<\/p>\n
Yesterday, I listened to an old Don Francisco song, \u201cBalaam.\u201d The lyrics include the line: \u201cSo when the Lord starts usin’ you don’t you pay it any mind. He ‘could have used the dog next door if He’d been so inclined.\u201d https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lbTAaBWmqsM<\/p>\n
This year marks my forty-second year serving in various ministries always involving teens. I have been a Psychological Youth counselor, Youth minister, and school teacher. Now I call myself an \u201cauthor.\u201d I am surprised God has used me at all.<\/p>\n
Last year, I made a spiritual goal to use my writing AS ministry. As part of that I gave a speech to a monthly meeting of the Heart of America Christians Writers Network<\/strong>. (HACWN) My topic? \u201cWriting in the Dark.\u201d<\/p>\n I shared that all of my published works came from deeply dark times in my life. I encouraged the attendees to also embrace the darkness\u2014find God there\u2014and share that with others.<\/p>\n I opened my heart\u00a0and bled profusely before the crowded room. I talked about the time I forgave my alcoholic father, where the idea for my novel came from, how my wife died, and other tragedies that have been turned into stories in print. Only God knows how those things were used to comfort or encourage others in their dark times.<\/p>\n Then, I was asked to repeat the speech at HACWN<\/strong>\u2019s yearly writer\u2019s conference. And again at the American Christian Fiction Writer<\/strong>\u2019s monthly writer\u2019s meeting in Kansas City. I gave it my all hoping that it would affect writer\u2019s lives for God. I felt like Balaam\u2019s\u2014uh\u2014dog.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, I am privileged to repeat the talk at this year\u2019s HACWN conference. Apparently they like to watch me bleed.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, we experience darkness in our own lives, in the lives of family, and friends and wonder how we even survive.\u00a0 Each unexpected turn of events has a profound effect on our writing lives and our faith. We have asked the same question, \u201cWhere is God in the dark?\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, as writers, we somewhere find the courage to pick up a pen or our computer and write stories of conflict, loss, and love with a hope of shedding God\u2019s light in a dark world. It is in the storms, hardships, trials, and losses that we find our stories and tell others where God is.<\/p>\n Come hear a message of testimony, encouragement, and writing tips for \u201cWriting in the Dark\u201d from someone who uses his pen as a flashlight in the darkness. Information and registration is found on their website for the\u00a0HACWN 2016 Conference.\u00a0Embrace the Call\u00a0October 20-22, 2016<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.hacwn.org\/<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday, I listened to an old Don Francisco song, \u201cBalaam.\u201d The lyrics include the line: \u201cSo when the Lord starts usin’ you don’t you pay it any mind. He ‘could have used the dog next door if He’d been so inclined.\u201d https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lbTAaBWmqsM This year marks my forty-second year serving in various ministries always involving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4,3,2],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonhopkins.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}