There's this girl.....

I'm going to do it.  I'm going to take a risk.  Last week I wrote all about how we were made to do big things and that there is a sense of urgency because this life is brief.  So what good is all that thinking and pontificating if I don't even take my own advice? 

So I have no choice in the matter, really!  What am I going to do, you ask?  Well, it's kind of hard to say it out loud because I might never even finish it.  Or if I do, nothing may come of it.  It could be a huge waste of time.  Wait a minute....maybe I should rethink this....NO!!  I have to!  Right?!?!  Okay...want to know what it is?  I'm going to...er...I'm going to attempt to...umm...well, I'll just spit it out:  (gulp) I'm going to write a novel.

What on earth makes me think anyone else would have any desire to read a story that comes out of my head, you ask?  It's all right.  I've asked myself that many times already.  But I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter.  I'm not doing it for acclaim, or accomplishment, or wealth.  Those are things the world offers and 1 John 2:15 tells us not to love this world or the things in it because "the world is fading away, along with everything people crave."  And besides, I know for certain that my mom and my sister will read it, so it won't be a total loss, right?

I am doing this for one reason.  This is something I can do that can bring honor to God.  I believe that when He poured the ingredients into the soup of my soul He threw in some gifts and talents that combine for the perfect recipe to make a writer.  For a long time I didn't even know I had these gifts and talents.  Then I had a feeling I might possess them but I let them simmer for a while so that I could have my babies and take some time to get to know God better. 

Then an interesting sequence of events transpired.  Several months ago a good friend loaned me a book by Francine Rivers and I fell in love with fiction again. 

That's how it began. 

I'll continue the story in subsequent blogs.  And I'll reveal bits of the other story, you know...the novel (it feels strange even saying that).  All I'll say for now is that there's this girl...she wants something really badly and she's willing to risk everything to get it.  And when she finally gets it?  Well, that's when the story really gets interesting.  Her story is my story.  It's every person's story who has ever pursued a relationship with the One who made them only to discover that we were made for a purpose--one that is scary and foreign and seemingly impossible.

To be continued......