How Writers Can Stay Creative in Unproductive Seasons: 15 Ways to Renew Your Mind, Faith, and Writing Life

From Edie: Discover practical and faith-centered ways to stay creative when your writing feels stalled. These 15 strategies will help you renew your mind, refresh your creativity, and navigate unproductive seasons with hope, rest, and spiritual renewal.

How Writers Can Stay Creative in Unproductive Seasons: 15 Ways to Renew Your Mind, Faith, and Writing Life

by DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

Writers often face rejection, deadlines, and doubt. We may say we trust God with our writing, but when a season feels barren, that trust can be tested. November’s image of bleak fields after harvest is not a picture of discouragement but a reminder of God’s promise of renewal. 

We’ve planted words, nurtured them with prayer and edits, and released them to our readers. Sometimes a new contract doesn’t come, or fresh ideas seem as bare as empty fields. But those fields are resting, just like we need to breathe new life into our minds and bodies. The farmer trusts God for spring to plant new growth, and we writers can trust God to rejuvenation our hearts, minds, and creativity for the next project.

Patience Now for Writers & Dreamers

by Henry McLaughlin @RiverBendSagas

There is a scene in Star Wars, Episode IV, where Luke is attacking the Death Star, about to drop a bomb down a chute to the core of the weapon. His wing commander tells him, “Wait for it. Wait for it.

Did you know the Lord tells us basically the same thing? In Habakkuk 2:2 – 3 (NLT) the prophet writes:

Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.

How many of us have ever prayed along the lines of: Lord, fill me with Your patience. NOW? I think we all have in one form or another. We have a dream, a desire, a goal and it feels like it’s never going to happen.

Find Freedom from Shame’s Shackles

by Sarah Van Diest @SarahVanDiest

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” Psalm 139:14

Shame: “a painful feeling that's a mix of regret, self-hate, and dishonor.”* We all know how it feels. 

Simply put, it’s a negative feeling we work diligently to avoid, and yet so many of us live with shame as our constant companion. (https://www.vocabulary.com/

dictionary/shame)

Trusting God for the Unseen

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

I snapped the picture last year in the Rocky Mountain National Park. These magnificent views reminded me anew about the greatness of our God. I believe faith is important, but I also believe God gives us concrete moments to hang onto when our faith needs to stretch. 

What do you think? How have your experiences strengthened your faith?

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

I invite you to use this image any way you like online. Post it to your blog, share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, anywhere you'd like. All I ask is that you keep it intact, with my website watermark visible.

Don't forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

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Trusting #God for the Unseen by seeing what He's done - @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

The Helper

by Sarah Van Diest

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:26

There it is. Strong and clear. A beam of light; a tone of pure beauty. I see it. It calls to me. It pierces that deep and darkened place in me. It strikes like lightning on my soul. It fuels and ignites. Impassions and inspires, infusing its electricity into my spirit. I could soar. I could fly.

It is music. It is light. It is air and water. It is life.

Intoxicated by this vibrancy, the attachment grows; the longing intensifies. The empty place long covered is revealed, the straw raked back, the debris blown away… hope of its filling floods the air; sundrenched, warm, and brilliant.

Life breaks into the dark, shattering its bleak surface into shards of obsidian dust filtering out onto the wind.

Weekend Worship—Faith for the Directionally Challenged

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

As the fog began to lift, I focused on the dim outline of the steeple and had to smile.

The one landmark that coalesced into solidarity was a church steeple. How like God to show up when I needed stability. It was just the reminder I craved. Recently, at the ACFW conference, my sense of direction had failed—along with my self-confidence—and I’d found myself hopelessly turned around. This really shouldn’t have been a big deal. After all, I was safe inside the hotel convention center. But, with my emotions on a roller coaster of ups and downs, I stood at the window unconsciously searching for something to anchor my world.

A writing conference is fraught with emotional highs and lows. One minute you find yourself full of confidence in your abilities when an interview goes well. Then, fifteen minutes later, you are certain you should pack up your computer and start washing cars for a living.

I took a deep breath and sighed out a prayer of thanksgiving. It was God who’d called me to this life of pen, pain and perseverance, and He would see me through.

When I put my confidence in Him, everything else falls into place. The expectations of this world recede into proper perspective, and I can feel God's joy as I exercise the gift He's given me. When my life begins to tilt out of control, the only place I need to look for direction is up.

Weekend Worship—Shield of Faith

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16

I love rainy days. The rest of my family are sun worshippers, but I look forward to those cozy days, hemmed with rain and raveled in jagged strips of lightning. 




I especially love walking in the rain. There’s just something comforting in huddling beneath a large umbrella, safe and dry, while the world around me is wet.

It occurred to me that this is a perfect picture of what God does with us. As we move about our days, we’re sheltered by Him. Once we put our faith in God, He becomes our shield—our umbrella in a dreary world. We live in this world, but we’re not of this world.

Our faith is a shield—not because it’s always strong—but because the One we believe in is always strong.

            

Weekend Worship—Meditations from Ethiopia #8—Mission Trip, Why Bother?

“Why spend all that money and go half-way around the world when folks here need help?”

I've had a lot of people ask me why I went on a mission trip.

The answer is both simple and complicated—and it started with God. First and foremost, I felt like God wanted me to go. I felt drawn to people in other countries.  It wasn’t as simple as hearing an audible voice. It was much more like a yearning, deep inside.

The second reason is totally selfish. I felt totally ineffective in my own spiritual life. I was insulated in our culture—sacred and secular. The time had come for me to experience the way the rest of the world lived.

As much as I looked forward to my trip, I was totally unprepared for the results . . . in me . . . my family . . . my community.

I experienced a personal revival. My entire way of looking at life changed and I was deeply moved by how easy and blessed my life was. I experienced—for the first time ever—how truly wealthy we are in America.

I had the unprecedented opportunity to reach out to loved ones in my family and share the love of Jesus in a different way. This resulted in not only a strengthening of my faith, but theirs as well.

Finally I’ve had opportunities to reach out and impact my community.

So was it worth it? Absolutely.

How about you? Have you had the opportunity to experience something similar? How has it affected your life?

Weekend Worship—Meditations from Ethiopia #7—A Simple Faith

Now faith is the assurance of thing hoped for, the conviction of things not see. Hebrews 11:1

Our trip to Ethiopia was filled with amazing highs and devastating lows—and many times it was hard to tell which was which. As I read back through my journal, I’m struck by how everything God showed me had to do with light.

Today I want to share one of my experiences.

Early in the trip we visited a mountain outside Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia. We were going to visit those who’ve been exiled because they suffer from the Aids virus. As we traveled through the city we saw painted walls and women in bright colors, all against bleak patches of poverty, outlined in dark grays and browns of despair.

It was cloudy on the mountain and a storm threatened, but that didn’t deter the children that gathered, hopeful and curious, always begging. We were invited into a young mother’s small home. The home was neatly kept, but barely the size of two double beds. Sarah’s son was asleep when we arrived, but he soon roused, watching us with beautiful dark eyes.

Through an interpreter Sarah (not her real name) shared her story with us.

"When I found I had the virus, I came to the mountain. There’s a spring here, blessed by the church, and said to have the power to heal. I visited the spring daily, but I didn’t expect healing. I came here to die, and instead I found life.

"It was going to and from this spring that I met my Jesus. He has given me hope and peace. And now I know that in Him, I will live forever. He has provided for my every need and I know that I am a woman blessed."

The simple dignity of her faith touched me deeply, as she put everything about life into perfect perspective. I hope her message touches you as well.