Throughout my life in the church, from earliest Sunday school lessons to the current day, whenever I encounter Bible stories about people who have done less-than-good things, I have grown less judgmental of them than I might have in the past.
The Israelites in the desert for forty years are actually a picture of just about every believer I know, including me. God does great things, but at the first sign of trouble, we forget them in a flash and commence the grumbling about our lot in life.
Maybe the period of time between grumbling and recognizing trials as part of a refining process becomes shorter, but the whining and complaining are always there for a time.
Poor us.
So, this week, I am thanking God for lessons learned this year. Christians are supposed to be lifelong learners anyway, right?
As a Christian man, here’s what I am thankful I learned (again) this year:
- I am not God.
- God provides grace for each new day.
- God makes everything work together for good for those called according to his purpose.
- Following Christ is the only totally true thing in this world.
By the way, this was the same list as last year. My hard head is getting in the way of spiritual growth.
Grumble.
As a literary agent, here’s what I learned this year:
- Just when I figure out what a publisher wants in a proposal, it changes. Deal with it.
- Publishing is like trying to predict the weather. It is never a perfect science.
- Author platforms built on social media can be either good or not so good. It is better to have 200 committed, responsive followers than 20,000 who are using you to puff up their following numbers by reciprocal following. Effective social media use is about follower interaction, not only numbers.
- Great proposals get published, or not.
Come to think about it, this is also the same list as I made last year, and the year before and the year before. You’d think at some point the lessons would stick.
I have an open mind for anything new for the next year.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Fabulous. Again.
The single most valuable thing that exists and that an individual can possess throughout all of creation is the love of God. This is what I most cherish above all else and am most thankful for. Everything else comes in distantly less.
God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Discouraging, yes? Encouraging, yes? Yep. You got it right. Our challenge is to do our best with what we’ve been given and have the tools to make happen, and we must continually seek to grow deeper in God and better at what we do. I’m glad God looks at the heart. That gives me hope, especially when my efforts seem to not pay off. The parts with God at the healm will always have eternal value. Have a lovely Thanksgiving, Dan.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and all the Steve Laube Agency.
And I must add that you were very kind when I met you on an elevator at ACFW this past August. We were the only two on it at the time, and when I realized who you were I babbled on about how exciting to meet you in person (yes, I was sincere) and you were nice as you smiled at me and replied kindly. 🙂
The Lord has been so gracious to me this year, as always, that I cannot believe how great He is.
Happy Thanksgiving, Dan!
Great message. I continue to write my first Christian fiction novel and I appreciate the encouragement.
I’m thankful that God has hitched me to a new plow since I retired. I’m thankful for the calling to write fiction and for all the folks I’ve met in the writing community in the last 3 years. I love how God blesses us with each other.
Dan, excellent post, and very appropriate for the season. Thanks for sharing, and have a happy Thanksgiving.