Writing for Jesus-a Win-win Calling
Why do you write? Are you hoping to become rich and famous someday? Or do you write because you have a passion to reach people with a message that is bigger than life itself?
Writing is not an easy way to make a living. There is a certain element of legitimacy in the old stereotype of the starving artist/writer. A few make it big and their success becomes the carrot that dangles in front of the thousands of writer wannabes who create the slush piles for countless editors.
Do you sense that God has called you to write? If so, you have an added incentive to follow through with your manuscripts to get them submitted and ultimately published. For the truly called, writing is not merely an option, it is a mandate.
Just as God calls us to be faithful stewards with our money, he also calls us to be faithful stewards with our talents and abilities.
God may give us wonderful messages to share with our readers, but he isn’t likely to dictate the stories word-for-word to us. We must develop our writing skills and hone our craft if we are to be successful in reaching others with our message. God gives seed to farmers and it is up to them to plant, nurture and care for them before they get a crop. The ideas God gives us, like seeds must be given time to germinate so we can write them. Then we must tend our garden of words through careful review, revisions, critiques, re-writes… a revolving process that may go on for months or years before the final harvest.
Do not become discouraged if you know you are called to write. Success may not be measured in dollars and cents, or in the number of readers your words reach. Success may come through a much needed letter written to a friend at just the right time. Know that God is perfectly capable of matching up your writings with the people who need your message. God may choose to bless your efforts with recognition and financial blessings in this life, or like storing up treasures in heaven, you may receive your blessings as a part of your eternal reward.
Somehow the second option sounds even better than the first, so keep your eyes and ears open to God’s leading, and faithfully tend to your crop of ideas and words, as your Heavenly Father leads you and tends to your needs.
Doesn’t this sound like a win-win for Christian authors? It certainly does to me. Would you share with us some of the ways you measure your success as a writer? Thanks!
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Welcome, Kathy! We hope you’ll visit often. Just sign up above to subscribe to our blog.
Blessings!
Jean Hall
Hi Janice, I just came across the Write2Ignite site and really appreciate your post! Very encouraging to this new writer… Thank you!
Thank you Kathy. I’m so glad you found us and hope we will continue to give you helpful tips for writing.
Certainly not measured by dollars and cents. Maybe perhaps by the other writers we meet and fellowship with along the way??
…or in friends we will meet for the first time in eternity…
Write2Ignite Team,
Once, when someone learned that I wrote for the Christian market, she told me that she didn’t write for them because it had a reputation of not paying well. I thought on that comment and my small number of accepted activities for Christian take-home papers. I did not let her comments discourage me. Instead, I chose to see the literature reaching children all over the world and spreading God’s word through scripture-based activities. I call that world-wide mission and success for God’s kingdom. That was all the motivation it took to encourage me to stick with the Christian market.
I hope others join me in seeing success as measured by the spread of God’s word.
Linda Andersen
I love your spirit, Linda. Not all rewards can be measured in dollars and cents.