Last week, as I entered the worship service at church, a friend came up to me, beaming. “I finished it!”
She had pre-ordered my latest release, Love Calls Her Home, Book 2 in the Mended Hearts series, which wasn’t to be out until three days later. But she had already read the book, and a day after was looking forward to the next in the series.
I gasped and smiled. “Oh, dear! I can’t write them that fast!”
After sharing a good laugh, we settled into church. But my mind wasn’t there. I was thinking about this endeavor I call writing. How tired I had become meeting deadlines—the manuscript, the proofread, the marketing responsibilities. For months a steady stream of new responsibilities had required my input. Though I had met every final date, I had begun to think of writing as WORK!
Hearing my friend tell me all she liked about the book, though, warmed me from the inside out. Her words energized me. My tired mind felt refreshed. I had given her twenty-four hours of reading pleasure, and knowing that stripped all the pent-up weariness from within me.
In that moment, I had reached my sweet spot. That place where the effort required is matched by the delight the finished product brought. I’d made someone else happy with my story. I had touched a heart. I had impressed a soul. I had shown God’s light into a world where blackness seems to abound.
I sank back in my chair and sighed. All the glory goes to the One who first gave us his book the Bible to read, his son Jesus to cherish, and his abiding love to share. Without Him and his hand on my shoulder, all my works would be like filthy rags.
Isaiah 64:6: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
Thanks, Lord, for giving me work to do that pleases you. To you, God, be the glory.