On Christmas Day, I met a goal I’ve been working toward for a long time. I finished the first draft of my memoir. The 486 double-spaced pages with wide margins mean I have a lot of revising and editing ahead of me.
The point of telling you this isn’t so you’ll be impressed with the number of words or pages, but to celebrate a step in a long-term dream of being a published author.
Along the way, I’ve learned a lot.
First, I’m thankful for all the teachers who encouraged my love of the written word. I’m terribly sorry I didn’t listen more closely when they were trying to teach me the grammar rules.
Second, I’m glad I’ve kept a journal, calendars with notes, photo albums with captions, and other tidbits. I couldn’t have gotten this far without all the junk stashed in boxes.
Third, although writing looks like a solitary endeavor, it never is.
Imagine my husband having to deal with me being angry over the past. He never knew if it was something he did today or an incident from twenty years ago, as I processed those moments to write them with genuine feeling.
I also have a fantastic friend who reads all my junky writing and cleans it up, so I can share it with my writing group that pushes me to be the writer I dream I will be someday.
Fourth, and I think the most important – none of this would have happened without God’s intervention. I’m still not sure anyone will want to read what I’ve written, but that doesn’t matter. The process has been a study in following the leading of God. Over the past twenty-five years, God has prompted people to tell me to write a book. I kept demurring, but God kept nudging me with the idea that I needed to write, write, write. It was quite annoying.
Then on November 16th, 2020, I felt God challenge me to 40-days of sacrificial writing. The concept was to write every day no matter what I felt like or what excuse I could conger up. I wrote fifty-two scenes amounting to a little over 50,000 words. The challenge proved to me I can do anything that God wants me to do, even if I think it’s impossible or I’m not feeling it. I sensed Him sitting in the room with me, cheering me on at 11:30 pm when I wanted to be in bed. “Just a little more, you can do it!”
So, whatever dream or heart’s desire you’ve put on a shelf for another day, I want to say God is waiting for you. He wants to come alongside you with encouragement and vision for that completed project. Please let Him help you. It’s worth it. The sense of accomplishment is fantastic – even if nobody else will appreciate what you’ve done, you’ll know, and your connection with God will grow.
I’m praying that many dreams and visions will come into the light through you!
Andrea Sanger