The intersection

The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

I write because I can't not write. I didn't choose this. I didn't ask for it. For as long as I can remember I have enjoyed writing but it wasn't until my teen years that I started trying my hand at writing fiction. When I was sixteen I attempted to write a manuscript. By hand. In a spiral bound notebook. 

I don't remember how far into it I got, probably no more than a chapter, but even then writing was just in me. As the years passed I focused my writing on letters to friends and family and journals. It was enough. Until that fateful day when I gave in to my daughters pleas to 'write a book.' And the rest as they say...is history.

For me it was historical fiction. But it wasn't something I chose. I just fell into it and discovered I not only enjoy it but the words and stories just come without much work on my part. A bit of concentration, a lot of time, plenty of prayers and...a story comes to life before my eyes. People that didn't exist before become real. I learn their likes and dislikes, their fears and hopes.

But I did not choose this.

It is a gift from the Lord that I will use as long as He continues to let me use it. For some reason it is part of the plan He had for my life.

Much the way my faith in Him was. I did not choose that either. I grew up in a Christian home. My grandmother is the daughter of a preacher. I can't remember a time when I didn't know about Christ. Even in the times when I wasn't close to Him, wasn't following Him, He still knew me, still had plans for me. And He never left me. He kept using circumstances in my life to get me to where He wanted me.

Everyone knows writers have great imaginations. We have to have. All these made up stories could never come to life for us if we didn't. But never in my wildest imaginings could I have imagined the places He would take me. The gift He would give me. For that is what my faith in Him is. A gift. Something I could never have achieved on my own. It was given to me. And He used all those things in my life to bring me to that day a little over a year ago to when I typed those first lines in my first manuscript. But that isn't all He did. He planned my life in such a way as to give me things I would never have known to ask for.

My life is like a long road, taking me on a journey I do not know the destination of. Or it is a like a book that does not have anything written on the back cover. There is no jacket blurb, no synopsis, no introduction. Only a blank cover with pages inside. I can read the words describing where I have been but I cannot make out the pages that are yet to come. The ink is blurred. And yet...my Lord knows what those words mean. He knows what they will say.

For He knows what is to come before it comes. He planned the intersection in the road I am journeying on that brought you, dear reader, and I together today. He had a reason for me to write this post and for you to read it.

You may have planned to visit my blog today or you may have stumbled on it by 'accident.' It doesn't matter. The Lord knew you and I needed this moment to come together for a reason only He can see. And He planned things so they would happen just this way.

We may never be able to understand why He does the things He does but we can know that He has a plan for everything. As I sit writing this I am more than a month past the date at which I was supposed to hear from an agent that is considering one of my manuscripts. It has been in her hands for many months and I was told I would hear something in September. Here we are at the end of October and I haven't heard anything.

Once I might have been concerned or worried. I might have struggled with whether or not to contact her. To ask, or beg, for her decision. But I have relinquished my manuscript to this agent just as I have given this gift of writing to the Lord. If it is meant to be it will happen. And if it isn't...

I greatly enjoy what I am doing now. Writing stories and blog posts is fun and encouraging for me, as I pray that the things I write are encouraging for my readers. Thank you, dear reader, for giving me an audience to write to. For taking time out of your busy day to read what I have to say.