Editing vs. Inspired

I spend a lot of time editing MS Powerpoint slides. Let's just say I also get a lot of help from my bosses. Frankly, the process drives me nuts. I know what I want to say. I always like my first cut. But I have to admit that the finished product (after all that unwanted help) is much better.

All writers have to edit. Some are fortunate to have editors do the work for them. As a writer, I'm usually on my own. What that means right now in this stage of my development as a writer is this - the final piece ends up surprisingly like the original draft. Why? I hate editing.

That got me to thinking about the Bible. It is the inspired and inerrant Word of God. Even though written by many men over many years, it is perfect. I have to believe that when these men were under holy inspiration that what they wrote they wrote once and only once and they were done. No editing! No rough draft, second, third, fourth cut. No word count concerns. No grammar issues, misspellings, need for a better word using the Thesaurus. Simply perfect.

We know all that though don't we? If you're like me though, do you ever wonder about the fallibility of the inspired process that God takes you through as you exercise your spiritual gift? I am a prophet. So telling God's Word as it is is quite easy because all I have to do is copy it. But the words that I put around it are where I get into trouble. Without a doubt, God inspires me to write. But it's not the same as when He created the Bible. To me this is both good and bad. Good because I know the Bible is complete and I am by no means a new contributing author. But bad because I so love to use the gift of God in writing, yet find the need to edit constantly at my heels.

So nowadays, God's inspiration only goes so far. And I'm OK with that. But I have to get over this loathing of editing. I'm so thankful there are folks out there who are willing to help me in that process. They are patient, understand what I want to say, and know how to guide me to a good finished product. Pray for them.