Why Do I Write?

2012-01-03T19:18:00.000-08:00

When people ask me what I do, I first tell them that I'm an engineer. It is how I pay the bills. After that, when talking about my music, I usually say that I'm a singer/songwriter. I say "singer" because I've been doing that since I was 6 years old, and I genuinely feel it is my natural talent. I've squeezed about every ounce I can of mediocre guitar playing out of these hands of mine since I got my first guitar when I was 14. Hence, that's why I don't say I'm a musician. I follow the "singer" with "songwriter" because it seems that all I've been trying to do since I could first put the chords E, A, and B together (I, IV, V for the music theorists out there) is write songs.

If CD sales were a reason to continue writing and performing, I would have given up a long time ago. It's no secret that I'm not exactly "moving the merchandise" when it comes to my product. So, why keep doing it? Why keep writing all of these songs? Why keep trying to tell story after story after story?

The answer is somewhat simple. I've tried to stop - trust me. There have been times, particularly when CD sales are low and there is not another show or performance in sight, that I've wished I could stop writing. But there's something inside of me that won't quit. There's something inside of me that continues to look for the stories in the world around me that move and work to form the billions of parts of The Story that God's been telling us since He created the world.

See, I believe that every follower of Jesus has something in their life that they are given that they cannot escape. I guess the technical term is a spiritual gift. But it's the mechanism that, among several we are given, is the best one that God gives us. It's "best" in the sense that it is uniquely us, creating in us the Gospel in ways that nothing else can. For me, it's been the song. My writing is, therefore, an expression of my heart, the very depths of my spirit, where God works in ways I will never understand while on this earth. And it's that working that allows those 4-minute snapshots of life I call songs to communicate truths of the heart in ways that dig deeper into people's souls than even I can imagine. That's why I write. And I suppose I'm going to do it until my fingers can't fold around the strings of a guitar anymore, no matter how few CD's or iTunes tracks I sell along the way.

My question for you is - what is your gift? What is the mechanism inside of you that God has given to best communicate the Gospel in your life? How do you train it and grow it? Or, have you tried to suppress it?

Let the conversation begin...

New Year, New Blog

2012-01-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2012 and welcome to my new blog! A couple of years ago, I used the Myspace blog interface as an attempt to blog. It worked well enough, I suppose. But since no one uses Myspace anymore (I'm not sure I even remember my login and password), it was time for a change.

I want to give a huge shoutout to Nicolle Gershon with VimAnnVigor. She designed my entire website and also did the design for this blog. If you need graphic and/or web design services, I can't recommend her enough! Follow the links at the bottom of this page to check our her site and services.

So what will happen here? My idea will be to post on some of my personal musings, observations, or stories. From there, I'd like for us to have a conversation. Post your reactions, your thoughts, or perhaps your own stories. And let's go from there!

Let the conversation begin...

Ryan Newcomb

Why Do I Write?

New Year, New Blog