Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Seasons of Life

Through the Seasons at the Colorado State University Oval

Every life has seasons.
It’s a concept I’ve always known, but am just now starting to put into action.
I’ve always been a go-getter. Once I get an idea stuck in my head, I want to push through and see it to completion. Case in point: last year I wanted to read 100 books. I read 220.
It has spilled over into my writing life as well. I love to study writing, but it can be a blessing and a curse sometimes. Every writer is different, but usually the writers, when they hit publication, have written upwards of 6-10 books (give or take).
Okay. I’ve got three in various stages of completion.
Then I hear it is important to research agents, build a platform and develop a story with such a strong pitch that no one can turn it down.
Sounds good. I started following various agents/authors, joined Facebook and Twitter. Blog. What else can I do now…
Then I start thinking, if I can make it to the ACFW conference this year, I really need to have my book ready to pitch. It needs to be complete, because why would I want to tell the zealous agent my WIP isn’t complete?
The pressure is building.
But God spoke to my heart several weeks ago. In all of our lives, we have seasons, seasons of work and seasons of reaping from those benefits. Seasons to just wait on His will.
And I realized—I have all the time in the world. There is no timetable on God’s dream for my life. I can wait one year, I can wait twelve. That won’t affect the hard work I put in now to make it to that end goal. And once I reach that goal, there will be another one and another one after that.
Sure, I have short-term goals, I have stops I want to make on the way to the “end”, but in the true end, it’s God’s timetable, not mine.  Because even if it take me longer than I planned to finish my edits, or write another story or pitch to an agent, it will ultimately lead to His ultimate timetable and I will rest with a lot more peace knowing that everything I’m doing is one step in the right direction.

**photo courtesy of Flickr

5 comments:

  1. It's all because of Him, Anne. Thanks for stopping by today. :)

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  2. I love the picture at the top of your post! It's beautiful!
    And you are so right, we don't have to put the heavy load on our shoulders. If God wants it to happen it will, in His time. All in His time.

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  3. Hi Faye! I found that on Flickr, great find, right? Sometimes you just find a great one. :-) YES, very true! We just have be willing to trust that His timing is PERFECT

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  4. Casey, I loved what you had to say here. If you've looked at my website (www.joanndurgin.com), you'll see that I put aside my writing for over a decade to raise my children. It was a time of learning, living and loving my family (and being a pastor's wife). My debut novel was actually the last book I wrote (in a week and a half!) before putting it aside. I literally blew off the dust bunnies years later, and felt it was the ONE the Lord wanted me to pursue getting published. Then He gave my story back to me (I only had half of it), and then confirmed it to me. If you can realize now that it truly is in His timing, that's a big "lesson" to learn. Keep writing for His glory, and He'll lead you down the right path to publication. Thanks, as always, for your wonderful website. Blessings to you.

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Thank you so much for stopping by, I love to hear from those who traffic my blog! Have a wonderful day. :)