I'd be Published BUT I don't write

Billie said...

Wow! What an encouraging post and comments! I guess some would view it as a downer, but I feel it encouraging because it affirms the feeling that I have. I would like to be published, BUT I haven't written anything! Ok, you can stop laughing. I write...on my blog...birthday cards that end up turning into books...in journals to my kiddos. MY point is I like to write...and I can write. In fact this has become a spiritual thing for me in that I am beginning to recognize I have some God given ability and it may be wrong to not use it. That being said, I still don't know what to write. I always have an opinion but I guess I feel like I'm not much of an expert on anything and that it's all been said before. Ok...I feel better. Now my 1st book is complete. Sorry for all of the words. I guess I am a writer at heart after all!

The first thing that comes to mind is this parable from Luke 19:

12 Therefore he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. 13 And he summoned ten of his slaves, gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ 14 But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us!’ 15 When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned these slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much they had earned by trading. 16 So the first one came before him and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made ten minas more.’ 17 And the king said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’ 18 Then the second one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made five minas.’ 19 So the king said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ 20 Then another slave came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina that I put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth. 21 For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 The king said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! So you knew, did you, that I was a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank, so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’ 24 And he said to his attendants, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten.’ 25 But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas already!’ 26 ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more, but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 27 But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me!’”

I totally don't mean this to be a harsh post, warning would-be-writers of gnashing teeth and outer darkness, but I would encourage you to take seriously the gift He's given you. You actually may be doing that. Some of us naively think that if God has given us a gift to write it automatically means publication.

Not necessarily so. God honors unpublished words. Those words you write to encourage people are His tools to touch many. Don't despise those unpublished words. The real key is this question: Is God calling you to write for a wider audience? If not, then joyfully take your talents and sow them into your loved ones. If He is, then take seriously His call to you.

God gives us all gifts. It matters what we do with them. When we get to heaven, we'll be asked. We'll see how many times we buried those talents out of:

• fear of rejection
• worry
• laziness
• inferiority
• lack of courage
• giving up too easily

Here's a practical step, though: Write anyway. To become a writer, write. It's a simple thing, really. Write everything. Let your words come out of your heart, let them flow. Don't worry about publishing them just yet. Just let them out of their prison so they can sing on the page. It could be that God is calling you to write because you have emotionally shut down, and He knows that you will be healed and released through your pen. And maybe eventually, you'll revisit those words and tame them a bit, letting them fly into the world of publishing so that they reach a wider audience.

If God has given you the gift of writing, and that has been confirmed by others (as well as in your heart from the Lord), decide today to write. Set aside your fears. Think in terms of the Kingdom of God rather than the Kingdom of Publishing. Write, write, write.