Your Writing Career, A Pencil in God’s Hand, Part 2

Last time I was here at Reflections in Hindsight, we basked in the wonder of how BIG our God is. (If you missed the post, you can catch it HERE.) He is so big that He sees all of time, at the same time—in one, all-encompassing glance.

I used a pencil as an example. Hold a pencil before you, imagine it’s the world’s timeline from Creation to destruction. Then imagine you’re God (good luck with that) seeing all of it–the beginning, the end, and everything in between. The timeline is already made, a solid line in your firm grasp, but the specs of germs (you and me) on the pencil can only see the portion they’re standing on.

Since God can see the end of your life, right now, He already knows every deed you’ll ever commit, every thought that will pass through your head, and every word you’ll write—whether they glorify Him or not. And yet, He still called you to write. Not only that but He crafted your abilities, your personality, your life—every detail of it—so that you could write.

That’s a mind-boggling thought. Make you feel rather small? It does me.

For this moment, as we’re each trying to wrap our minds around a God big enough to breathe stars into existence and envelope Time within Himself, as we’re focused on just exactly how tiny and insignificant yet fully loved we are, let’s allow that perspective to alter the way we view our own writing career. Don’t you think it should change how we view what we do? What we write? Our dealings with other writers? With readers?

We each have a lifetime pencil (a.k.a timeline), but inside of that, we each have a Writing Career Pencil. There was a day for each one of us that we chose to write that first word, then the second, and at some point, we surrendered to The Call. We knew we were supposed to be writing inspirational work, and we made steps toward achieving a writing goal. That was the tip of our pencils.

Each one of our pencils is a different length and only God determines how long it is. You might have a long pencil that includes several placements on the New York Times Best Seller list. You might have a golf pencil, which includes one devotional that touches one life. Regardless, it’s the exact length God meant it to be, and there is nothing you can do to change that.

Some might try to tell you that creating a vast social network, keeping up with popular blogs, and developing a massive platform, etc, etc, will mold your writing career into what it should be, but as Christians we know that those things are merely tools in God’s hand. Every tick along your writing career timeline is His doing. There is tremendous liberty and peace in that knowledge. It frees us to release the stress of having to do it all. It frees us from the urge to over-extend ourselves resulting in burn-out. It frees God to work and get all the glory for the results.

Because we know that the creator of Canis Majoris and the master overseer of time also called us to write and crafted our Writing Timelines, we can shed the nagging thought that we must do it all. We can hand our careers over to God. We can step back and watch him work.

Next time I’m at Reflections, we’ll explore another way this fresh perspective on God’s handiwork in our lives should change how we operate as Christian writers.

Until then, worship your Creator and the Master of Time the way He deserves—with bended knees, lifted hands, and a supple heart.