a thousand headstones to come.I have written something clever.It is every writer’s dream to be the next William Shakespeare or J.R.R. Tolkein.Even if a writer tells you it is not his dream, he is lying to your face, and you should probably stand back before the bolt of lightning crashes down and smites him for committing a sin.All writers want to be discovered. We all want to be famous. We want the movie deals. We want the rave reviews. We want to see “From New York Times Best-Selling Author” written before our names. And we most definitely want to see that Oprah’s Book Club sticker on our book cover.And though this may be a secret desire we have kept so far down in our heart that we do not know it is there, we all want the future generations of high-school students to cry in despair as they are forced to reenact our epic lines and slave over 10-page papers on our hidden themes. But in order to achieve that sort of fame, you have to write something clever.For the majority of writers out there, you do not stand a chance. You’re just another writer, another dreamer, another artist waiting to be called starving, another J.K. Rowling wannabe, another stupid girl with stupid poems, another ridiculous boy with ridiculous ideas, another person wanting to change the world through the written word.All you’ve done is write just another story. But not to God.And this is where the dramatic transition shifts into gear and I yell, “Surprise!” I am not writing this to dwell on the dark side of creative writing; I am simply trying to be “clever” in order to establish a point.The point is: God loves what we write when it comes from our hearts. I’m not talking about gossipy diary entries and Facebook chats. I mean the real stuff, where tears stain the pages and the writings are kept hidden away for only you and God to see.And the best part is you do not have to be “clever.” To God, the words coming from the core of your heart are far more beautiful than anything Shakespeare could conceive.Who knows?After the trumpets have sounded and the world is made new, he might decide to put your beautiful words in the sky spelled out in stars. Or depict them in the peaks of a mountain range. Or write them out with a host of angels brighter than the sun.So forget about the fame, the movie deals and the Oprah’s Book Club sticker. And write for God.
