Garbage In, Garbage Out by Marcia Lee Laycock

"You have arrived at your destination." The woman's voice with a slight British accent sounded confident and convincing. But I looked around and sighed. I was on a bridge over the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta. There was no church in sight. A lot of water but no church. I reached the other side and the lovely voice told me she was "recalculating." Then she told me to make a U-turn and go back to the spot where she thought I should be. I pulled over to re-enter the address into the GPS. Again.

I knew approximately where I was going, but this part of the city was new to me so I had decided to rely on the GPS to get me there. I had less than thirty minutes to arrive at the venue for the writer's conference where I was scheduled to teach a workshop. This time the voice coming out of the electronic device took me in a full circle and I once again despaired of finding the place in time. One more try, I thought, then I'd have to call someone for directions.

"Come on, Lucy" I whispered. (Yes, I'd given her a name). "Get it right this time."

As I typed in the address once again I realized I had been making a spelling error. When I corrected it the GPS gave me two options for the same street in different quadrants of the city. Fortunately, I knew which one I wanted. I tapped the Go key and Lucy confidently guided me directly to the church. I arrived with about ten minutes to spare, glad I had given myself lots of time.

As I drove home later (with Lucy guiding me around the rush hour traffic), I thought about that small spelling mistake and how it had resulted in so much confusion. It reminded me of that old saying, "garbage in, garbage out." Then I smiled as I realized the irony. Part of my presentation that day had been about clarity, about avoiding rabbit trails and keeping our writing focused. I also thought about the things we feed into our minds and hearts - things we watch on television, things we read that aren't always worthy of our time - and how that affects the direction we may take in our lives. Indeed, it will affect everything we do, including the writing we produce. "Garbage in, garbage out."

A good thing to remember.

Here’s another way of putting it: 
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” Philippians 4:8. 
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Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. The sequel, A Tumbled Stone was short listed in The Word Awards. Marcia also has two devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. 

Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded on Smashwords or on Amazon. It is also now available in Journal format on Amazon. 

Her most recent release is a devotional book for travelers: A Traveler's Advisory

Visit Marcia’s Website

Sign up to receive her devotional column, The Spur

Changing the World by Marcia Lee Laycock

“If you have changed a life you have changed the world.”

My head jerked up when I heard that sentence. It was at Inscribe’s Fall Conference and our speaker, Kathleen Gibson, was doing a great job of speaking to the hearts of all the writers there. But that one sentence really hit me.

I’d thought about changing lives before. I’ve had emails and letters and even phone calls telling me that God has done it through the words I’ve put on paper.

But changing the world? Really?

Then I thought about another speaker we’d had at one of our conferences. He told us that not very far back in his family line, someone read a book and became a believer in Christ. He told us that now there are many branches to his family, many are preachers of God’s word, there are missionaries and others serving in their churches across North America. None of it would have happened but for one book.

I began to consider all the ripple effects that one book has had – not just in the lives of his family members but in all the lives they have touched. I thought about the book I was given just as God was softening my heart toward him. It was a copy of Josh McDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict. It was put into my hands at exactly the perfect time. It convinced my head that Jesus was who He claimed to be – the Son of God, a man who came to earth to change the world by changing each one of us.

And I was stunned into awe and gratitude for what the Holy Spirit did in my life through that book. Words are such small things. They can be simple or profound, plain or eloquent. But when God takes them and bends them to His purposes, He changes hearts with them and those hearts change the lives of others and those touch others and on and on.

Who knows how far our words will go. If you have changed a life, you have changed the world.

Yes. Really. 
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Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. The sequel, A Tumbled Stone was short listed in The Word Awards. Marcia also has three devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies, including the Hot Apple Cider books. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. 

Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded on Smashwords or on Amazon. It is also now available in Journal format on Amazon. 

Her most recent release is A Traveler’s Advisory, Stories of God’s Grace Along the Way.

Visit Marcia’s Website

Sign up to receive her devotional column, The Spur

Magnetic Mercy By Marcia Lee Laycock

Magnetic Words

My thoughts flew in a thousand directions. I couldn’t sleep. I tried to write, but the words wouldn’t come. I tried to pray, but my prayers lacked focus and depth. Until I appealed to that “magnetic mercy,” as C.S. Lewis called it -

"And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless Thou in magnetic mercy to thyself divert Our arrows, aimed unskillfully, beyond desert.
Take not, oh Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great, Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate."

It’s easy to get lost in the “coinage of our own unquiet thoughts.” Trying to settle them, or even direct them along constructive paths, can be an exercise in frustration. This often happens in times of stress. It happens especially in times of grief. I believe it happened to Jesus, in that moment of grief so intense He wept blood. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus did what we are called to do. In those last hours before His arrest, He acknowledged His weakness and relied on His Father to do what He himself could not.
 
As we acknowledge our weakness, we are drawn to His mercy and the One who is eternally strong gives what is needed. In the case of Jesus, it was the strength to go to the cross. In my case, it was the words I needed and the confidence to write them.

How utterly astounding that mercy is, that the God of the universe should be as active in the lives of we who are so insignificant, as He was in the life of His Son, the Messiah. He does translate our “limping metaphor.” Romans 8:26 says – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”

May we all allow ourselves to be drawn to that “magnetic mercy.” May we allow the Spirit to translate our limping metaphors and direct our poorly aimed arrows of prayer. We can be assured, He will answer. 
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Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. The sequel, A Tumbled Stone was short listed in The Word Awards. Marcia also has three devotional books in print and has contributed to several anthologies, including the Hot Apple Cider books. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan.

Abundant Rain, an ebook devotional for writers can be downloaded on Smashwords or on Amazon. It is also now available in Journal format on Amazon. 

Her most recent release is A Traveler’s Advisory, Stories of God’s Grace Along the Way.

Visit Marcia’s Website

Sign up to receive her devotional column, The Spur