And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8
I am very selfish with my time. “I’m working,” I tell my friends, my family when they call while I’m in the middle of writing. However, sometimes I feel like a big fake. How can earnings that average less than my monthly electric bill actually be considered a job?
In spite of this abysmal earnings-per-hour ratio, I try to treat writing like teaching a class. I would never stop teaching to answer the phone.
I will be in the middle of writing a passage set deep in the swamp of Northwest Florida Cyprus
But, don’t my friends and family need me when they call? Isn’t it more Godly to stop what I’m doing, lay my selfishness aside and enjoy their phone fellowship? Isn’t that what sacrifice is all about?
I wish I could be like Mother Teresa, calm and full of the wisdom. She laid her life on the altar of sacrifice and gave all she had to help the poor.
My daily dilemma is this: what is my altar of sacrifice? More specifically, how much time do I give to my writing, and how much time do I give to others? God has called me to write, but he has also called me to be a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend.
So when the verse says that God will give me all that I need to abound in every good work, how do I know which good works I’m supposed to be abounding in? Is writing a good work? Or is it better to help people? Or is my writing helping people?
I don’t know. And, not a day goes by that I don’t struggle with whether or not I should answer my phone while I am writing.
But shouldn’t this passage give me hope? “he who supplies seeds to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 2 Corinthians 9:10
In this passage, Paul is talking specifically about giving to the poor, giving to those in need.
What does it mean for me to give to the poor, to those in need? Is my tithe at church enough money to give? Is writing giving to those in need?
When I first started writing devotionals, I pledged all my income from devotional writing to a mission in India
I’m not sure my meager earnings have helped many girls get off the street.
Peace comes to me when I remember the words of a wise writer, also a Christian, who told me many years ago, “pay yourself first. If you don’t, you will get nothing done that needs doing.”
What she meant by that was this: write first. If writing is what you are called to do, get your writing done first. Every day.
She’s right. When I get my writing done first, I am much happier, much more at peace the rest of the day. I am nicer to my husband and more patient with my children.
Here’s what I’ve come to. I have to believe that God is bigger than I can even imagine. I have to believe that if I earnestly seek his guidance through daily scripture study, fellowship with Christian friends, consistent praise and worship, that God will guide me. He will give me the insight that I need moment by moment, day by day. It’s the manna story all over again. I have to stop worrying about the promised land, and walk down the road I see ahead of me right now.
Amen.