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.
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.
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.
