A Light So Lovely My first adult decade was spent in full-time youth ministry, during which I regularly wondered if I could better influence the next generation by writing middle-grade fiction myself rather than collecting parental permission slips for paintball. While reading Crosswicks Journals—A Circle of Quiet, Two-Part Madeleine’s and so on—I continued to feel an affinity with a writer Invention, who shared a love for the Anglican- Episcopal liturgy, for living in community, and who insisted on story as a vehicle for truth. Eventually I shifted to a writing career and a seminary degree, regularly circling back to in Walking on Water, Madeleine’s which she called the act of writing a form of be an prayer. “To artist means to approach the light, and that means to let go our control, to allow our whole selves to be placed with absolute faith in that which is greater than we description that named are”2—a my experience of the creative process Even today, when I exactly. read in about how tired she was as a mother of A Circle of Quiet small children (like me) trying to balance a writing career (like me), I cry. At to tell where her influence leaves off times it’s hard and my own thinking begins. And not alone. Time and again, as I traverse ever-widening, I’m overlapping circles of writers and culture-makers, Madeleine’s name comes up as an author who changed the course of some- In fact, as this project got underway, I began asking one’s journey. you point to a moment when Madeleine people, “Can L’Engle influenced your vocation as an artist? Or saved your stumbling faith? Even saved your And the stories have life?”
A Light So Lovely My first adult decade was spent in full-time youth ministry, during which I regularly wondered if I could better influence the next generation by writing middle-grade fiction myself rather than collecting parental permission slips for paintball. While reading Madeleine’s Crosswicks Journals—A Circle of Quiet, Two-Part Invention, and so on—I continued to feel an affinity with a writer who shared a love for the Anglican- Episcopal liturgy, for living in community, and who insisted on story as a vehicle for truth. Eventually I shifted to a writing career and a seminary degree, regularly circling back to Madeleine’s Walking on Water, in which she called the act of writing a form of prayer. “To be an artist means to approach the light, and that means to let go our control, to allow our whole selves to be placed with absolute faith in that which is greater than we are”2—a description that named my experience of the creative process exactly. Even today, when I read in A Circle of Quiet about how tired she was as a mother of small children (like me) trying to balance a writing career (like me), I cry. At times it’s hard to tell where her influence leaves off and my own thinking begins. And I’m not alone. Time and again, as I traverse ever-widening, overlapping circles of writers and culture-makers, Madeleine’s name comes up as an author who changed the course of some- one’s journey. In fact, as this project got underway, I began asking people, “Can you point to a moment when Madeleine L’Engle influenced your vocation as an artist? Or saved your stumbling faith? Even saved your life?” And the stories have
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