God Knows What Writers Don’t

by Martin Wiles @RiverBendSagas

God knows what writers don’t, and I’m glad. 

One day while sitting at my desk, I received a text from my wife. It read, “I want to go to the mountains.” Since our anniversary was in a couple of weeks, I thought of the train—a two-for-one deal. 

Once again, we headed to Bryson City, North Carolina, to board the Great Smoky Mountain Railway and make a short trip to Dillsboro, North Carolina. 

Rain fell on and off on our journey to the train station and as we rode the train. But the clouds briefly broke when we arrived in Dillsboro. We visited a small tavern, ordered burgers and fries, and watched as the almost nine hundred other people on the train milled about restaurants and shops. 

Before we knew it, the one-and-a-half-hour layover ended, and the conductor blew the whistle to board. The ride back was as peaceful as the ride over. 

When we arrived in Bryson City, we were anxious to deboard. The next day was Sunday—a busy day for us. As the train crawled to a stop, passengers in the neighboring car made their way through our car to deboard. We stood and joined the line. But no call came to deboard. 

Railway personnel paced up and down outside the long line of cars, cautioning passengers not to dangle their arms out the windows or try to deboard. I wondered why. After fifteen minutes of standing, we found out. 

We heard the “toot, toot” of the old steam engine before we saw it. It made its way close to the train as it unhooked from one end and moved to the other end. I could have reached out and touched it. Now, I knew why we couldn’t get off. The railroad workers knew what we didn’t. Injury or death awaited any who disobeyed their orders. 

After being sold by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused of rape, and thrown into prison for two years, Joseph determined God knew what he hadn’t known for the last thirteen years. His plight was a part of God’s plan to save his family from starving to death during a famine. 

“So it was God who sent me here, not you (Genesis 45:8 NLT)!

As we writers live life and pursue our calling, we may not understand why many things happen or don’t happen. Why did the agent select the other person to represent instead of me? Don’t I have more experience and followers? Why did so and so get the manuscript contract? He didn’t even have to secure an agent. Why did a publishing company contact her about an in-house book? Or why did the editor contact her for a writing assignment and not me? 

But if we walk by faith, we can believe God is working behind the scenes, forming us into the image of his Son and guiding us to carry out his specific plan for us. We don’t see the end, but he does. Perhaps we only needed to write the manuscript for our personal catharsis. Maybe our family and friends were the ones who really needed to read our self-published book. Or perhaps just one person needed to see our devotion.

Although our writing journey may include things we consider “not good,” it becomes good when we allow God to take us where he wants us—emotionally and spiritually. 

When your writing journey—or just life in general—isn’t making sense, trust that God knows what you don’t know.

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God Knows What Writers Don't, insight from author Martin Wiles, @LinesFromGod on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Martin Wiles is the founder of Love Lines from God (WWW.LOVELINESFROMGOD.COM) and serves as Managing Editor for Christian Devotions, Senior Editor for Inspire a Fire, and Proof Editor for Courier Publishing. He has authored six books and has been published in numerous publications. His most recent book, DON'T JUST LIVE...REALLY LIVE, debuted in October of 2021. He is a freelance editor, English teacher, author, and pastor.

Featured Image: Photo by Marko Mudrinic on Unsplash