Material

Another quote from Matt Furey yesterday: "Nothing bad ever happens to a writer, its all material."

I like that.

As I go through the exercise of daily writing I find myself looking for material throughout the day in hopes of having a subject to write about in the evening. I find myself looking at things slightly differently.

But as far as the quote above goes, I have found myself relating it to the Christian life. Nothing bad ever happens to a Christian, it is all material.

By that I don't mean that bad things don't happen to a Christian, I mean that in the course of the Christian life it will all turn out for good. We often don't know during the course of trials what the end result will be even if it seems bad at the time. Our tendency is to focus on the bad and not look for the good. We don't rejoice in all things.

Even the worst experience is just that, experience. We can draw on the worst experiences to get us through the future challenges that we will encounter in this life. God, through his Holy Spirit, is right there with us. We get so focused with charging through in our own strength that we fail to see that he is right next to us ready to help us if we only ask and often getting us through even when we don't ask. It is only in hindsight that we see that He was there.

The material of the Christian life is our testimony of who God is and how he has worked in our lives to draw us to Him.

But in order for it to be material we have to reflect on it in such a manner as to be able to articulate those experiences and tell our story to others.