Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power…
Several weeks ago, I submitted a curriculum to a new publisher that I know that I know that He wrote through me. It’s about hurts, habits and hang-ups and we (CPM) have actually been using it in our Transform Trench Classes. I was super excited about working with this new publisher for a few reasons: they are a division of Thomas Nelson/Zondervan, the largest traditional publishers in the world, and so our curriculum would have their logo on it, or so I was assured. In addition, the sales rep explained that every manuscript I submitted would increase my chances of being picked up as an author for Thomas Nelson/Zondervan. Well, let’s really inundate them, I though and in my zealous self, I actually gave them one of my Cup books to re-publish, thinking now I have two chances!
In the process, I’ll have to confess, there have been a few warning lights going off; you know, that yellow light you try and speed through before it turns red? Oh, how true it is that hindsight is 20/20 but His grace is sufficient for me! [2nd Corinthians 12:9]
Anyway, right before I blew completely through the light getting ever so orange, I put the brakes on and asked a couple of questions, questions that caused me to skid in the intersection of this move!
See, I discovered through a series of events and a conversation that I insisted on having with my project coordinator, that I had been mislead. Yes, the same people that look at content for Thomas Nelson and Zondervan are the same people that look at the manuscripts from this publisher … AFTER the work is published and they determine how well it’s selling.
Disappointment poured through every cell of my body as I hung up the phone, preventing me from speaking, but giving my eyes permission to well up. I won’t edify the enemy by sharing some of the most negative thoughts that ran through my soul like tiny spiders growing bigger by the moment, but I will say I was able to step back within a few moments and seek Him for direction.
I didn’t hear a loud audible voice giving me directions with specificity and an exact route to go, but I will say just that morning, before even having this conversation with my contact person at the new publisher’s, I was reminded of something I’d heard a couple of years ago about how God will promote that which He’s written. Later on that night I received a confirmation along that very same directive, and it helped me to truly step back, not be in a hurry and go a different direction.
Once I took that new direction, I felt a peace and knew I was on to something, and I can’t wait to see what transpires because of it. I am doing my homework and letting God do the rest. That is where this power thought comes from:
We minimize God when we maximize our struggles!
See, for a while, my focus was on getting published by a traditional
publisher, and of course with the right intentions in mind: To help
others with their hurts, habits and hang-ups, but oh, how easy it was to
blow through that yellow light and lose focus by maximizing that
goal/struggle.How many times have we run ahead of God whining about our troubles and struggles, minimizing our God’s sovereignty and will for our lives ultimately maximizing ourselves?
Father, forgive me for running ahead of you and losing focus, for thinking I had to find a publisher for your curriculum. I just want it to happen yesterday! Thank you for gently reminding me that you have my best interest at heart, that your ways are not my ways, and for nudging me ever so gently, then pulling me back so that my focus is not on the daunting dilemma of publishing and getting this curriculum into the hands and hearts of those struggling with hurts, habits and hang-ups, but on maximizing all that you have given me in the area of writing because my heart is entwined with yours.
Oh, that we would maximize our God!
Evinda
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