It’s All About the Agenda

Tomorrow I leave for Mount Hermon. 

Mount Hermon is Christian-writer-speak shorthand for the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. It’s a bona fide big deal. It’s a place that makes me sigh into my mug and whisper maybe next year.

But last November I entered this contest. And the contest sponsor created a second prize just so I wouldn’t walk off empty-handed.

By the way–nobody ever dunked me in lucky juice. I’ve been blessed, oh yes–but I’m not the find-a-hundred-dollar-bill-in-the-parking lot type. I’ve never won at bingo. That name that gets pulled from a hat? It’s always the lady sitting two rows ahead of me.

So this winning thing is new ground for me. Then even more good things happened.  I received another sponsorship to cover the remaining half of the registration fee. I found a flight that was cheap and nonstop and timed perfectly to suit my travel needs. My publisher has rushed me a few copies of my novel to offer for sale in the conference bookshop.

I would be ashamed to squander an opportunity like this one. So I’ve been working on proposals and overviews and pitches. I’ve been revising and dreaming and revising again.

There’s a thing, though, about all this preparation and anticipation and sheer flat-out terror:

It would be easy–effortless, even–to forget my purpose in writing.

This conference could become a loud, shiny, bedazzling raptor that beguiles me, wraps me in that straitjacket with All About Me stenciled across its back in pink Day-Glo letters, blindfolds me, and spins me around as if it’s all one big dizzying game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

It’s not. 

I’m praying, as I prepare, for a servant’s heart. I’m praying, as I prepare, for His agenda to lead me. Will you pray it with me?

Dear God,

Please engrave Your agenda on my heart. And conk me on the head with a humble stick if I forget I’m here to serve You.

I ask these things in the precious name of Your Son. Amen.

⁹ He leads the humble in justice,
And He teaches the humble His way.
¹⁰ All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth
To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.
¹¹ For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

Psalm 25:9-11 (NASB)