Sunday, April 25, 2010

I cut and pasted each post on worship into a single new chapter which will introduce my manuscript Christian Mythology. Now I am editing it in anticipation of elevator speeches in two weeks at the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

OK So It's Been a While

Up until today, I wrote when God wanted me to write. Yesterday He changed direction.

My wife and I are parents of a son with Asperger's Syndrome. We like to kid one another about where he got it from. The truth is, he probably got it from both of us. We have read a lot of studies which suggest that male and female "Aspys" tend towards one another for marital relationships. As social skills (or lack thereof) tend to be our biggest issue, this only seems natural that we would only be comfortable around someone else of our own kind. (We are not entirely convinced of this as a fact however since we see our son and the other Aspergers kids clash quite a bit.) But anyway, I am convinced that my wife and I are the progenitors.

One of my symptoms is an intense fear of the editing process in general and certain types of editors specifically. Since not too many people understand me, finding the right editor can be very difficult. Needless to say, I do not go out of my way to find them. This unfortunately leaves one other side effect. I have a lot of manuscripts sitting around in that great first draft form.

Two weeks from now I will attend my second ever writer's conference. This time, I won a scholarship, full-paid admission, room and board to the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference in Estes Park, CO. The entry requirement was for me to write an essay about why I should receive this scholarship, what I wanted to get out of this conference, and what God wanted me to say with my writing.

I wrote about the same subject that is on this blog, the same subject that fills three of my current manuscripts. Awake unto righteousness and sin not. The conference leader/scholarship judge is of the same heart and thus sent me notice of my acceptance.

That left me in a bit of a quandry because now I felt like I had to do something more with those manuscripts.

In the meantime, God was working on my life in a seemingly different area. Waking up is hard work. Discipleship is hard work. Living the holy life is hard work. These things are all the Christian's personal responsibility under the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Two days ago as I was pondering all this, God drew the parallel. God did all the work in saving me by grace. I do all the hard work of working out my salvation. God did all the work in giving me my writing as it first appeared. But editing is hard work and He clearly pointed out to me that it is my responsibility!

Well I wasted no time in getting right to it and spent the flight home yesterday editing the Introduction and Chapter One of the first manuscript "Christian Mythology". God wants me to get it "sale-ready" for this conference where I will meet with agents, editors, and publishers.

Pray this job gets done. Pray that there will be one like-minded agent/editor/publisher there that I will meet and agree with to advance these works to publication. I believe that God wants to quicken His saints to worship, discipleship, witnessing, and holy truth.