Progress by Writing

A question I am asked quite often goes something like this: "Do you ever have a day where you just do not want to write anything?" Are there ever days when the absolute last thing I want to do is to sit down and write? I can answer, quite honestly I think, that this happens only very rarely. There are definitely times where I don't feel like I have much to say (and some would argue more than others, I suppose, about how often this happens) but there are very few days where I don't care to write at all. The reasons is simple, really, and is something I've expressed often. Writing has become a critical part of my spiritual development. I write about things I've learned, and the desire to keep having things to write continually motivates me to seek to learn more. I think Saint Augustine said this best: "I am the sort of man who writes because he has made progress, and who makes progress by writing."

I love those words. They inspire me to see writing not only as a way of gaining more knowledge, but as a way of marking the progress of applying any knowledge I've acquired. I do not want to be a person who knows a lot but who has little ability to apply what I've learned or to use it to draw closer to God. Intellectual development may be important and may be gratifying, but it is a lousy end in itself. Rather, I see the pursuit of knowledge as the means to a greater end--glorifying and enjoying God. I write when I learn and learn by writing. There isn't much I know that I haven't written about. Writing is the means by which I take information and knowledge and ruminuate on it and, hopefully, turn it into wisdom.

So no, there are few days when I just can't consider writing. And if I find that I don’t want to, I just go ahead and do it anyway. It’s that important to me.

(A person who argues that everything I wrote here was just an excuse to share the quote from Augustine might just be pretty much correct.)