Sowing For Success

This is the first year I have actively chosen to take a vacation during the Christmas season since becoming a writer over 10 years ago. My family and friends know that when I come visit for more than just the day, I’m bringing work with me. But this year, because it is the last Christmas we’ll spend Stateside for a while, I planned to spend all my time with friends and family and try to leave work behind until vacation ends next Monday.

That’s why today feels like Saturday to me. Yesterday felt like Saturday, too. Since it hasn’t felt like Tuesday for a while, I completely forgot to do my Tuesday work – write this blog to post today! LOL! Then I looked at our calendar and realized that last week I wrote about both last week’s and this week’s topics. Which led me to wonder – would anyone like to know what I’m thinking about personally right now as I plan my writing life for the next year?

Sowing.

During our kind-of-annual writing retreat a couple weeks ago with my friends Kathleen and Lauraine, Kathleen gave me two books by John C. Maxwell – Make Today Count and Running with the Giants. As the three of us talked about what was going on in our lives, and reading some of Make Today Count, we came to see that “sowing” and “discipline” would be high on our list of things to focus on in 2009.

The Biblical teacher Paul wrote in a letter to the people in Corinth, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

When I read this, I couldn’t help but think about my writing. I’ve been sowing a bit sparingly the last year or two. I’ve been putting in my time, but I haven’t put in enough time to make great strides. And too often I sat down to write reluctantly, afraid no good would come of it and thinking about all the other things I could do that would give me more immediate satisfaction. My writing sometimes sounded like it, too, like it hadn’t come from a place of joy. I’d been trying to do what others said I must – a daily page count or word count, a certain number of hours, etc. – instead of deciding in my heart what I wanted to give and giving it cheerfully.

So that’s one of the things I’m going to change this year. But sowing generously will take a lot of discipline on my part. For one thing, I’ve filled in my “extra” hours with other activities. During the last three months I’ve been working to get those activities out of my life again. For a while at least…to everything there is a season, after all.

I’ve been reading that passage over and over (it’s 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 if you’re interested) trying to understand how to apply it to my situation. It sounds kind of scary hard – I have to decide what I am going to commit to and then discipline myself to not only do it but do it cheerfully, knowing that many seeds take months or years before they become plants, and even longer to bear fruit.

But the part that gives me hope, that lends an exciting air to this venture, that even teases me to make a tiny bit bigger goal than I might otherwise commit to, is the part about God’s grace being with me to such an extent that in all things at all times, I will have all I need to thrive in every good work. Even every good work of fiction!

Cool!