It never fails. Every time I slack of for a week, or longer, and don’t make it to the YMCA, I regret it.
I’ve got a list of reasons. Some are even valid. But that’s not the point.
So, yesterday morning when I was exercising, and also exorcising the demons of a holiday/birthday weekend, I asked myself, as I often do “why do I ever avoid coming?”
I know that when I go I feel better, I eat better, I’m in a better mood. I might even look better, although it’s hard to improve on perfec…no I’m not going there.
In the life of the believer, it’s much the same. Prayer, scripture reading, meditation. They’re all better and more helpful when they’re consistent.
Oswald Chambers wrote:
To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature. [My Utmost for His Highest]
When we’re consistent in prayer, we’re the ones who are changed.
And the thing is, inconsistencies in the personal life transfer over to the professional life.
When it comes to being a writer, that means putting words together, on paper, on a screen, somewhere.
William Faulkner said, “I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately, I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.”
Writing is hard work. It takes practice. It takes doing a lot of it.
And it takes editing.
Just like the gym, there will be days when I don’t write.
But when I get back to it, I’ll ask “why did I ever avoid writing?”
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