Anointed & Appointed Friendship
My Reflective Thoughts on and for Linda Boutin
We found
each other in a small group at a time we both were a bit lost. Linda was new to
the church and found herself serving in the Dan Vasquez Memorial Library, her
comfort zone, as well as the church office. In my grief after the loss of my
son, Cathy Hoch and her persistent love, got us together and the three of us
became fast friends. Soon, Linda heard from God what He wanted from her, to
start a Christian Writer’s Group in the church. As I slowly began to trust and
share my own heart in words from a tattered notebook, Linda asked me to partner
with her.
With no clue
what a writer’s group might look like, or how I might possibly be an asset,
this decision changed my life, my walk with God and moved me forward in my own
grief journey.
We formatted
an outline. It started with Roman numeral I, OPENING PRAYER.
Linda prayed
and she frequently used these words: “Lord, INFUSE Your Holy Spirit into our
words so that we might give You the glory.”
Amen.
Linda’s
friendship infused me, saturated me, filled me with a desire to fellowship with
like-minded creatives in the most trusting environment where we could know God
and make Him known through our written words.
She had a way of developing a confidence in me and would soon do the
same for many women in this church, enabling them to tell their stories of God’s
Goodness in the Coffee Break Ministry.
Roman
numeral II, the JOURNAL QUESTION. We
traded off weeks developing a thought provoking question for our group to
ponder. The transparency, the insight, the humor and the tears bonded us as
believers to continue what we took in from the sermon on Sunday and apply it to
our lives.
Roman numeral
number III on our outline: READING
TONIGHT. Chapters from manuscripts, poetry, random thoughts and devotionals
written in the off hours with hope or just the intent to encourage, filtered
first through our group. Linda taught us to use our active voice, to show, not
just tell us. She modeled that in her life, combatting and negotiating with a
painful and personal disease most of her life, one not many could bare. She did
it with bravery and tenacity which I believe kept her with us far longer than
any might have thought.
One day,
after her and Gary drove me home from an AWF meeting, she had a serious
conversation with me. She wanted me to stop sharing my little stories. Growing
very comfortable in that, she said it was time for me to move on. What she wanted
from me? To write the book, my memoir of all God had done in the last 6 years
or so. That is Roman numeral number IV, WRITING
TIPS.
WRITING PROMPT, Roman numeral number V. Last but not least, is Linda’s legacy. She leaves us with a prompt. Everyone has a story to tell of life, love and transformation. We share grief as well as gratitude and sometimes those overlap. We have messy families and challenges. We infuse (that word used on purpose) scriptures that speak only to us at the moment. We encounter people and have experiences, ups and downs, stagnant times and growth. BUT GOD, He prompts us, as Linda so graciously encouraged us to see, to tell of His glory.
As I close in prayer and thought, thank You LORD for my dear, sweet partner and friend, Linda. Our friendship… a gift from God for each other and I will forever be grateful to God for the inspiration to develop a unique ministry, AWF and work beside Linda in Coffee Break ministry. In God’s grace, Year 16 of AWF is going strong and I honor her as I sit in Room 2 every Wed. night with these friends she loved so much. Amen
I’ll leave you with this quote from C.S.
Lewis,
”What draws people to be friends is
that they see the same truth. They share it.”
Thank you
for seeing the truth in me Linda, and encouraging me to write about it and lead
others to do the same-- all for God’s glory.
A hot summer day doing a virtual radio interview for our upcoming writer's conference.
"Mary's Tears." -- a sketch I did for our first AWF devotional Advent book.
