My engineering career demanded long nights and even longer weekends in the lab, searching for and fixing various system issues. Some were errors. Others were oversights. Many were caused by limitations of the physical world. I sat at a terminal, stared at endless lines of code, and hoped for a breakthrough. That operation required the ingestion of Programmer’s Juice, a bottomless can of Diet Mountain Dew. As the groggies fogged my mind, I would pop the top on a fresh dose of relief and return to the battle.
Now I write. Writing is often endless hours frozen at a keyboard, staring at a monitor waiting for something creative to rise in the barren wasteland of my mind. The groggies still attack, but my aging system no longer tolerates the effects of rampant caffeine stimulation. What keeps me writing? Is there such a thing as Writer’s Juice?
An email from a stranger arrived this week. The writer had just finished my latest book and was sharing her opinion. She laughed at my zany description of defective managers and offered the comment that “she has been there and gets it”. She continued by sharing a story of her own.
That’s amazing. Words I labored over and organized in a certain manner touched someone, struck a responsive chord, and formed a bond. I was elated as I returned to my work with renewed vigor. I think I just discovered Writer’s Juice.
I thought about another Author. His book is the all-time best-seller, now translated into more languages than I can list. I wonder how it moves His heart when one tells Him, “God, I just read your book, and I love the part where…”
Does God smile when a reader returns a compliment?
“Lord, I get it. This is good stuff. Thanks for writing.”
What do you think?
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