Thursday Thoughts

For 43 years Dr. William Downs has been a member of the teaching staff at Ouachita Baptist University. Dozens of journalism students have passed through his classes learning the fine points of writing. Recently, my husband was invited to speak at Rotary in Arkadelphia and asked me to go with him. Once there, I was excited to look on the list of the club's members and see Dr. Downs' name. It has been 17 years since I first entered his classroom as a Freshman Communications major, but he spotted me as soon as he walked into the door of the banquet room. A smile on his face, he came straight over and hugged me before turning to introduce himself to Mike.

The club's president asked Dr. Downs if I was one of his students. "One of my brightest." he acknowledged. At that point, my feet rose about 3 feet off the floor! Then they crashed right back down again as he continued: "Once she learned to write from her heart." Instantly knowing what he was referring to, I smiled and took a trip down memory lane.

9 weeks into a Newspaper Writing course, I was struggling to get words down on paper for my first "real" assignment. I had been asked to write an article on the nontraditional students on OBU's campus. In the middle of football season, I just knew that the angle I was looking for was how the wives of the football players coped with the fear of injuries and long hours away from their husbands as the men coped with practice, travel and games. Several attempts were handed in and promptly handed back. Finally, Dr. Downs called me into his office.

"Part of what makes a good writer is being able to write with passion and make your readers want to know more." He gave me the latest draft of my article. "I don't want to know more." My heart sank at his words. "You have the mechanics; all the information is there; but there's no heart in it. The best piece of advice I can give you from one writer to another--is to write what you know. Write what you're passionate about."

As I left his office in tears, I spied the clock on the wall and realized that the girls' daycare center closed in less than half an hour and I still hadn't picked up James from preschool yet. At that moment, it dawned on me how many of the married couples on campus also had children. Suddenly, I had my article!

The finished product was half of the front page of the school paper on the obstacles that college students faced when they tried to juggle school, spouses, jobs and children. A week later, it was picked up by the town's daily newspaper. It was written from the heart, because I was living it every day.

Our Christian life is much like that newspaper article. How can we tell others about Christ if we are not living a life in Christ? How can we have a heart for Christ if we have lost our passion? The answer to both of those questions is...we can't! We must have an increasing desire to know Christ on an intimate basis. To fully immerse ourselves in his word and his worship. What we will find is the passion of HIS heart....stirring the passion in ours!