The Blank Page

I am staring at a blank page. 

Everyone once and a while it happens.  I don’t consider myself to be an author.  I do write things, like these weekly thoughts, sermons, devotions, etc.  I once heard a Pastor describing preaching to “giving birth on Sunday and finding out your pregnant on Monday.”  You are always moving on to the next.  But every once and a while the next is hard to find.  Pastors call it sermon-block.  Those who craft with words call it writer’s block.  Painter’s call it Artist’s block.  It refers to a creative obstacle or mental barrier that prevents someone from generating new ideas or producing work. It is a condition of creative stagnation, where the individual may struggle to find inspiration or motivation to create.

It is when the proverbial idea well is dry. The blank page taunts you, and the harder you try to fill it the more elusive it becomes.  So, I decided to talk about it instead.  I will fill the parchment with my musings about it being empty. 

At the 2013 Teen Choice Awards Ashton Kutcher gave a very profound acceptance speech.  In it he said, “I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work… build a life. Don’t live one, build one. Find your opportunities”.  In a similar vein, Chuck Close who was a painter and visual artist said  “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.”

The apostle Paul gives this encouragement in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  If I was to write my version of this verse it would, “Don’t be discouraged by the empty page, even in the blank stationary God is up to something and if you keep working hard you will see my inspiration shine through.”

There you have it. Talking about the empty page has filled it.

God is good!

John