Freed

A Giant’s Company

A few weeks ago I struggled to get a collection of words just right. A book proposal contest at my favorite writers conference  had caught my eye and the deadline for submission loomed. This could be big.

I wrote, and revised, and reread, and wrote, and revised, and reread for hours. I tucked the proposal away to ferment and returned a few days later, to write, and revise, and reread some more.

I wrote, revised and reread until I was crosseyed. My mind slowed until paralysis set in.

I got up and went outside, looking over the tops of the oak trees to the stars.

I felt small.
And lost.
And stuck.

And then I heard from God.

“You and I have talked a lot about this book I’ve asked you to write,” He told me. “But have you heard Me say, ‘publish it’? Enter the contest if you like, but write.”

I ran back into the house, found my husband, and babbled. “I don’t know what He’s got in mind for this book, but I feel so freed! I was feeling dry and stuck and confused and then all of a sudden I understood that all that is required of me now is to write it.”

I still felt small. But this small was good. This small meant that I am to focus on this one thing and not look too far down the road.

Or even over the tops of the trees.

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NASB)