Currently I’m reading a new series by Karen Kingsbury. The book I’m starting with is called “Leaving”. The title intrigued me do to my recent battle overcoming loss. In this book, a young man had a challenging job offer put before him. After the interview, walking out to the car, he’d all but decided to decline the job. It was a combination teaching/coaching job in a rural school district. He would be an assistant coach to an incorrigible, negative man who belittled the kids. The young man didn’t want anything to do with this job, until upon leaving the school he saw a kid running pass plays on the football field all by himself, in the snow, after the practice ended. The boy asked him if he was the new assistant coach. Something inside him made him answer yes.
Did you ever feel called to get involved in something you absolutely wanted to walk away from because you knew it was going to be a hard road? Maybe your friends all advised you to walk away, too? Maybe you felt so under qualified and overwhelmed? Then something deep inside, or a whisper in your ear, or a hand on your shoulder laid it upon your heart that you should do it. Sometimes you even walk away two or three times, but in the end you say yes.
I’ve been there a few times. I’m there now. Write a children’s book. Get it published. Take it around and present it in schools.
But Lord, I don’t know how to write a book.
Write it.
But Lord, self-publishing a picture book not only costs a fortune, I haven’t a clue how to go about it.
Write it.
But Lord, it’s a huge undertaking, maybe even beyond me, even though I’m passionate about the message for children, I still feel so inadequate.
Write it.
As each day goes by this project gets more real. As each day goes by I get more scared that I’ll fail. Today’s news had a great story about the young lady who invented Spanx, Sara Blakely. Her father used to ask her and her brother at the dinner table what they failed at each day, then high five them for at least trying. This changed her whole mindset about failure. Failure, to Sara, meant not trying. All the setbacks along the way was the best part. The journey was what made life, life. In other words, for Sara and her brother, impossible is just a word for not trying.
This day has been full of whispers slamming my angst. I guess I’ll finish the final rewriting of the book, and leave the publishing and the project of taking it on the road to God.
And so, as another day goes by, my “yes” is on the table, and…I have written.
~ from “Leaving”, by Karen Kingsbury…
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