Robert Lowery

Writing is a pain in the head and a pain in the heart.

Unlike teaching–where I soar–writing is incredibly painful for me. There are several reasons for this, I believe.

First, to write after you have interacted with me about the subject matter, is ultimately a one-person affair. I am responsible for the way I organize and express myself, for the decisions I make concerning what to include and what to omit.

Second, to write forces you to make sure there are strong connections between every word, phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph, and so forth. When you teach, you do not take the time to make sure that there are closely connected ties; you bring the listener alongside you and hope that he is seeing the connections. But when you write, the reader has a chance to pause and say: Wait a minute, that does not make sense or where did that idea come from?

Third, I miss the interaction when writing that I experience when I am teaching. When I am teaching I expect to be interrupted; in fact I welcome discussion that includes questioning, probing, challenging, etc. When I am writing the interruptions do not come because of interaction with others but because of inner-conflict. I find that I debate with myself: Should I say this? How much detail should I provide? Should I delete this? (Often it is painful for me to delete something because it is mine; I crafted the words, I structured the paragraph, I . . . The ego gets in the way and I must challenge myself to let some of me go! I find it easier for others to challenge me than for me to challenge myself!)

From Sunday, July 26 until Friday morning, August 7, 2009, I spent time by myself in a cabin outside Gnaw Bone, Indiana. The cabin was wedged between Mt. Liberty Road and a small brook, hence its name Brookside Cabin. I unpacked the car on Sunday evening, did a bit of grocery shopping, and arranged the kitchen and living room in the shape of a study. I had decided that I would research, reflect, and write Monday through Wednesday and on Wednesday evening, I would reward myself by going into town for a nice meal. Other than that, it was fruit, cereal, yogurt, and TV dinners (There is a TV here but I have not watched one program; I don’t want to be distracted. Instead, I have brought my iPod with me and my Bose CD player and a stack of CDs. Music calms me and spurs me on, all at the same time, I have discovered over the years.)

By August 7, I had completed the first draft to the introduction to the book and the commentary on Revelation 1-7. I hope to cover two chapters of Revelation a week and am working on Rev. 8-11 the rest of this month. I have discovered that from one perspective it would be much easier to write a verse-by-verse commentary rather than a “big picture one” but I am sticking with the latter. Quite frankly, I am afraid that the marvelous works by Beale, Aune, Smalley, and others are too intimidating for people, even for preachers.

Your prayers are appreciated, and I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

I would also appreciate your prayers regarding my health. There are some concerns and we are not certain what is going on but something is happening inside of me, and many tests have been done and more to come. I’ll keep you posted.

Related posts:

1. Reflections on Writing, Summer 2009