Digging In: Wisdom and Writing: The Tension Between Calling and Exhaustion

An HGBM Contributing Author Spotlight

Last week, we considered what happens when technology can produce words that sound remarkably human. But perhaps the more important question is: Why do we write in the first place? For HGBM Contributing Author Stephen Shepherd, writing isn't simply a skill or a creative pursuit—it is a calling. In this week's Digging In, Stephen explores the relationship between wisdom, writing, faith, and the exhaustion that can come when you feel called to speak, create, or share something the world may not always be ready to hear.

Wisdom and Writing: The Tension Between Calling and Exhaustion

by HGBM Contributing Author, Stephen Shepherd

The secular world lives on soundbites. And if the immoral breadth of an event like war tries to be explained in human terms beyond a soundbite, the world often turns off its ears. But then, everyone in the world doesn’t hear the moral voice of Jesus speaking to them. The tension between the wise speaking the truth and the world not hearing it is exhausting. For example, for centuries wise people have been saying “War is not the answer,” but nobody listens. Likewise, the Bible is a collection of God’s wisdom given to the world, but few people read it. If everyone read the wise words in the Bible, they might become wise themselves. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…and it shall be given to him” (James 1:15).

Every time that I read about Jesus’ crucifixion in the Bible, I feel like I’m reading it for the first time. A renewed sense of sorrow engulfs me. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34) is Jesus forgiving us for an unwise choice. But then, all the world wasn’t supposed to know Him and his mission -- only the wise would understand. God sacrificed His only son for us so that we could continue life beyond the grave, and only the wise still know it. Unwise people do not know it because they can’t feel Jesus’ pain in their heart. A wise old college professor once told me that he wished that he had not been born smart so that he didn’t have to feel the depth of sorrow in the world. While other people went about their lives being satisfied with drinking a cold beer and watching a sit-com, he thought about the suffering of people in the world. Therefore, being wise isn’t about solving problems, it is about feeling them to tell others. Thus, wisdom is a calling by God as a gift to certain people. Wise people relate to others about how the world has gone mad by Satan’s influence, which cannot simply be explained by a soundbite.

Therefore, wisdom is given as a gift by God, and the exhaustion of the wise and the tension between the wise and the unwise will always exist because it is the tension between those people who believe in God and read his Word and those people who don’t. This is Satan obstructing the unwise from becoming wise because they are unbelieving people who don’t read and embrace God’s word in the Bible to make the world a better and wiser place. Wisdom is God’s truth being revealed to us through those wise people who He has called to reveal it. Our part is simply to listen.

To listen to God’s calling for you is being wise. God places everyone on earth for a reason, and when placing them here He gives them a gift, a calling, that He expects them to use. My calling by God is to write. My calling was also to write about God so that I could help other people to understand God’s calling for them. People may not respond to what I write; nevertheless, I continue to write about God’s message because it is what God called me to do. I often reflect on past writers, called by God, who went unread. Herman Melville, for instance. During his life, the literary critics panned his novel Moby Dick, and no one read it. And he died thinking that he was a miserable failure. Now, of course, Moby Dick is a literary classic. Therefore, it was God’s intent to have Melville write Moby Dick, and for His reason it was not read during Melville’s lifetime. I write many books, and some are read and some are not. I am supposed to write because it’s my calling from God. The reason that I write at all is because of reading God’s word in the Bible. Until I started reading the Bible, I was unable to write. The Bible provides me with a reason to write; it is my response to God’s word. And in return, I write what I firmly believe that He wants me to write. Perhaps one day, people will read my work and start to think about their relationship as it relates to interpreting the word of God. Maybe readers will take my words to heart and realize that their life and its meaning depend on God.

No one knows God’s plan for their life. We all just listen to hear His voice through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and then if we are wise, we will act upon that voice’s suggestion. I write because God wants me to, and because I listen to Him some people would call me a wise man. But wisdom is up to God to decide, and my calling from Him is to write, and that is what I do, although it is often exhausting. I am but a simple man who only wants to do good in the world by relating God’s word to others, and that’s what I do because I am called by God to do it.