Lesson # 4 from BRMCWC - PCD

Have you ever gone on a mission trip or retreat and had an incredible mountaintop experience only to crash and burn as soon as you arrive at home? There are lots of reasons why this happens - maybe it is exhaustion from the adrenaline-fueled experience or perhaps it is the mountain of work and laundry that greets you at home. Maybe it is the transition from something new and different and exciting to our normal routine. Maybe it is a spiritual attack because the enemy recognizes the threat that one on-fire, sold out, serious-about-their-walk-with-the-Lord Christian poses to his plans.

Whatever the cause, I was warned at BRMCWC and experienced it firsthand when I returned - Post Conference Depression (PCD). Maybe it's not quite as severe as PTSD, but it can definitely leave you sitting on the sofa with a remote in one hand and a bag of chocolate in the other instead of sitting at your desk typing away on the next great American novel!

Here are a few ideas I've heard and tried for getting over, around and through PCD (and they might just help with other acronyms ending with 'D').

• Spend time with God! This may sound like a no-brainer - I mean if you're on a mission trip or a retreat, you're obviously spending time with God, right? Not necessarily. I'm talking about your own quiet time alone with the Lord in prayer and in His Word. Don't let 'Christian activities' take the place of time alone with God, both while you are away and especially when you get home and face off with that mountain of laundry.
• Exercise! Even if you really don't want to, and believe me, you won't; keep up your exercise routine in some form while on the trip and when you return. I'm convinced that the sudden deprivation of endorphins caused by taking a break from my exercise routine fueled my case of the blues.
• Eat healthy! It's easy on trips like these to think of it as a time to indulge in all the yummy desserts that are offered, but coming home 5 pounds heavier will definitely leave you feeling bad about everything from your writing to the way your blue jeans fit.
• Press on! If you're a writer, make yourself sit down and write for a certain period each day, or a certain number of words each day, even if you don't really feel like it. What you write may not be good, it may stink, but you are maintaining the self-discipline of spending that time doing what you are called to do. If you paint, make yourself sit down and spend some time painting. If you garden, spend some time weeding and planting. The point is, don't let yourself get away with taking a long break because you're so busy. It makes it much harder to get started again and you'll feel miserable.

Whether you are going on vacation or to camp or on a mission trip, these tips will help you fight the post-mountaintop-experience blues when you get home. And they just might help you bring the mountaintop home with you!

Lesson #3 from BRMCWC: To be a Christian Writer, you have to keep the CHRISTIAN in front of the writer

So maybe this seems obvious. If you want to be a Christian writer, you have to be a Christian first. But it goes beyond that - if you want to successfully write with a Christ-centered focus, you have to keep Christ as your focus.

I heard this over and over at BRMCWC - from Jerry B. Jenkins' keynote speech to the notes on my critique - the advice from all was to always be sure that your personal relationship with Christ comes before your writing. Your personal relationship with Christ comes before trying to get published. Your personal relationship with Christ comes before everything.

As so often happens, this advice has been put to the test immediately in my life.

Returning from the conference, I've been engulfed in an avalanche of work crises, family needs, and writing goals that have buried my good intentions to keep my priorities in order. So it's high time that I put this little nugget into practice!

Some specific applications for me personally - it's funny how when I start the day with my exercise program (Jillian's 30 Day Shred - day 14), by the time I've had my shower I have to leave for work. But if I start with my quiet time and THEN exercise...it's still time to leave for work by the time I've had my shower. Where does that time I spend with God go when I exercise first? Somehow it seems to evaporate. So from now on - God first, exercise second.

And in the evening, a lesson from Jerry B. Jenkins - time with family first, writing second. Mr. Jenkins relates in "Writing for the Soul" that by committing before his children were born that he would write only after the kids were in bed, he was actually far more productive during those few hours each evening. He writes that once he devoted his entire day to writing, he actually found that he wrote less.

Isn't God's economy amazing? 26"Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:26-28

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

If we put God first, then whatever the outcome, we can trust that it is exactly what He has planned for us. With our writing, or with our life, God must be pre-eminent. Our relationship with Christ must come first. Some make the distinction between a Christian writer and a writer who is a Christian - but in reality there is no such thing as a writer who is a Christian. Nor is there any such thing as a lawyer who is a Christian. Or a doctor who is a Christian. With Jesus, it is an all or nothing proposition. If He isn't first - if he isn't Lord of all of our life - then He isn't our Lord at all.