I kind of, sort of stuffed God in a drawer. My focus was all about finishing a book, speaking, and counseling. All good things, but not the best.
I even devise a way to finish the book. A stick: deadline! A carrot: vacation day!
You’ve probably used the same approach on your kids. You know the drill. Finish your homework, then you may play football. Eat a decent dinner, then dive into Dots. The bible shares a similar idea: reaping and sowing.
What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. Galatians 6:7-8, The Message
My stick helped me meet my deadline. But. . .
God, the Gentleman
I kind of, sort of stuffed God in a drawer. You see, I figured I had, ahem, more important things to do. Like my deadline. A gentleman, God didn’t put up a fuss. In fact, I opened the drawer almost every morning and visited. Then I shut it.
When deadline day came and I hit Send, I felt exhausted. Burned out. Whipped. I assumed the work had zapped me. It didn’t. I was my own undoing. In my desire to meet my self-imposed deadline, I acted selfishly and ignored the people around me and God. (I had stuffed him in a drawer, remember?) Thank God that the next day – when I vacationed quietly at home sweet home – I recognized my true need: Him. I had reaped selfishness and sowed restlessness. My deadline had become my idol.
How ironic that I made such a blunder and listed to a lie – you can do it on your own, Lucy! – as a biblical counselor. Our enemy wants you and me to think I don’t need anyone.
Among the things I’m learning: I don’t need a deadline. . .
I need a lifeline.
An Offer!
Feel overwhelmed? Need hope and practical, God-honoring solutions? Why not contact me to set up a no-cost introductory counseling session? We can meet over the phone. God loves you, just as you are, wherever you’ve been.
Lucy, Thank you for being so transparent. I loved this post. I think every writer, at one time or another, has relate to this. There is a fine line between keeping God “on the desk,” so to speak, or in the desk drawer. Thanks for sharing this. Hold onto that lifeline! Blessings…Lynn
Lucy, I found the same struggles when compiling my first book. I had encouraged fellow writers by telling them not to let Satan prevent them from speaking their truth. He fears the power in spirit-inspired words!
Too often throughout the process, I didn’t follow my own advice. I experienced that same burnout you describe. It’s so easy for we humans to be lured away from the Perfect One!
I’m sure your words will be an encouragement as well as a gentle warning for others.
THANK YOU! Sometimes I think I am the only one who makes such blunders! and I make them too often!
Lucy,
You said, “I don’t need a deadline. . . I need a lifeline.”
Those are words to live by! Absolutely!
And I have to add that I need balance. At the beginning of 2008, God gave me three things to focus on: 1) Him; 2) the people in my life who He has asked me to minister to in various physical ways, such as the elderly neighbor that I take to physical therapy two or three times a month; and 3) following His call in writing my book.
Part of “the book writing” morphed into designing a website and a blog last fall, and that is now basically done. And here in early 2009, I find that He is still impressing the same three things upon me for my focus. But I also find that I consistently put the book on the back burner, and it is not getting written. I haven’t written anything on it since last August. So I need some balance in my life… balance between physically serving the needs of others and my desire to write.
Help!
Thanks for sharing your heart and your life with us!
Hugs,
Cheri