I recently looked at the first draft of an article of mine that was later published in the Christian Science periodicals. While its tone was sincere, its focus could have been clearer and its sentences smoother. Before submitting it, I had revised it more than once.
No one should be discouraged if a first draft doesn't look promising. It's not only one's facility with words, but the willingness to listen for God's Word and the patience to express it clearly, that bring a healing message to completion. Each of us has the capacity to articulate spiritual ideas. This is because man, as God's likeness, reflects the intelligence of God, divine Mind, as well as every other God-derived quality. Each one, then, can express the precision, depth, and tenderness needed to present spiritual concepts winningly.
Writing that explores the profound facts of spiritual being is demanding. Yet it is also compelling. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," John 1:1 the Bible proclaims. To me, this establishes the utterly foundational nature of the Word. It has existed from the beginning. It undergirds spiritual reality. The continuous unfolding of spiritual reality urges progressively clearer utterances of the Word on the human scene. We might say that everything that really exists impels us to listen for and express with increasing clarity the Word of God.
