Patience and Faithfulness

Brevity and clarity. 

A time of waiting. 

Faithful to the disciplines 

Three years ago, I was reading Several Short Sentences About Writing. In this book, author Verlyn Klinkenborg recommends keeping sentences brief. Short sentences help us stay on point. Say wait needs to be said. Make sure what needs to be heard is heard.  

This year, I am rereading Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. One of my favorite lines is “Vigorous writing is concise.” This book practices what it preaches. It is both brief and clear.  

Two years ago, I began writing my third book, The Renewing: a Season of Action, contemplation, and Transformation. I begin this book by discussing the number forty, a number that symbolized a season of waiting. The number was a cue for readers to pay attention because something important was about to happen. A time of testing and struggling and wrestling was on the horizon. They were about to read a story of growth and new life. The readers knew this, so the writers used this number intentionally.  

This book was a series of journals over forty weeks. As I read over those journals, I saw evidence of transformation and renewal. In the two years since writing this book, I’ve gathered even more evidence of change and growth in my life. And based on this evidence, I am certain more change is waiting for me. I am not the man I was two years ago. I will not be this man two years from now. And this is good 

Last year, I was reading Ryan Holiday’s Discipline is Destiny. In my notes, I wrote, “of all forms of human motivation, the most effective one is progress, because small, concrete wins create momentum. This affirms our belief and faith in our further progress. Be faithful to the daily disciplines and practices. Be faithful to the process, because the fruit of the process is progress. 

This is wise teaching. Wiser still is our practice of these words. May we keep our words brief and clear. May we learn in our times of waiting. May we be faithful to the disciplines of living life in faith, hope, and love. And may we embrace the process of change and renewal. Every day. Every season.