I have about 50 pages of my thesis in a rough draft. I have to edit it. I’m not looking forward to this process. Editing is painful. Editing requires me to decide what is most important. It requires me to eliminate things that I thought were brilliant but upon further inspection . . . not so much.
Editing text usually means that you come away with much less than when you started. It feels like you are moving backwards. It feels like you are losing ground.
But these are all lies.
Editing makes your argument stronger.
Editing makes your paper more readable.
Editing makes you a better writer.
We hesitate to edit for emotional reasons not practical reasons. However, emotions almost always beat out practicalities. But if you live your life holding onto things because of the emotional attachment you will not move forward.
I need to edit my paper.
What do you need to edit?
I’m not proposing that we throw out everything in our lives. But there are some hurts that we are holding on to that will not move our lives forward. There are some decisions that we’ve made that we think we have to live with forever, but we can let them go. That’s the beautiful thing about the gospel. Jesus knows what we need to edit, and he will help us make the cuts. We just need to trust him.
What do you need to edit?
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