There’s a lot about the writing life that reminds me of the Christian life. As writers not everything we write will be accepted and published. Rejection, struggle and knock backs are part of most, dare I say all, writers lives. It’s how they are handled that makes the difference. It’s like I wrote about the other day – attitude. Our attitude can cause us to give up when rejection comes or to dig our toes in and think, ‘I’ll show you.’ This sort of attitude keeps us pressing on with determination. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need to do in the Christian life.
This morning I read a blog where the writer talked about ‘when the hits come.’ Here’s what he had to say. ‘Here’s the critical question when you are hit: Do you have the strength and will power to continue ahead with your dreams? Or do they carry you off the field and you quit.’ This writer was talking about writing and the publishing business. But it seems to me that the same is true in the Christian life.
Someone once told me tragedy, disasters and hard times can do one of two things- they can drive you closer to God or away from Him. It’s all about our attitude and how we handle the situation. I know when my Mum was dying and I was angry with God, it would have been easy to walk away from God and my faith. I didn’t. One hymn that was a particular blessing to me at that time was ‘Trust Him When Your Wants Are Many.’ I clung to those words and I trusted God in spite of the circumstances and proved the reality of those words and that of two other favorite hymns, ‘In Heavenly Love Abiding’ and ‘If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee.’ Singing has always been a source of joy to me and I sang the words of these hymns over and over while in the car driving backwards and forwards to the hospital each day.
Then, back when our daughter was suffering a life threatening illness, I had to draw on the resources of faith and trust in God despite the circumstances. Again I drew closer to the Lord and allowed Him to comfort me, especially through singing the words of favorite hymns and through His Word. When the fears and doubts clamored, I turned to His Word and to prayer or to song. Time and time again I proved the reality of God’s comfort.
We don’t know what the future holds for any of us but we need to trust that God knows what He’s doing- that His plans will ultimately be for our good, Romans 8:28. Nothing can separate us from Christ’s love, Romans 8:38-39 reminds us. Unless we choose to allow it to. As the writer of Hebrews says, ‘let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,’ Hebrews 12:1.
Bible verse from the New American Standard Version
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