From Edie: Martin Wiles knows writers face setbacks, disappointments, and unexpected challenges. He shares how the right perspective can help you stay encouraged and trust God.
How Writers Can Keep the Right Perspective During a Difficult Writing Journey
by Martin Wiles @LinesFromGod
The storm rolled through during the night, but my wife and I had slept like babies. When I got up the next morning, I found water on the living room floor. I followed the puddle around the corner and discovered the front two bedrooms were soaked as well.
We had faced a drainage problem since buying our home. Our subdivision lies just outside a flood zone and has a large creek snaking through it. Any amount of rain presents problems.
We replaced our front gutters, hoping to eliminate the flooding on the front sidewalk. The gutter man had moved our downspout to the flower bed just outside one of the front bedrooms, hoping to eliminate our water-in-the-carport problem. But, obviously, we created a worse problem.
I quickly woke my wife, and, using every towel in the house, we soaked up the water. Later, after returning home from meeting friends for coffee at a local restaurant, she found water pouring into the same places. She called the gutter man, who came in the rain and extended our downspout out of the flowerbed. That fixed the problem, but the inside damage was done. We would need a French drain to prevent a recurrence and possibly new flooring.
My day at work was filled with anxiety as my wife repeatedly sent pictures of water running into the house and shared the cost of repairs. Later, like Paul, I realized all this was just a matter of perspective.
Paul endured great suffering as he shared the gospel across his known world. But when he compared it to what he would experience in heaven, he pronounced his sufferings as nothing. “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later” (Romans 8:18 NLT).
When I thought of those in western North Carolina who had lost possessions, homes, businesses, and even towns during Hurricane Helena, I realized my little bit of water was nothing compared to what many had experienced.
The writing life is also flooded with challenges, difficulties, and trials—some only a few inches deep, others powerful enough to wash away a dam. Why the flood looks different for each writer may puzzle us, but God knows. Like an engineer who imagines a rebuilding plan after a flood, God’s ways are higher than ours and beyond our comprehension.
Our perspective, negative or positive, can affect the joy of the journey. Some difficulties we bring on ourselves through poor decisions. We launch ahead on a writing or publishing adventure without checking with the Supreme Muse, who directs our journey. Although we may not always understand his plan, we can know it by checking with him in prayer before we launch off without directions.
Sometimes our sin-broken world affects the journey. We write fiction or non-fiction that addresses spiritual matters, designed to point others to Christ or help them grow spiritually. Then, we are rewarded by writing opportunities that seem as dry as a diabetic’s mouth, or gravity holds down our book sales as it does our bodies. People choose filth over faith topics.
God tells us not to have an anxious perspective. He is in control. Our job is not to worry but to present our journey to him. He will work all things together for our good and his glory and give us a peace that is beyond our understanding. We’ll not resent those whose journey seems easier or more prosperous. Rather, we’ll rejoice over their success.
At the end of the day, our writing journey is a matter of perspective. As Paul reminds us, none of our troubles here will compare with what we look forward to in heaven.
So, enjoy your journey. It may not look as you want it to or as another writer’s does, but it’s the journey on which God wants you.
TWEETABLE
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