2011
Dear
Reader,
This
year is quickly being swept away by the winds of time and I find myself
thankful, challenged and awed at the Lord’s work in my life. How about you?
I
received notification today that the physical proof copy of Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death,
Resurrection and the Eternal, will be in my hands in a few days. I have the
same fears many writers have with the birth of a book. Will it be received well? Will it help
anyone?
Writers
work in a challenging ministry. Everything we write is unique. Just because we
wrote one good story, will we be able to write another?
Last
year at this time, we attended an old-fashioned hymn sing at Maranatha Chapel in
Springfield, MO, where Fanny Crosby songs were featured and little tidbits
about her life were shared. What a great
time we had worshiping and rejoicing as the congregation, a choir, duets, trios
and quartets sang words written by a woman blind since 6 weeks of age.
Amazing
that they were written in the 1800s, and they still strike a responsive chord
in our hearts: Blessed Assurance, I Will Praise Him, Jesus is Passing this Way,
Near the Cross.
Fanny
wrote 8,000 hymns and it is estimated 100 million copies of her songs were
printed. She used 200 pseudonyms because publishers hesitated to publish a
large number of her hymns in the same book.
Busy
like we are, she married, but lost her only child in infancy. A mission became
one of her ministries. She played the organ in churches, taught private music
lessons, wrote two autobiographies and 1,000 secular poems and a number of
secular songs.
Often copyright was assigned to the
music composer instead of the lyricist, some say because of exploitation of
female writers, but she kept writing and pursued her goal of winning a million
to Christ through her hymns.
I remind
myself—she was blind!
I’ve
thought on the following scripture recently: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there
is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are
going” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
If you’d like a copy of Swallowed by Life, here’s my Amazon author page:
Amazon Ada Brownell author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06
In His Love,
Ada Brownell
© Ada
Brownell 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment