How can your memoir resemble Christmas lights?

Christmas: A time of lights. We surround ourselves with lights, sometimes white, sometimes multi-colored. And during the Christmas season, we burn more candles than at other times of the year.

 

Why do we connect lights with Christmas? Because they symbolize Jesus, the light of the world. (John 8:12)

 

We also think of the light spread throughout the heavens by the Star of Bethlehem.

 

During dark winter days, we crave light. When we struggle through spiritual darkness, we also long for light. We are attracted to the brightness and warmth it brings. We associate light with hope and joy.

 

And Jesus said we are to be “lights,” too. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket or a bowl, but on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others. . .  that they may glorify God the Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16).

 

In his beloved A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens wrote about the lamplighter whose duty it was to kindle streetlights so people could safely travel on cold, dark winter nights.

 

As you write your memoir, ask yourself these questions:

 

• Who has served as a “light” to you? Who are those people who did what Jesus said and let their lights shine in ways that ministered to you? Who were the lamplighters that lit your way and guided you through darkness? 
• How can you, through your memoir, be a lamplighter for others? How can it shine light for the benefit of others? Include stories that will glow like stars in the dark night sky and bring hope to your readers. Point them to Jesus the light of the world.

 

Don’t hide your story—as if under a basket or a bowl,

but put it out there on a stand

where it will give light to everyone who reads it.

Write your story and share it,

glorifying God the Father.

 

There you have it, your Tuesday Tidbit.

 

Your story is about more than YOU: Think of those who need to know your story

Your memoir, your story, is about so much more than YOU.

 

Your memoir can offer optimism

to those who have lost hope.

It can offer balm

to those with breaking hearts.

Your story can model courage for those

struggling to overcome cowardice.

It can inspire the unforgiving

to forgive.

Your story can encourage calm

for those tangled in chaos.

It can point people back to God

when they’ve strayed.

Your story can shine light in the darkness.

 

Your memoir can right wrongs. “Whenever one person stands up and says, ‘Wait a minute, this is wrong,’ it encourages other people to do the same.” (Clergy Coaching Network)

Your story can offer others camaraderie. “When you share your story of struggle, you offer me companionship in mine, and that's the most powerful soul medicine I know.” (Parker Palmer, On the Brink of Everything.) 

God has a plan for your story. 

You might never know all the ways

He will use it in the lives

of unknown numbers of people,

even some yet unborn.

Just think of that!

 

Your stories are important!

Keep writing!

There you have it: Your Tuesday Tidbit.

 

Tuesday Tidbit: As a memoirist, you need eyes to see and ears to hear

As you write your memoir, think about Howard Thurman's words:

 

“Angels hide in every nook and cranny, magi masquerade as everyday people, and shepherds wear garments of day laborers. The whole earth is brimming with glory for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.” (The Work of Christmas: The Twelve Days of Christmas with Howard Thurman, by Bruce G. Epperly)

 

When have key people in your life

seemed to be angels sent by God?

 

What regular old everyday people

might have been magi-like characters in your life?

 

Who were the shepherds God brought alongside

to guide and protect you?

 

You see, God reveals Himself to us in many ways—and the job of a memoirist is to have eyes to see and ears to hear.

 

“Christ is revealed to us by both shepherds and kings,” writes the Reverend Deacon Geoffrey Smith, “by people of all stripes and walks of life. . . .

 

“We find him not only with those around our dinner table, or with those whom we sit next to at church, but also in the invisible ones who mow our lawns, who shovel our snow, who bag our groceries. . . .

 

“Regardless of whether they’re rich or poor, whether they look like us and talk like us, whether they’re Democrat or Republican, God gives us the chance to see Christ in everyone we meet.”

 

And so, as you write your memoir, consider again those questions:

 

• When have key people in your life seemed to be angels sent by God?
• What regular old everyday people might have been magi-like characters in your life?
• Who were the shepherds God brought alongside to guide and protect you?

 

Write your stories!

 

There you have it: Your Tuesday Tidbit

 

Tuesday Tidbit: Listen for “a deeper sound, a different beat”

 

Because writing a memoir requires reflection and introspection, the process can change our lives.

 

God can use it to change the way we hear.

 

He can use it to open our eyes and tenderize our hearts.

 

God helps us recognize a higher, deeper, broader story.

 

Henri Nouwen writes, ““When we listen to the Spirit, we hear a deeper sound, a different beat. The great movement of the spiritual life is from a deaf, nonhearing life into a life of listening . . . in which we . . . hear the guiding and healing voice of God, who is with us and will never leave us alone.” (Henri Nouwen, Discernment)

 

When we start writing, we have no idea where our memories and our ponderings and writings—and God—will take us.

 

“The written word

preserves what otherwise might be lost

among the impressions that inundate our lives.

Thoughts, insights, and perceptions

constantly threaten to leave us

before we have the opportunity

to grasp their meaning.

Writing can keep technology-driven,

fast-paced, quick-fix, ambiguity-tolerant

modern life from overpowering us—

and give us something palpable

upon which to reflect.

 

Reflection slows matters down.

It analyzes what was previously unexamined,

and opens doors to different interpretations

of what was there all along.

Writing, by encouraging reflection,

intensifies life.”

Editors Ben Jacobs and Helena Hjalmarsson,

The Quotable Book Lover

 

There you have it, your Tuesday Tidbit.

Happy writing!