Earlier this year I applied to The Collegeville Institute Writing Pastor Workshop, and thankfully the selection committee chose me, along with eleven other pastors and church workers from all over the United States as well as a writer from Zambia and one from Nigeria. We were selected to participate in the weeklong workshop with all expenses paid (minus travel). That is why I am spending this week on the campus of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Our professor for the week is Dr. J. Bradley Wigger who is a writer and a professor of Christian Education here at the seminary. Interestingly enough, he is also doing research around the world on children who have imaginary friends. How cool is that!
We have completed two days of morning and afternoon workshop sessions, afternoon writing assignments, and a meeting this afternoon with the former Poet Laureate of the state of Kentucky, Maureen Morehead, who teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Spalding University here in Louisville. Tomorrow we will meet with the current Poet Laureate of the state of Kentucky, Frank X. Walker, who is a professor at the University of Kentucky. To top it all off, our workshop sessions and evening meals are held in a beautiful old mansion here on campus! Thank you so much for allowing me to use my remaining study leave time for this wonderful experience.
As a part of the workshop and afternoon sessions, Dr. Wigger gives us certain writing assignments or writing prompts. I wanted to share with you what I wrote to complete two of these assignments.
This morning, Dr. Wigger gave us a copy of Psalm 8. As a writing "warm up" he told us to take five minutes to write a short memory prayer for children based on the Psalm. Here is what I came up with in those five minutes. It is very simple but that's the point.
The whole planet says that God is great.
Babies say it and animals too.
Even space says that God is great.
And God says back, "I love you."
The second (and final) assignment I'd like to share with you comes from a writing prompt. Dr. Wigger gave us four opening phrases from which to pick. We could only choose one and we had to start our story with that phrase. The piece was to be fiction and it was to be only 600 words. He sent this assignment with us during our midday break and writing time, and told us to spend about an hour on it. Of the four prompts, I chose, "Since the plane had a layover in Kathmandu..." Here is what I wrote:
Since the plane had a
layover in Kathmandu, a layover caused by what the pilot had called “a glitch,”
Barbara found herself standing near the front of a line at the airline ticket
counter. In front of her, a balding
businessman yelled at the employee, “I don’t care how you do it, but you better
damn well get me home.” Barbara watched
as the young woman at the counter pecked feverishly at her keyboard searching
for a connecting flight that would satisfy the man, and then repeatedly saying
in her broken English, “I am so sorry, sir.”
Barbara believed the employee but, as she looked back at all the weary travelers,
she knew no one else would be as understanding. She considered
abandoning her spot near the front of the line as an act of selflessness. She’d been working on that, trying to be more
giving, more open to “promptings” as her priest had called it in his homily
several weeks earlier, but she decided that the Kathmandu airport was not the place
to have a breakthrough in generosity.
She tried to push the thought from her mind, but it was too late. The thought of moving to the back of the line, of willingly being last, had quickly been planted inside of her and had sent down roots before she could yank them up. As Barbara listened to the man grow more and more irate and watched the woman directly in front of her standing with arms crossed and doing her best to sigh loud enough that everyone could hear her, Barbara was overwhelmed by the strange feeling that it had been someone else that had planted the thought in her mind. “Go to the back of the line,” she kept hearing whispered into her ears, but from the inside.
She tried to push the thought from her mind, but it was too late. The thought of moving to the back of the line, of willingly being last, had quickly been planted inside of her and had sent down roots before she could yank them up. As Barbara listened to the man grow more and more irate and watched the woman directly in front of her standing with arms crossed and doing her best to sigh loud enough that everyone could hear her, Barbara was overwhelmed by the strange feeling that it had been someone else that had planted the thought in her mind. “Go to the back of the line,” she kept hearing whispered into her ears, but from the inside.
Barbara’s thoughts were
interrupted when she heard the young woman’s voice call out, “Next.” Barbara looked toward the counter and saw
that the woman was now talking to her. She stared back at her for a moment,
unmoving. “Next!” the woman called out
again, this time her voice heavy with frustration. “Go to the back of the line,” Barbara heard
again. Her foot began to tap
nervously. Finally, much to the
confusion of the woman at the counter and to everyone behind her in line,
Barbara listened to the prompting, picking up her carry-on bag and making the
long journey toward the end of the line.
As she walked, she felt obedient and free at the same time, but when she
was just a few steps from the end, she glanced up at the terminal exit and the
voice returned, except this time it said, “Keep walking.”
Thanks again for letting me loose for a week. I will be back in time to lead worship and preach this coming Sunday.
It is my prayer that you have a blessed week during which you see God at work in your life and the image of God in others.
See you soon!
Everett
