The Keys to the Kingdom | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Keys to the Kingdom | Previous Challenge Entry
By Tom Parsons
02/21/13
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When I was a teacher at a Christian school for nine years, I had keys that would open just about every door on campus. The main entrance doors, classroom doors, rest rooms, custodial supply rooms, the gymnasium. I had a key that would turn lights on and off. After all, you cannot have regular light switches in a school; students would be turning lights on and off constantly. Students sometimes have strange ideas about what is fun.

It was necessary for teachers to be so equipped with the keys to the kingdom. Access was often needed to various rooms, and one could not always wait for someone with a key to come and let one in.

Then our school closed. Not only did I turn in my keys, but eventually the building the keys gave me access to was torn down. I lost my keys and I lost the place the keys accessed. Keys and the kingdom were both gone.

When the school closed, I was close enough to retirement age to retire, figuring no one would be interested in hiring a 63 year old man with no keys. So I retired. Social Security. A working wife who had a few years to go before she was of retirement age. A part-time job. Plenty of time.

So I turned my attention to the activity I had loved since childhood, but never had the time to pursue during my career. Writing. I began devoting time each day to putting words on paper – well, actually, on a computer screen – in a variety of projects. I wrote articles. I wrote short stories. I wrote some Bible commentaries. I even wrote a novel. There seems to be an endless stream of ideas that have been bottled up inside me over a lifetime that there never was time to develop. Well, now there was time, and the ideas flowed from my imagination to the computer screen, and then to paper. I filled up flash drives and CDs with the material I produced. I blogged. I got my own website and posted some of my writing there.

But something has been missing. I haven’t been able to find it so far. It has been elusive, like a mist on a moonlit night, or a lightning bug that flashes itself to visibility for a moment and then is gone. If I could find this missing element, I am certain I would outglow any lightening bug for miles around.

What I need is an audience. I have one, but it is small. My website has readers, but not as many as I would like. I have people who have openly praised me for my writing, and I appreciate every one of them. But like most writers, I desire to reach a larger audience.

Now, I don’t think I am seeking fame and fortune. My wife and I are probably financially secure for as long as we can expect to live on this earth at our ages. And I am not really interested in being well-known.

You see, I am a Christian writer; I write about things pertaining to a faith relationship with Jesus Christ. I write from a Scriptural viewpoint. I write to encourage people to walk with Jesus and serve Him. In seeking a wider audience, I truly desire to make Christ known to more and more people.

I guess what I am seeking is the keys to the kingdom, the keys that give me access to the hearts and minds of people through words. If readers appreciate what I write, I want them to appreciate the Author of all life even more. If my words can direct people to His Word, then I will be glowing with His success, and every lightening bug around will envy what I have in Christ.

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