Must I Write
By Tammy Hopson
Mitchell County
A famous author once advised a young writer “This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?” * Most of the time the answer for all writers is “I Must”. There is something that compels us to put our carefully chosen words to paper in hopes of being read. Like a painter who purposely dips their brush into each different hue and creates a thing of beauty to behold, so does the writer choose their words just as purposely and with just as much vibrance to display before the reader a work of art. But why does this need to write or create? Why are writers so compelled to ‘paint’ their own blank pages leaving them full of words, sentences, and paragraphs in hopes they will be read by many?
I do believe for me it is a calling. There lies within me a need to write and when I am finished I do want it to be something beautiful and extraordinary, but more than that I write to share a part of myself with you. My writing will give you intimate glimpses into the details of who I am, my thoughts and emotions, my experiences, and my character, and by reading my writing you will begin to know who I am.
I have no doubt that I take after my Heavenly Father in this way. He has created all of us in His image. We are designed and crafted to be like Him with our own callings, gifts, and talents. I know that I cannot stifle this calling as it constantly moves within my spirit compelling me onward as I fill each page. Inside of me exists this insistent need to write because He put it there. He placed a part of Himself within me. I know it has to be from Him because He too longs to share Himself with us in the same way. Our Father wants to be known! He longs for us to know His character, His emotions, and His ways. The world that He created visually tells us that God loves beauty and wants us to enjoy the world He created. Oh, how the earth shouts to us this time of year! We see the deadness of the earth come alive and the trees start to team with birds, blossoms, and bees once again! God is shouting through creation that death is not final! And then there is His actual written Word. Through the scriptures, God announces that He wants to be present in the lives of His people! As we read the accounts of the prophets, disciples, and servants we know He is a God of deliverance and miracles. And then there is the most profound message we have ever read. The moment when God’s truest nature is revealed most exquisitely, when He became one of us, felt our pain and frailty, and then took our sorrows to the cross to die the most excruciating death known to man. This beautifully demonstrates the most amazing trait our Father has…His amazing love! By taking our sin upon Himself He shouts to us all “Nothing can keep us apart. Not even sin!”
Now my calling has risen to an even higher level. I realize I must not only share with you who I am but I must also share with the world who He is. I want the things that I write to show the reader, Jesus, and His great love. Through my words, I hope that you will see Him and want to know Him too. If you know Him already I hope my writing will inspire you to know Him more. The closer I get to Him the more I realize that He is the wind moving within me, compelling me and insisting that I share my writings during the most silent hours of the night when I begin to doubt and question my calling by asking myself “Must I write?” He is the still small voice that continually whispers to my heart..….
“Yes, You Must”.
* Rainer Maria Rilke
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Tammy Hopson has been a Mitchell County resident since 1992 and lives in Red Hill with her family. She is a mother of six children and grandmother of 14. She has been a member of Hoyle Memorial Christian Fellowship in Lawndale, NC since 1992 and helps lead The HMCF Youth Group.
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