A Christian Writer’s “Victory Garden”

My neighbor and I were doing some yard work on opposite sides of the driveway the other day, and got to chatting about our respective gardening plans. I told him what my parents had planted in the raised beds, and he told me about his new strawberry plants. He made the comment, “Our President says we’re in a war, so I planted a victory garden.”

The idea intrigued me, and I began to think about the victory gardens planted during the Second World War. The idea was that by turning lawns, flowerbeds, and any other available patch of land into food-producing gardens, the gardeners made a significant contribution to the cause of victory. In the days of food shortages and rationing, a kitchen garden was not only a help --it was often a necessity. And with every seed planted, the gardeners felt themselves one more step towards victory.

Now, whatever your views and opinions concerning our President, I have to say that when he mentioned that fighting this virus is basically like fighting a war against an unseen enemy, he summed up how many people were feeling. For the Christian, it is doubly so, because we are not just fighting the spread of a virus; we are in fact fighting against Satan’s attempts to use this crisis to derail any progress we might be making in our walk with the Lord. Whether through worry, fear, or anything else, Satan wants to get our eyes off God and onto circumstances. He wants to get our hearts and minds so distracted that we have no time or energy to focus on what God has for us to be learning and doing during this time.

And we have to fight. Not in our power, of course, because as Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5) But the fact that we need God to help us fight doesn’t mean it won't still be a fight. We are told to “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) A preacher I heard once said that this means we are to say “yes” to God, and when we say “yes” to God, we will say “no” to the devil.

This fight is different than the fight against the Coronavirus, because our spiritual war has already been won. Jesus has already won our final victory, and we can read about what Satan’s end will be in Revelation 20. 

As I Peter 2:24 says of Jesus: “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” That is the victory He has won for us: victory over sin.

So what does a spiritual victory garden look like? It will look different for each one of us, since God has different "seeds" He wants sown during this time. The point of a victory garden was to produce fruit, and a spiritual victory garden is a decided and prolonged effort to produce fruit for God's kingdom, either in our own lives or the lives of those around us. Perhaps God wants you to be memorizing verses so you can confidently share the gospel with others. Maybe it is a skill God wants you to learn which He intends to use for His glory later on. Or perhaps it is a seed of character He wants planted in your own heart; a lesson learned now to prepare you for the next step in your Christian growth. Whatever it is, now is the time to be planting.

 I don’t know how better to illustrate than to tell you about my own victory garden, which has to do specifically with writing, but the principle is still applicable even if you aren’t a writer.

When the pandemic quarantine began, I was disappointed as plans were postponed indefinitely and even church was cancelled. As I began to try to adjust to this stay-at-home way of life, I was struck early on by the thought that God had a purpose for me during this time, and that it was no accident that I was faced with extra time at home just as writing was becoming a major part of my life. I knew God wanted me to use this time to develop my writing skill and to make progress on the different writing projects I had begun.

That was when I began to plant seeds in my writer's victory garden. I began a challenge of writing 500 words a day for 30 days, and carefully thought about how I was using my time. I listened to audio books and podcasts as I worked at tasks that didn’t require much mental exertion, and I started in on my substantial “to be read” pile, giving first priority to the two books I had bought about writing, but hadn’t had time to read yet.

I also thought seriously about what kind of schedule I wanted to keep to prepare me for the summer. I had already decided to treat writing just like a job during my summer break, and teaching from home via online lessons has given me the chance to get myself into a regular at-home schedule. Now that I’m in a routine, it is getting much easier to sit down and write when it’s time, and that summer schedule is looking more and more possible. I'm also learning important lessons and growing in my walk with God even more, since I have been focusing more on my relationship with Him, as the source from which I want my writing to flow.

To tend this victory garden of new skills, new habits, and new knowledge, I will have to weed out distractions and things that sound fun, but would eat into the time I need to use for writing. I will need to keep my mind well-watered by continuing to read and learn, first and foremost by immersing myself in Scripture, but also by soaking up all the knowledge I can about my subject matter, as well as about the writing craft itself. I will also need to keep out the “pests” of worry, fear, and self-reliance that will eat up my productivity.

And hopefully, by the end of the summer, my little victory garden will be bearing fruit, whether in finished projects, skills honed for further use, or simply in my own heart’s victory over the temptation to misuse this gift of time God has given me.

"But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

I Corinthians 15:57

Imagine the Possibilities

About a year ago, my life turned a corner. I didn't realize it was a corner at the time, but corner it was, and looking back, it's amazing where that one little decision has led.

It was almost a year ago when I wrote the post entitled, "New Beginnings, Slow Transitions, and a Long, Straight Pathway". In doing so, I began a journey I hadn't intended to take, and embarked upon the adventure of quietly and unconsciously becoming a writer.

I have always enjoyed writing, but this past year as I began to write more and more, I found that the  more I wrote, the more convinced I became that writing was something God wanted me to be focusing on. So I continued to write.

Then, as the new schoolyear began to ramp up, so did my writing, with another unconscious embarking, this time upon the genre of children's literature. Thankfully, I had an encouraging little class of students, and when, in December, I asked if they would like a sequel to the one little story I had written for them, they not only replied that they would, they hounded me for it until I had finished it. Then other stories came, and I took great delight in reading them to my captive audience. Their pleasure in hearing the stories encouraged me to continue to write more.

In January, I began writing a study on Biblical contentment, and while in the midst of that project I "accidentally" began writing a novel. I quite enjoyed what little flowed out of the first idea which sparked the story, and I wanted to find out what happened next, so I began to write a little more here and there, but I had no idea where to start with plots and characters, and so very many decisions which must be made when writing a story of any length.  So I listened to writer podcasts, and ordered books on structuring and outlining a novel.

Then a few weeks ago, I went to a writer's conference. At that writer's conference, I shared the first page of the "accidental novel" with a kind woman who was a published author, and who told me that I should enter it in the Cascade Awards. I needed fifteen pages, however, and a synopsis, which meant that I had to make some big decisions about the plot, theme, and characters. That much is done now, and this week I sent in three entries to my very first writing contest. 

I don't know if I will win, or even if I will be a finalist in any of the three categories, but I do know that I never would have even thought of entering a year ago, and whatever the outcome, I am excited to have the judges' feedback on the pieces I entered, and I am glad to have exercised the courage to put my entries out there.

My point is, you never know what God will awaken in you as you yield yourself, your talents, your dreams and your aspirations to Him. As I wrote that blog post a year ago, I was laying one dream to rest, and felt I did not dare search for a new one, for fear that I would pick up the old one again in a different form. Then, as time passed, I began to feel that God was telling me to dream again. But I scarcely knew what to dream of, for God had led me away from that which I had spent all my dreams upon in the past.

Yet, God already had a new dream ready for me, tailored exactly to my place, my season of life, and to the state of my heart. He had taken away the old dream that I might focus upon the new.

But this new chapter of life doesn't necessarily entail a changing of the previous one; if anything, it just adds more work and more busy-ness to an already busy life, but it also adds another layer of purpose and vision. It encourages me to imagine the possibilities that exist when one serves a God with whom nothing shall be impossible.

And so I embrace the extra work, the extra pressure on my schedule, the sometimes late nights when inspiration hits just as I ought to be going to sleep, and with it I embrace the joy of doing what I was made to do, the satisfaction of a well-worded phrase or sentence, and the greatest thrill: that of having been used by God to write something which He has chosen to use in the heart of someone else.

I dare to imagine God using my writing on this blog and in other ways, to touch the hearts of others I would never have come into contact with before. I dare to dream of achieving, succeeding, not materially or in any worldly way, but I do dare to dream that I might achieve something for the kingdom of Christ through the ability He has chosen to awake in me.

 I dare to imagine that God could use me in ways I never could have imagined before and I dare to have the courage to step forward along this new stretch of my long, straight pathway, feeling that there are now mileposts along the way in the form of things God wants me to accomplish for His glory between here and my final destination. 

...and a Happy New Year!

It is the very first moments of a brand new year, and I wanted to share this passage from Ephesians 3 with you, for this, dear reader, is my prayer for you in this bright and shining start of a new decade:

"That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God"
Ephesians 3:16-19

That is the purpose of this blog: to point your eyes to the fullness of God which really can be yours as you seek Him and learn of Him.

Aren't you glad that God's goodness is not dependent upon our age, status, or stage of life? Wherever you're at, God is the same. He is not the author of emptiness, but of fullness; not of darkness, but of light; not of despair, but of hope. However turbulent the year may prove to be, God remains, and with Him the love and fullness which are always ours in Christ.

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 
Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
Ephesians 3:20-21

New Year's Goals for the Plodder

I must admit, I bristle when one of my friends asks me about my goals for the new year. I shouldn't. Goals are a good thing, and help us keep from coasting along in apathy. But when you're in a season of life where there seem to be no "major" goals for which to strive, it can be difficult to be motivated to make any goals.  (Don't worry, I'm not just going to complain the whole post -there's a point to all this...stay with me!)

 At this moment, I know that I am right where God wants me to be, doing exactly what He wants me doing, and since I have no clear direction from the Lord about changes in the future, making goals can be difficult.

It's not as if I'm in a corporate job, seeking to climb my way to the next promotion. For a teacher who loves the grade she's teaching, promotion to a different position is a very unwelcome thing. And I already have the degrees I had been working so hard on, so there's no more major educational milestone to be achieved.

 I'm a plodder. I don't have some overarching plan to work towards, nor do I have any dreams of accomplishing some grand thing. But I do know that there are things I need to work on this next year, and written goals will keep me from blowing those things off as too much work or just something to do "later".

One thing I tend to forget is that things I've already been doing for years can count as goals. For example, I have been reading through the entire Bible each year since my early teens, and it's easy to feel like reading through the Bible this year doesn't count as a "real" goal. But it does. It matters immensely that I continue in God's Word, though daily Bible reading and time in prayer have become such a normal part of my life. It matters that I keep that up, and that I keep focused on my relationship with God.

Sometimes goals for the plodder look like continuations of past goals, sometimes with additions, sometimes just the same. Goals don't have to be big and flashy to be worked towards.

The biggest thing to remember about goals is that no matter how easy the goal might seem on paper, you need God's help to achieve it. We need to be looking at our goals, not as something to achieve so we can point to ourselves and say "look what I did", but rather as something that drives us to God in humility, looking to accomplish each goal for His glory, to show off what He did in enabling us to meet each goal. 

So, here I am, plodding along towards my seemingly insignificant goals which may not seem impressive or important to the world, but if each is done to God's glory, each is significant and important to Him. And He is the truest judge of value.