Echoes Within the Heart ~ by Savanna Kaiser

Photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net

 I have loved meeting new friends through blogging. But why does the
fun have to stop with just me getting to know them?? So each month
I'll bring a special guest that I have come to know
Today...I welcome Rachelle Rea to my blog.

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When Casey asked me if I'd be interested in writing a guest post for her blog, I was surprised, humbled, and excited all at the same time. Once again, God had surprised me with the sweetly unexpected.

Let's be honest, I am no published author. Besides a handful of freelance articles attached with my name, the stories embedded in my heart remain hidden there – at least for now. Why, I can barely eek out the phrase, “I'm an aspiring author” without feeling the urge to look both ways as if waiting for someone to contradict me. My heart wants to believe it so badly, but I'm afraid of it at the same time.

Have you ever felt this way?

If you happen to be like a me, quietly following other writers' work while still yet doubting your own, I'd like to share a piece of my own journey with you and a lesson the Lord has been teaching me as a true rookie in the field.

Let me start by saying that I am a real homebody at heart. While there's nothing specifically wrong with that, sometimes a certain hindering hesitancy can come with the territory. I hid behind that wall for a long time. Intimidated by the critical eye of others, I was happy to stay seated in my comfort zone. When I first put my pen to paper and wrote words that wouldn't stop echoing within my heart, I thought I'd found a way of escape – I could express what was dear to me without exposing myself. Yeah, right.

Does the fear of others' judgment or opinions ever misguide you?

Maybe that's why – at least in my case – the passage of Scripture in Ephesians 6:11 has so frequently grabbed my attention. “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” It is only by putting on this armour of light that my fears – and yours – can be conquered and destroyed. By putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, just as Romans 12:14 says, can we live a life saturated with Heavenly grace and strength. His mercy alone can erase all my fears, weaknesses, and insecurities.

Whenever distractions and excuses in life threaten to steal my focus away, He's graciously opened fresh windows of opportunity, like Casey's sweet offer, to remind me I'm supposed to keep writing. With His sovereign plan forever in place, those pesky insecurities of mine don't stand a chance.

In a recent study, I read a quote from Beth Moore that pierced my heart. “When the call of Christ sears a hole through your self-protectiveness, you go wherever He leads whether or not you feel like you fit.” I could almost hear the last nail being driven through my coffin of pretenses and fear. Writing was not about hiding one's true self, but giving it away, wholeheartedly, in a cause so far beyond one's self that our individual weaknesses no longer matter.

Charles Spurgeon writes in his Morning & Evening devotional, “May the Spirit of God assist us to leave the mists of fear and the fevers of anxiety, and all the ills which gather in this valley of earth, and to ascend the mountains of anticipated joy and blessedness. May God the Holy Spirit cut the cords that keep us here below, and assist us to mount! We sit too often like chained eagles fastened to the rock, only that, unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would, perhaps, if it came really to the test, be loath to have it snapped.”

That was me. I was afraid of living outside my safety net. How my heart was lifted when the Lord finally showed me my calling had nothing really to do with me. My role was to echo Him, the first and greatest Author, by living after His example in my life.

Charles Spurgeon summarizes my thoughts up in this way. “Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord's feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by His love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to Him that if He will put His ear to me, He will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of His own lovewhich have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at His feet for ever.”

Wherever you are in your own writing journey, may you never forget that the Lord directs your path. We must leave all our fears at His feet.

For me, that means I can't keep denying what He has placed in my heart to do. I have to write. What exactly, I still don't know. But He knows. And that's all that matters.

Remember, He is the Author. We're the echo.

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Connect further with Savanna Kaiser on her blog where she regularly contributes and on her Facebook page.