Stewardship, Stories, and You

At the beginning of the year, there are many of my friends who choose a word that they hope will be “their” word for the year. Words like: gratitude, peace, balance, and flourish. They then spend the year thinking about the word, if I understand correctly, trying to experience the word or even be motivated by the word. I, obviously, have never chosen a word for the year—except, I think, I’ve discovered that this year a word chose me. Throughout the first seven months of the year, I’ve had a renewed conviction and desire to think about stewardship and specifically stewardship in writing.

This year I decided that I would be more intentional about my writing. I want to steward the ministry the Lord has given me. I think, in the past, I’ve been much more reactionary in my writing. In other words, if someone asked me to write a piece or contribute somewhere I’d say yes. But lately, I’ve been eager to prayerfully and intentionally consider how I might serve those who read my work in greater ways. I want to wait on the Lord more, consider the series I post on my site, oh, and actually write on my site! That’s been missing over the past several years. While I have been writing, I haven’t written nearly as much as I would like on my own site. Part of my renewed desire to steward my writing well, is to contribute to the writing home that the Lord has given me.

That’s one reason I’ve stepped up my writing here. If you’ve missed anything, I hope you’ll check it out! My hope is that I’d steward this ministry well to the glory of God. And my prayer is that you’d be encouraged in your faith and Christ would be magnified through my tiny efforts here. That’s my hope.

Your Stories

As part of this stewardship, I’ve been thinking about how the Lord has uniquely gifted me in writing. I’m often asked how I got started, which I’d trace all the way back to when I began exploring writing as a young girl, writing poems and songs with my father. I wasn’t exceptionally good with poetry and as I entered high school, I realized I was most suited for research. In college I continued in that research vein and I also dabbled in journalism writing for our university paper. After college and after my first child, I began to do freelance journalism with my local paper The Knoxville News-Sentinel. I spent several years writing frequently for the paper. I loved every minute! My concentration was mainly on feature stories—writing about community people, events, and unique stories. My favorite story, which is unfortunately no longer available online, took me to the streets of my town interviewing buskers. I loved learning about their lives, hearing their stories, finding out what made them tick, discovering why they were homeless—if, in fact, they were homeless.

Reflecting on that piece specifically makes me think that despite the fact that we see words every day—many words—there are still so many untold, remarkable stories. Although I love what I do now, I miss journalism. I miss sharing others’ stories.

That’s why I’d like to ask you to consider letting me tell your story.

I’m looking for individuals, male or female, with unique and compelling stories of strength, survival, courage, selflessness, suffering, perseverance or quiet service. That’s a lot! But it’s intentionally broad because stories shouldn’t be measured by glitz and glam, and neither should they be limited to the popular. The most encouraging stories I read are of those ordinary people who are relying on their extraordinary God. So, that’s what I’d love to hear from you.

If you have a story that you think could encourage others or if you have a friend who you think would be great as a part of this feature, please contact me via my contact page and let me know. I may end up pitching these to some of my friends at The Gospel Coalition or Christianity Today or, depending on the subject matter, could be posted at the ERLC. But most likely, they’d find their home here on my site.

Would you let me tell your story? If so, go ahead and contact me.

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