John 1:1-9 – In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There was a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

This passage in John gets me every time.  The past couple of weeks as I have been asking God what He is doing inside of me and what He wants me to do about it, He has been wooing me back to the rich truth in the book of John.  Today I finally responded to that wooing.  And it was like a giant flashlight was shining down on the first words I read – the verses above.

I’ve said it before, but just a reference point I will say it again.  Years ago I sensed God saying to me that He wanted to use my “words”.  At the time I had absolutely no idea what He meant by that.  It wasn’t any more specific than that.  Just “words”.

Over the years He’s allowed me to experience many different outlets for my words.  Singing, speaking, writing, one on one conversations and it seemed He was doing what He said.  I was enjoying the ride and relishing the moments when I felt that in spite of  my faults and weaknesses, He WAS using my words.

In the past three years the meaning of “words” seemed to become more directed toward my writing, both this blog and my book.  It came easy most of the time and just seemed to naturally flow from my heart, as God led and taught me each day. People graciously responded and once again I experienced a joy in seeing God work through the “words” that He’d given me to share.

It’s been a ride that I planned on being on for an indefinite amount of time, even though I didn’t know what the final destination was exactly, or if there even WAS one.

But, of course, life never stays the same.  Circumstances change.  For me it’s been new opportunities and personal health issues that have seemed to push back against my writing time and attention.

And beyond that, (and quite possibly BECAUSE of that) I have not felt that I have had words to offer in any capacity, whether it’s the written “words” or the spoken ones.  An emotional dry spell, you might say.  I felt that I hit a wall in terms of inspiration or anything new to say or write.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a good feeling.  Not when that has been your passion for three years, and the first thing that you wanted to do when you woke up in the morning.  My initial response was panic.

And then it began to hit me.  Maybe God is transitioning me for something else.  Maybe writing is going to take a back seat for a little while and He is redirecting me in a new direction.  I don’t know what that is yet, but I do know this.  He gave me those verses in John for a very specific reason…

John 1:1-9 – In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There was a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

When John is talking about the WORD, he is talking about Jesus.  Jesus was God Himself coming to earth to connect and communicate with us, just as WORDS do.  We talk about the bible being the WORD of God.  Jesus was that WORD in the flesh.  God Himself speaking to us in the most real and practical way that He possibly could – by becoming one of us.

John (who is speaking of himself in the verses above) was born and chosen to go ahead of Jesus’ arrival and declare it.  He used his WORDS to tell people who Jesus was.  He himself was not the big deal.  His ability to speak the words given to Him was not the emphasis.  His message was the emphasis.  His words were meant to bring people’s attention to the real WORD – Jesus.

That’s just a huge comfort to me.  My words are not the big deal.  My ability or lack thereof has little consequence.  It’s who I’m talking about that matters.  My words, like Johns, need to point to the real WORD.

So if God chooses to continue to use my words, awesome!  But if I lose my voice for singing, my ability for speaking or my passion for writing it’s okay.  I will still have opportunities every single day to talk with people one on one about the Jesus that I know and love.  And that in itself is more than enough.