Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ...

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day ...

Alack and alas! Apparently, blogging is yet one more thing to procrastinate. "I'll get to that ... tomorrow. " What's that old saying about tomorrow never arriving? hmmm ...

In happy news, our wonderful five-year-old has been chosen by her Kindergarten teacher to be the one representative from her class for the school government. Needless to say, her daddy and I are so proud.

And I have a detailed character sketch, two new scenes, and some light on the path for my story's direction. Originally, the idea came to me as a father-daughter story, with the father as the main-point-of-view protagonist. At a writer's conference this summer, I had wonderful feedback from agents and a few editors, but the general consensus: women read the great majority of fiction, and women want to read about women. So I fretted and picked and poked and tried, so hard, to turn it into the female protagonist's story (the romantic counterpart, not the daughter). After all, the professionals said, women want to read about women.

Then I went to a retreat with the wonderful women of Gig Harbor's Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church (shout out to those amazing, gracious ladies and my dear friend who gave me her spot), and the Lord spoke right to my heart. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted about many things ..."

You remember that story. Mary sat at Jesus's feet and basked in his presence while Martha bustled about the kitchen, cooking up a feast. When she complained to Jesus about Mary's lack of help, Jesus gave her that word of correction--"You are worried and bothered by so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10: 41-42.

Writing, for me, is co-laboring with the Lord, sitting at his feet, learning from him. It is a walk of faith. I was so distracted by whether or not the story the Lord laid on my heart was marketable, that I couldn't make any headway with it. Finally, I gave up and went back to my original version with my male protagonist, and the details are falling into place. Marketable or not, it's the story I have to write.

What about you? Is the Lord leading you in a way that seems "counter-culture," yet is the only path that gives you peace and joy? Trust him. Remember, it's more about the journey than the destination.