I recently shared a teaching with the Wolf Creek Christian Writers Network built around one stirring word: axiom.
For weeks, this word “axiom” exploded in my mind — a foundational truth accepted as self-evident. It is the ground beneath an argument, the first principle from which everything else proceeds. There are no middle options in an axiom; it is a starting point. In its simplest form, an axiom declares: this is true.
For writers, that truth matters immensely. We must write from the truest place within us — not from performance, borrowed language, religious expectation or someone else’s comfortable definition of who we should be. We must write from the person God formed.
I asked those gathered to consider how God formed them in their mother’s womb. Few knew how to answer. Yet that is the question beneath so much of our striving. Who was I before I learned to perform? Who did God intend me to be?
It is not what we do, but it is about who we are. It’s the beginning point — the truth from which our lives, our DNA, our voices and our writing come from.
This truth is a deep well, and a shallow bucket will not reach the hearts of the readers. When we draw from that hidden place, our words carry water to thirsty souls — reach below the surface, touch the reader where polished phrases and safe religious language do not go.
Few writers dare to reach down into that deep water. Vulnerability is risky. It exposes the tender places we would rather conceal. Yet readers recognize the difference between writing that skims the surface and writing that rises from a soul that has wrestled honestly with God.
Scripture anchors us in this truth. David wrote, “Thou didst form my inward parts. My frame was not hidden from Thee, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in Thy book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them” (Psalms 139:13,15,16, NASB).
The days are ordained for the person God skillfully wrought in the womb. Anything different from God’s original person will be in conflict with God and will lend to the noise of the world and probably a disappointed soul.
And the days to come are unformed substance, which are ordained for us to walk in.
Why is it important to know who I am? Because I didn’t know where I belonged, and I have a lot of unnecessary bruises and self-inflicting wounds. I questioned why I didn’t fit into someone else’s box that others found comfortable to live in. Maybe it wasn’t necessary for them to fight to get out of their box. The box was too choking for me to remain. I was a round peg in a square hole.
Spouting Christian platitudes is a safe place, but they turn people off. Christian platitudes are different than writing from our true personality, our axiom. The person we are is that which was unformed substance which God formed in the womb. He wants to show His grace through our unique being.
Possibly people are afraid to show their real self. Why? Because they don’t understand how God formed them. The days that are ordained for them have been designed for them to show God’s glory.
I am reminded of a time when we first came to Pagosa. I met a couple who I thought had a corner on the spiritual market. He called his wife his handmaiden. She was and waited on him hand and foot.
That sounded really godly since I didn’t easily submit to my Sweet Al; I wanted to be a handmaiden so I could be right with God. Wrong premises. Wrong axiom. That’s not how I was wired in the womb. I couldn’t be that person. I had to learn how to submit in the person I was meant to be, strong will, independent and outspoken. I tried to make myself something different than how God made me.
God wants to show Himself in who we are, warts, wrinkles and unfinished. I always tell people that your readers will go as deep as you show yourself. That where you make a difference, that’s where you are an influencer with your writing.
Paul, the apostle, known as a giant in the spiritual world, showed up with his resume, all the things that he could boost about in Philippians 3:4-6, his legal righteousness — circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee. He counted it all rubbish for the knowledge of Jesus.
He needed to be who God made him. That was the privilege he was born into. That wasn’t the true axiom formed in his mother’s womb, to walk in the days God ordained. God had a mission for Paul that only he could carry out. He had tenacity, he was a bulldog, he fought for his place, his authority, being born out of season. He even had murder in his heart for the sake of the righteousness of God. He had the courage to speak up for the truth.
Paul wrote to the Galatians and said, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles …” (Galatians 1:15,16).
Final brushstroke: Be ourselves. Let God weave the person, Jesus, into how He made us. We don’t have to apologize for who God made us to be. God wants to show His glory in us.
Readers’ comments: “We became a part of Pagosa when we were given a small plot of land by my husband‘s family, which they had owned since the 70s. The land is an acre…much of which goes down a hill on 335. It has no permanent structure, but we camped on it for several years and fell in love with the land, the town, and our neighbors…So much so that we later purchased a property with structures on the lower Blanco.
“While the homes along Roberts Place seem to fair better in terms of positioning in relation to the fire than the residences on 335, we watched, listened, and prayed for our neighbors…my husband from our property and I from afar as I temporarily cared for my father on the East Coast. We continue to pray for all of you. Thank you for writing such an important piece… Reminding us of the kindness and generosity that is Pagosa. Magdalena Vigil-Tullar”
Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of The SUN.
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