Creative Writing Prompts

It has been over a year since I posted anything on my blog. I imagined I needed to produce something different and fresh for my blog whenever I wrote. Since I had so many writing obligations, adding one more was too much. This week, I decided that if I were to keep this blog, I would post writing I had done for other purposes. The most regular brief pieces I have done were for the creative writing group I attend. Each week, we are given a prompt as the focus of our writing. These vary, sometimes wildly. By posting the new and the old, there will be quite a variety. Below is the one written for this week’s meeting. The prompt was “entangled gift”.

                TWO IN THE SAME PEW

On Sundays

   They walked through the same door
   They sat in the same pew
   They read from the same book
   "the gift of of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
    our Lord"

   One wanted to earn and payback
   The other received

   One was there out of duty
   The other out of love

   One worked to be accepted
   The other knew acceptance

   One toiled for affirmation
   The other rested in it

   One served out of duty
   The other out of love

   One found it easy to judge
   The other found no need

   One gave begrudingly
   The other cheerfully

Each week they went to work

   One promoted self
   The other promoted others

   One sought leadership
   The other led by serving

Their neighbors watched them

   One repelled them
   The other drew them

Their children lived with them and grew up

   One's children ran to escape
   The other's ran to embrace

They grew old

   One feared death
   The other welcomed it

For one God's gift was entanged with works
The other received it by grace

   "For by grace you have been saved through faith. 
   And this is not your own doing;
   it is the gift of God, not a result of works,
   so that no one may boast."

One had religion
The other a relationship

The Bible quotations are found in Romans 6:23 and Ephesians 2:8-9.