A Writer's Anxious Thoughts

“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me . . . for you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:1, 13, 14

I am honored to open Hoosier Ink. My thanks to Lisa Harman, ACFW Indiana president 2009, for birthing the idea and creating a platform for you to get to know Hoosier writers, published and unpublished.

Regardless of what stage of the writing process you’re in, I want to encourage you to enjoy it and be creative. Often the process of writing is arduous, demanding, and just plain painful. However, God knows right where your journey is taking you. Verse 16 says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

One resounding phrase that I’ve heard from many writers is, “God has called me to write.” Isn’t that amazing that the God of Heaven and earth should choose us to be fictional storytellers in order that his gospel message will get out?

Even so, many of us are tempted to feel that will never happen through us. Sure, we all want to be published and those who are published want to be published again. Yes, he has planted the story in our hearts, but nothing is happening. If God’s in it, shouldn’t something be happening? How can I put all this work, all these years into an effort that’s going nowhere? How can I shake all this doubt?

How many of the divinely inspired writers of the Old and New Testaments must have felt the same way we sometimes do? Many of them were told to write things down and never did find out why. In fact, they were positive that God told them to write it. They left this earth never knowing if they really heard from God or not. However, we know differently as they have served to introduce millions to him.

Don’t lose heart. Get that manuscript back out. If you can’t stand to look at it any more, open a new document in your Microsoft Word and start again. Read, read, read. Write, write, write. The Lord has some amazing plans for your future. Now is not the time to throw in the towel. He is going to use you. Your victory may be waiting at the top of the next mountain. Climb up! Verse 9 says, “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

The Lord has searched you and he knows you. He is a good God and wants good for you. Trust that he knows the better path to travel in. Settle it in your heart that the story you have within you will someday bring souls to him.

Wishing you God’s blessings for the coming year,
Donna L. Rich, ACFW Indiana Chapter President