“Life is a steep climb,” she wrote almost
a century ago, “and it does the heart good to have somebody ‘call back’ and cheerily beckon us up
the high hill.”
In the past hundred years, tens of
thousands of us have received blessing upon blessing because Mrs. Charles E.
Cowman called back—in writing.
“We
are all climbers together,” she continued in Streams in the Desert, “and we
must help one another. This mountain climbing is serious business, but
glorious. It takes strength and a steady step to find the summits.… If anyone
among us has found anything worthwhile, we ought to ‘call back.’”
How long ago did I first read those
words? Over 30 years ago. And they became an important theme in my life—a goal,
a focus.
Below is a poem she wrote and, despite
sounding old-fashioned, it contains precious gems of wisdom and inspiration
for even the youngest among us:
If you have gone a little
way ahead of me, call back—
‘Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;
And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim, because the oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.
Call back, and tell me that He
went with you into the storm;
Call back, and say He kept you
when the forest’s roots were torn;
That, when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill,
He bore you up and held you where the very air was still.
Oh, friend, call back, and tell
me for I cannot see your face;
They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race;
But there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim,
And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.
But if you’ll say He heard you
when your prayer was but a cry,
And if you’ll say He saw you through
the night’s sin-darkened sky—
If you have gone a little way ahead, oh, friend, call back—
‘Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.
(from Mrs. Charles
E. Cowman’s Streams in the Desert; emphasis
mine)
Little did I know that Mrs. Cowman’s message
would live so long in my heart and lead me to the word “memoir” and it all
means, and the ways memoirs can bless others.
The point of her post echoes in this:
“ … The God of all
comfort … comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any
trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians
1:3-4).
“Any grief we have gone through ourselves
and given over to the Lord’s healing
is preparation for comforting
others.…
As one who has received comfort from Christ,
I will think of myself as a communicator of comfort.”
(Lloyd John Ogilvie, Silent Strength for My Life; emphasis mine)
Was there a time
when your world fell apart, when your faith was at a low point, when you longed
for God to heal your broken heart?
If so, it was “preparation
for comforting others.” You “have gone a little way
ahead” of others. Let God use your experience and your words to comfort others.
If you have experienced
the death of a dream, or if you have endured devastating illness, write for
those just beginning their own long, discouraging battle: “Call back, and tell [readers] that He went with you
into the storm.”
If you’ve faced
financial ruin, or if you’ve survived abuse or infidelity or betrayal, “call back” to encourage readers in the
midst of their own heartache—those dear ones reeling while “the heavens thunder and the earthquake shakes.”
Tell them the ways God “bore you up and
held you.”
You cannot know who
will read your words, but your stories are important. No one else can write them the way you can, and God can and will
use them.
Someone needs to
read your God-and-you stories.
“Say
He heard you!”
“Say He saw you!”
“God gave us the gift of language to
express something extraordinary. Well chosen words launched intentionally from
one heart to another … soothe, heal, edify, build, and bring comfort.” (Birdie Courtright)
Write stories for your memoir that will call back:
Be a communicator of comfort.
