If It's in You, You Have to Write

"If it's in you, you have to write."

That's one of the many quotes I wrote down from this past weekend's Songwriting Boot Camp near Seattle, WA. It was an amazing time, filled with lots of music theory, song critiquing and speakers encouraging us aspiring song-writers to write, write, write.

I came back a sickness. I caught the songwriting bug.

The only downside to that is not having the time to do it as much as I'd like. That, of course, causes a plethora of what-ifs and internal scheming, grasping at straws for anything that would restructure my busy life to allow more downtime for writing. How do we find that ever-elusive balance of living from our hearts and meeting our responsibilities? I feel as though far too many of us, as Americans, whether through resignation or lack of opportunity, give up on our hearts and simply do what's expected of us. We take whatever jobs we can and pay the bills, without much thought to what makes us come alive. In this particular economy, it comes across even more so as a luxury. It's part of the American Dream, though, to be able to enter the free market economy and sell your goods or services and make a life for yourself. Somewhere along the way, it seems like many of us stopped asking what makes us come alive, and just started asking what the world needs and what the world will buy. We've sacrificed passion on the alter of pragmatism.

Is there another way? Are these questions just the ranting of an ungrateful, spoiled American who doesn't appreciate the opportunities and privileges that he has? If so, what do we do with our desires and passions? The only option in the face of such condemnation at these questions, is to let our hearts die the slow death of safety and tenured employment.

I'm aware of the need for us to be content, to be truly grateful for the jobs we have and the pay checks we receive and I don't want to swing the pendulum completely the other way. Starving artists may be living from their hearts, but they're probably also malnourished and mooching off their friends and family in a way that is straining relationships.

So how do we live from the hearts that God has put in us, while accepting the responsibilities that we've been given and need to be faithful to?