Brewing the Best Mocha, Forming the Perfect Sentence

We just spent a beautiful, relaxing week up at the cabin. We arrived home last night, and this morning, when I went to grind some espresso beans for my mocha, I noticed that I had left some grounds sitting in the bottom of the grinder. The longer espresso grounds sit without being used, especially in the summer humidity of the Midwest, the worse they taste. I had a small debate with myself: do I dump the grounds into the garbage, because they probably won’t taste as delicious as usual, and then grind fresh beans, or do I use them anyways? I decided to dump the grounds. I felt a twinge of regret and wondered if maybe I should have saved them after all. Then I reminded myself why I had decided to dump them–my mocha will taste so much better with freshly ground, still-flavorful espresso beans.

During one of the classes I took at the The Habit, Jonathan Rogers said something like this: “Writing is not for the efficient.” In context, he was saying that writing involves a lot of inefficiency. We write something, and then for a myraid of reasons, we erase or cross out our work and try again. We start and we stop, we wait for inspiration, or motivation, and sometimes that can take many days or even months or years. We have a lot to consider when we sit down to write. Some of us outline our stories, or draw pictures of our characters in-scene to get a sense of their positions in relation to their environment, or create a detailed backdrop of history in which to put our characters. Or, when writing an essay, we have to form our thoughts and figure out which questions to ask and try to answer, and then figure out the best way to go about presenting the information that pertains to our topic. I did that before I started writing this short essay. I’m also the historical backdrop type of story writer.

I thought about the writing process this morning as I argued with myself about what to do with the espresso grounds. Sometimes I look at my writing and all I can see is something stale, dry, and so last week. So I start to re-write my story or essay or poem sentence-by-sentence or line-by-line. But then I suddenly find myself wondering if I should have been so quick to delete my own words–words that I put a lot of thought and heart into. I know they’ll turn out better than they did before, but its so scary to know that I’ve written and then deleted words I may never get back. I suppose this could turn into an argument about the merits of writing on paper before writing on the computer. No matter the medium I use to write down my initial thoughts, the conundrum, however, still exists. Were those initials words I wrote down and then erased a waste of time?

The answer, of course, is no. A big, glorious, resounding no. Writing is a process and the joy of writing comes from the process itself. All that erasing makes room for something more wonderful to take its place. Our words are never lost forever, they’re just re-formed into something better, like melting down gold, burning off the dross, and then molding it into a crown worthy of a great king. A couple weeks ago I met with a friend and she offered to give me feedback on some of my poems. I handed her my notebook, with all the crossed-out words and odd editing markings. After she looked over my poems, she said some of the most encouraging words I think a writer can hear: “Every line that you re-wrote is better than the original.” I took her kind and gracious words to heart. They made me feel relieved and confident in the writing process, and they still make me smile, even as I type this sentence.

It’s okay to throw out the old espresso grounds. They reveal what is lacking and also what could be, something packed with deep, rich flavor and bursting with newness and beauty. It will take more griding to make the best mocha, but in the end, it’s worth it. Writing takes time and practice, progress and backtracking, and patience with yourself and the editing process, but the end result, no matter how inefficient the process seems, is worth the fight. Keep writing, trusting in Jesus, and the words you need to give life to your ideas will come. I’m sure of it!

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John 3:8

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Photo: An example of my “highly efficient” editing process next to my favorite espresso cup