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Thursday, April 20, 2023

When Your Platform Finds You


I don't like to recycle stuff, but what follows is an exception, a comment I wrote for a post written by Dan Balow for the Steve Laube Agency blog, Personal vs. Professional Social Media.

My personal and professional lives are, of necessity, thoroughly blended; my life has become my product.

Not something I wanted; all I really aimed at was being a Paperback Writer, but it seemed that God had other plans. No one in his right mind would choose an extended bout with pancreatic cancer, but I accept it without demur, because to do otherwise would be to question God’s mercy and goodness. “Not my will, but Thine” is what it comes down to, but it can be really hard to do.

And from that acceptance arises a calling and ministry, that life goes on and that there is a way to fully live, even when the experience becomes crushingly hopeless (like, say, right now, as I write this).

Though living in public, so to speak, can attract oddballs, I haven’t run across any, ’cause I can pretty much out-weird anyone.

It’s not something to despise,
but can be hard to understand,
and I wish that it were otherwise,
but my life has become my brand,
days passed to be an example
of how to reinvent a life
when it has been sorely trampled
and rearranged by cancer’s knife,
and it’s a legend I must live,
a full-time job and ministry
in which I am compelled to give
all the very best of me,
optimistic, laughing, light,
and more become that which I write.

The Five Minute Friday prompt this week is HAVE. Have I got what it takes? Guess we'll see.

They say you've got to have a platform,
all the agents say it's true.
Some are made and some are born,
and sometimes platform will find you
if you keep unfettered mind,
and heart open to God's breeze,
and beyond that don't be blind
to some time spent on your knees
asking for the Lord's direction
(getting that is really nice),
and when you get it, no reflection!,
just take that Divine advice
and let your newly burnished soul
achieve your brightest platform goal.

Four and a half minutes, with Strawberry the Mastiff barking in my ear.

Music (opening in a new window) from the score to Kenneth Brannagh's Henry V by Patrick Doyle, Non Nobis, Domine.

Sylvia thinks another kind of brand may be applied shortly, if I'm slow with the ice cream. 



14 comments:

  1. God's created platform and not our own, surely surprises each of us. Causes growth for which we would truly shy. Expects contention to flourish. Smiles at us in the face our desire to run, stops usin our tracks when we decide to listen and obey. Barbara

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    1. Dear Heart, you are so right! You said this beautifully, about the dynamic tension and strength of the Unexpected.

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  2. I'm so glad we write for an Audience of One, Andrew, it is so freeing!

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    1. Lisa, I completely agree, and as C.S. Lewis said, that Audience of One is both easy to please and hard to satisfy.

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  3. Andrew, I have no idea what God is doing, and will yet do, with the "platform" He has given you. But this I know, it will be good and it will accomplish all He has purposed. Keep writing!

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  4. You use your platform to good advantage sir. Good to honour God's wishes eh? :) FMF13

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    1. Annette, thank you so much for this. Been a rough week; your words are a balm.

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  5. You write for HIM and He gives you a platform that reaches so many. What a blessing. Thank you for your faithfulness.

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    1. Kym, I don't know what to say but Thank You.

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  6. Thank you, Andrew, for the inspirational way you use your writing platform to point your readers to Jesus. ~ Cindie at FMF29

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    1. Cindie (and I LOVE BarefootLilyLady!), thank you so much!

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  7. So, so honest and beautiful. I'm glad you're still here. Your friend, Norma

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    1. My dear, dear Norma... I am so glad we live in the same world.

      You are ever in my prayers.

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