Where do you get typewriter ribbons these days?

Holly Golightly, the character in Breakfast at Tiffany's, would have made a good leader in discipleship interested in seeing others grow in their discipleship.

It was apparent in her becoming aware of her friend Paul's passion, skills, and commitment to writing.

TELL ME, ARE YOU A REAL WRITER?

I MEAN, DOES ANYBODY BUY WHAT YOU WRITE

OR PUBLISH IT OR ANYTHING?

It was apparent in her desire to know more about his capacity. She discovered that his typewriter didn't have a ribbon in it.

She was interested in accountability in as much as she quizzed him about his writing schedule and then making it clear to him that he wasn't being honest with himself about it.

THIS IS KIND OF A RATTY QUESTION,

BUT WHAT HAVE YOU WRITTEN LATELY?

She developed a relationship with him first. Then she was able to "leverage" that interest and developing love between them to motivate him to do what he was "supposed" to do.

This is affirming for me, because I fancy myself a bit of a Holly Golightly when it comes to discipleship.

A colleague once expressed concern that I was using my relationships with people to encourage them to do things that they didn't necessarily have an interest in or weren't doing even though they might have been interested in it at one time.

Perhaps I don't spend enough time trying to make sure the writers are serious writers and the mission trippers are serious mission trippers and the golf cart drivers are serious about driving carts. But I guess I do try to see if something might be missing and then try to provide that missing ingredient so they can get on with doing the thing they were meant to be doing.

I have stumbled upon the same thing Holly Golightly did, maybe. The missing ingredient isn't really the typewriter ribbon, or the training, or the expertise, or the theological understanding, or the great idea, or the communication web.

The missing ingredient, lots of times, is people who you care about and who care about you believing in you and saying, in what ever clumsy way they can: you should be doing this.

I'm kind of glad that we don't need typewriter ribbons anymore, or else I would have given up writing already.

But, then again, you would keep sending me ribbons.

Wouldn't you?