Authors are a strange group of people.
We are constantly unemployed – and okay with that. We are only as good as our last article or book and we are constantly striving toward the next one.
We brag about being our own boss yet we are the worst task masters around. We skip the party or the family gathering because we must submit our latest ramblings. We are up all hours of the night trying to capture at moment of inspiration and tie it to paper before it's forgotten. After all, that could be the one thought that’s accepted. It could be the one thought that touches another human or changes the course of history. It could be the one writing that springs a new movement into life.
At family functions we hold our purse close knowing that if we experience a great thought, pen and paper is close at hand. We work all the time. Every moment is an opportunity for insight. Every action can lead to an Epiphany. Every social situation can provide material for our work. While we experience the joy and love of our family and friends - the mind is always on, always writing, always searching for a story within the situation.
We try to see the world from all sides. We participate in a weird sort of hopping dance as we delicately try not to be captured by the knotty problems that connect the opposing sides. Like investigators of a spiders web, we avoid the glue that might attach us to the very problem we are investigating.
We are the voice of reason, the instigators and the comforters. We can be fun, sad, serious, excited, angry and compassionate – all at the same time. We are the voice that expresses the good in life and illuminates the bad.
We are the voice of the people. We cry for the victim, we march for those in slavery and we sing for the victorious.
We are overwhelmed by duty. Our readers are constantly in our minds - floating through our work - crying for help - in desperate need of comfort or insight or information. We are consumed with the quest for truth and the need to bring that truth to people everywhere. We desire truth in our own lives and in our personal convictions and social interactions. The worst thing you can do to an author is "lie" to them. It's an unforgivable act. We crave knowledge, insight and most of all universal truth.
With so much going on in our heads, we are not always easy to live with or easy to talk to....yet, there is no deeper love than the love of an author. That love expands with every story, every situation, every person we meet.
This great dedication to our work starts at the feet of Jesus. We know that while we may suffer for our opinions or for shining that bright light on truth....we are fulfilling the call of our Heavenly Father. It is from that perspective that we find meaning that others miss. It is from His framework and His wisdom and His strength that we ultimately can provide answers that work.
We are driven by a Heavenly force and that makes our work the most important thing we can do in life. When we allow that force to bleed through us and into our writing - we are fulfilled!
God loves you and has called you to write,
Debbie
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