Staying the Course

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My church is currently working through a series that goes by the title of this post: “Staying the Course.” It’s a series of teachings aimed at providing some practical wisdom to persevering, to keep running the race.

This past Sunday, we had a guest Sy Rogers share his thoughts on the topic. As an aside, if you haven’t heard Sy speak do check him out. Besides having a fabulous personal salvation story that has framed much of his thirty-year ministry he is tremendously engaging and entertaining.

Sy emphasised the importance of understanding God’s character and highlighted the point that He is deliberately mysterious. This trait often causes us much frustration. “Why don’t you just tell me what to do, Lord?”

But it’s in the mystery where we find faith. Yes, God first pursues us but He too desires we pursue Him.

“Pursuit is the proof of your desire; you’ll never possess what you don’t pursue.”

Stay in the Pool

This topic made me reflect on the writing life. In fact, we really can relate it to most things: friendships, marriage, career, vocations, etc. When I wrote Angelguard I was continuously amazed how when I set out on most days I really didn’t know what I was going to write. (Yes, I’m a pantser). However, once I sat down at the computer, the characters would take over and that daily word limit would soon be complete.

That hasn’t been my experience second time round. I was relating this with another author the other day. Jim’s working on his seventh novel and he laughed at my comment and expressed he was experiencing the same even though he’d done it six times previously. He then proceeded to mention a similar conversation he’d had with another prolific author, who said even though he’d written in excess of thirty novels, he was finding the latest one the toughest yet.

I took great encouragement from that brief exchange.

One thing I’m absolutely sure of with both of those authors is, even though it’s tough going now, they’ll persevere and get the novel done. They’ll finish the race.

They will turn up every day.

We’ve all read the quotes about not waiting for inspiration before we sit down to create. The inspiration comes out of the work. The Holy Spirit has no one to guide if we’re not playing our part by turning up.

“You’ve just got to stay in the pool longer than the others.”

Michael Phelps, the champion swimmer, spoke those words. Don’t you just love that? One of the greatest swimmers of all time attributed his achievements to that work ethic.

The Christian walk is like that. We often go through a slump simply because we haven’t spent enough time in the pool with God. Life gets even busier, stuff happens; you know the drill.

And what about that manuscript, yes, Ian what about that manuscript? Have we spent too much time writing blog posts, reading another book on how to be a bestseller or getting lost down some research maze?

Keep turning up to write. God’s waiting for you and is ready to create some magic with you.

Ian Acheson is an author and strategy consultant based in Northern Sydney. Ian's first novel of speculative fiction, Angelguard, is now available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. You can find more about Angelguard at Ian's website, on his author Facebook page and Twitter

Watching our babies grow

On 4^th March this year, our fourth grandchild was born—a little girl called Maxine. Of course, she is

gorgeous! She has lots of black hair, big dark eyes and lovely, milk chocolate skin, courtesy of her Ghanaian father. And now she has a beautiful smile that has become wider and wider and appears more often these days. We look forward to the next stages of her development too, which no doubt will include things like noticing her own hands and rolling over onto her tummy. At the moment, we can’t imagine her sitting or crawling or eventually walking and talking, but we trust all that will happen in due course.

I thought of Maxine recently, in the midst of writing my second work of non-fiction. This book was conceived towards the end of last year and is taking some time to develop. It is another memoir, but, unlike Soul Friend, it follows a particular thread of my journey from my earliest years to the present. As well, each chapter contains some teaching on one facet of that journey and some reflection questions for readers. At the moment, I am unsure if it will work—and whether it will even be considered suitable for publication. Some days, I want to forget about the whole idea, because this book is proving quite difficult to bring together in the shape I envisage. But I press on. After all, it’s my baby—it has a name already and I can visualise that cover even now.

I remember a time in 2005 when I was looking for a publisher for my very first novel Heléna. I had almost given up and shared my dilemma with some Christian women leaders at a retreat. As we prayed for one another, one younger woman prayed specifically that I would find a publisher and that Heléna would in fact be birthed safely. I was touched to the point of tears that she understood how this first novel did indeed feel like a real baby to me. It had actually gestated within me for years and years—and I longed for it to see the light of day. Later, she quietly told me she had seen an ad for a new Christian publisher in a magazine at her mother’s place and would send me the details. I knew she was a busy, young mum and doubted she would remember—but she did. Many months later, this was the publisher who released my first novel Heléna.

Yes, sometimes it’s exhausting work, coaxing those books inside us into being, helping them take shape in the way God wants. But I take heart as I watch our little Maxine develop more and more as a little person. As I put time and effort and prayer into this current writing project of mine, it will come together, if God wants it to touch others for the Kingdom. As I nurture it carefully and as God breathes life into it, it will grow and blossom, just as God has reminded me through our little granddaughter.

If you too are in the midst of wrestling with a writing project, may you take heart today and keep going. May God give you great joy as you watch that precious baby grow and develop—and eventually stand on its own two feet!

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and three grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com or www.soulfriend.com.au.