Although this writing media is about our journey and news to our families, we would also like to input about writing pieces. This entry below was actually from a book entitled, Writing Foriva, which I wrote for Iva's birthday.
Dengan percaya kepada ketaatanmu, kutuliskan ini kepadamu. Aku tahu, lebih dari pada permintaanku ini akan kaulakukan.
─Filemon 1:21
“Say what you want to say when you have the feeling and the chance. My deepest regrets are the things I did not do, the opportunities missed, and the things unsaid.”
─Jim Keller
It is not what you have written that makes you sorry; it’s what you did not or have not written. Even though when all is said and done, a lot of said than done, you need to say it and write that down. Every word is important─either good or bad word. Love is an expression, even for small thing. And so is writing!
Athur Sinaga said, “Saran saya, segala sesuatu dicatat. Usahakan ada catatan.” But, impressing or writing what you are not is like showing off a cheap new mobile phone─which looks good and expensive, but it isn’t! Anyway, do not hesitate to write (or type) it down. Open rebuke is better than love carefully concerned (Lebih baik teguran yang nyata-nyata dari pada kasih yang tersembunyi). So is to writing. You can express and write the best for others; can you express and give the best for you loved ones?
You know, during his ministry, John Sung was a simple man and loved God. John Sung knew God loves him. He prayed, wrote up his diary, preached, etc. he could never waste a minute. He used every available moment of the day to study and write. He wrote an average of several thousand words a day, including fresh gleaning from the Scriptures.
People asked John Sung, “Who are you (actually)?” He answered, “(I’m) merely a voice!” If I don’t write constantly in one or two days, or in a week, I’ll go crazy. By this, I want to imply the importance of keeping a journal and writing. Ralph Waldo Emerson ever asked Henry David Thoreau, “What are you doing now? Do you keep a journal?” So, soon right after that question, Thoreau made his first entry to his journal. A journal is really a close companion for life.
Sometimes we are ashamed in expressing our favorite writers. But, we should show respects and gratitude to them. We like the writers not only because of the writings, but as well as their spirit and persistence towards life’ obstacles. And indeed, you cannot forget how they might make you feel.
Well, my favorite writers are: Norman Vincent Peale, Joyce Meyer, John Calvin Maxwell… this list can go on and on─whether from Indonesia or other countries and any types. For example: Xavier Quentin Pranata, Viktor Emil Frankl, Anaïs Nin, Clive Staples Lewis, Philip Yancey, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Alex Palmer Haley, Patrick M. Morley, Charles R. Swindoll, Amy Tan, Joan Didion, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Andrias Harefa, Helen Keller, William Shakespeare (of course).
Ernest Hemmingway, Vladimir Nabokov, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Disraeli, Benjamin Carson, Washington Irving, John Irving, Abraham “Abe” Lincoln, George Bernard Shaw, Eleanor Roosevelt, David Livingston, Dale Carnegie, Mark Twain, Calvin Coolidge, Elbert Hubbard, Robert H. Schuller, Peter F. Drucker, Orison Sweet Marden, Stephen King (Richard Bachman), James C. Dobson, Edwin Louis Cole, Paulus Winarto.
Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Bera, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Ishikawa Takuboku, Zig Ziglar, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Albert Schweitzer, David Joseph Schwartz, Aiden William Tozer, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa), Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen, H. Norman Wright, John Gray, Billy & Ruth Graham, Anne Graham Lotz, Joyce Brothers, Aurelius Augustinus, Joni Eareckson Tada, Rick Warren, Robert Louis Stevenson.
Ulf Ekman, Andy Stanley, Friedrich Wilheim Nietzsche, John Wesley, H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Ann Landers, Jack Welch, Eliezer Wiesel, Og Mandino, Charles “Tremendous” Jones, Maya Angelou, Margareth Fishback Powers, Margaret Mead, Anthony Robbins, Geroge W. Target, Warren Wiersbe, Eka Darmaputera, Jonathan Edwards, Fred Smith, Watchman Nee, John Sung, Fanny Crosby, George Barna, J. Oswald Sanders.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, J. I. Packer, John Bunyan, Les & Leslie Parrott, John Donne, Kenneth Blanchard, Soren Kierkegaard, Carl Jung, Mohandas (Mahatma) K. Gandhi, Thomas Muller, Thomas à Kempis, Thomas Jefferson, Vince Lombardi, John Wooden, Sadhu Sundar Singh, Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj, Napoleon Hill, Napoleon Bonaparte, Florence Nightingale, Smith Wigglesworth, Stephen Covey, Madame Guyon, Hudson Taylor, Oswald Chambers, Joanie E. Yoder, Joseph Leininger Wheeler.
Bill Bright, Marilyn Hickey, Jack W. Hayford, Kathryn Kuhlman, Benny Hinn, Mandaliem Lembong, Rabindranath Tagore, Pati S. Ginting, Corrie Ten Boom, Agnes Pratiwi br. Ginting, Murlan Silalahi, Dina Evariyana Bangun, and Frans John Israel Ginting─last two are my favorite letter writers. Usually the most influential writers of your life are the ones who you mention on the first and the last.
Sometimes we are also ashamed to express our love toward God, our Lord Jesus. Get to know the divine Author personally, and you will have a greater interest in His book. Then, He will get interested in your book. Author Joyce Meyer wrote, “If you will tend to God’s business, He will tend to yours.”
Lord Jesus Christ is a great drum Player. He is advance Politician and Thinker. Jesus Christ is the politest Japanese. He is the enthusiastic Indonesian. Lord Jesus is a loving Rocker. He is the smartest Physician and Scientist. He is a advance Writer. Read and write like Him─short, simple, sharp, clear, provoking, and unique. His life is a writing.
You see, one day I found a pen. I looked at its ink. It was a dirty pen─full of dust and laid down on the floor. I took it up and then washed it. It has potential. There can be great writings from it. So is with God to us! He found us. He looked at our hearts. He saw potentials. But, we are full of dusts─sins, doubts, weaknesses, etc. He took us up and then washed our sins with His water of forgiveness. He believes… there can be His writing from our lives. And He wanted to express, say, and write it through us.
“Let’s tell our young people that the best books are yet to be written. The best paintings have not yet been painted. The best governments are yet to be formed. The best is yet to be done by them.”
