There are all kinds of “blocks” in this world. It is one of those words that you need to see or hear in a sentence to know what someone is talking about. Sometimes you still have to ask for clarification. There are building blocks, chopping blocks, starting blocks, engine blocks, printing blocks, toy blocks, neighborhood blocks, block molds, sketching blocks, block grants, color blocks, block and pulley, and the list goes on.
We talk about blocks as a measure of time, I am blocking this week off to work on my project for work. We talk about blocks to measure distance; the store is three blocks from my house. We might, when we are angry at someone, say we are going to knock their block off referring to their head. (I hope we don’t.) We block nerve endings in a specific part of the body when we don’t need to “go under” anesthesia. And fonts can be “block” style. I am sure you are getting the idea that we use the word “block” in many, many ways.
Today, I have writer’s block. Which means I am struggling to think what to write about. My thought processes are blocked. Which is also why I didn’t post anything yesterday hoping that something would spark today. It didn’t which is why I am writing about blocks.
Which also made me begin to wonder what is “blocking” me? What is keeping me from being able to think? Something I typically don’t struggle too often with. I can usually think about what to write. Sometimes I have a hard time putting things into words. And I have only been completely speechless once in my life where I had no words at all.
So, I currently am wrestling with words. Or more precisely, with the fact that I have no words coming to mind. Although for someone who has no words, I have written quite a few on not having anything to write which is pretty funny when you think about it. It is the conundrum that faces most people who write for a living. As a pastor, being able to put words together to give a message about a specific pericope (passage) in scripture is important. So, writer’s block is a thing we fear and sometimes live with.
As the executive pastor of my church, I don’t preach every Sunday. It means that I have time to work on my sermons on weeks I don’t preach so I don’t get too crazy when writer’s block happens. Because it happens. And it does make me crazy. And to be honest, I can’t help but wonder if God doesn’t give me writer’s block every so often to keep me humble and dependent on God’s Holy Spirit to work in and through me to deliver the message God needs the people in my location to hear. Because one thing I do know, the only way I could do the work I do, is because God is there with me and working through me.
Here’s the thing: there are a lot of ways we can be blocked in life. As you saw from all the examples I gave for the word “block,” the word is used in quite a few ways. But like writer’s block, if we reflect on what might be the root causes, we can usually, with God’s help, work through the block and get back on track to our normal productive selves.
So, may anything that is blocking you be resolved in short order.
Beth
Beth's Blog 