The comments below were sent to one of the editors from a writer who is happy to let us share them with you. Enjoy!
“Let me say, to begin, that I don’t think of myself as a writer. I get a lot of ideas from my daily study of the Scriptures and I love telling stories, but I’m not sure that putting these ideas down on paper is my forte. That said, I love and value the periodicals Mary Baker Eddy established for our Church and the world, and I feel that contributing to them is one way to actively engage with them.
“For several years I submitted articles and would receive a standard rejection letter, along with a reference sheet on how to write for the magazines. I recall being pretty frustrated with the whole process—but after the disappointment cleared, I was drawn to try again.
“Then, one day, I got an acceptance letter. What a relief that was! But as I worked with an editor to get the article ready for the magazines, I noticed that some phrases were being changed in the process. I’d get an edit and think, ‘I didn’t quite mean it like that; I would never say it that way.’ More frustration! To be fair, the editor worked with me to shape the article for the magazines, and it came out looking good, but I still wasn’t so comfortable with the editing process.
“I kept writing, though. And after a few more articles, I started becoming more and more grateful for the work the editors were doing. I recall working with one editor two or three times in a row and feeling such a sense of grace in the process. It was like moving with a good dance partner. She would change a phrase here and there, but mostly she would point out passages that were unclear or areas that could be expanded or clarified, and ask me to revisit them. Sometimes she would even suggest rearranging the order of things. I started to see how an article can really be crafted to make the key ideas shine.
“About that same time, I had a real breakthrough as a writer: I learned to let go and trust God. I realized these articles weren’t about me personally; they were about taking the spiritual ideas that came to me and getting them out there for the world. ‘Letting go’ of the articles took a bit of humility and a lot of trust, but what made it easy was thinking about a rule in the Church Manual by Mary Baker Eddy which says that ‘it shall be the duty of the Directors to see that these periodicals are ably edited and kept abreast of the times’ (p. 44). This of course means that the Church employs qualified people as editors. But I like to take that a bit higher and pray to know that each of these editors is praying to listen for and then follow Mind’s direction. They’re listening for God’s direction as they work on each piece, just as I’m listening to God when I write my articles. In doing this I am seeing that God—Mind, Spirit, Love—is the impetus throughout the whole process of writing and editing an article.
“Nowadays when I write, my motivation is simply to share spiritual ideas with others. I now get a real sense of joy and satisfaction from working with editors to streamline and clean up my articles and testimonies. I’m so grateful for the work they do, and so happy that the ideas that are communicated through my pieces might help and inspire others—just as so many articles in the Journal and Sentinel have done for me.”—John Kohler, Brattleboro, Vermont, US
—The Editors
