Just Do It...Again, Again, & Again

First, a word from Os Hillman

Little by Little TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2 by Os Hillman

Saturday, July 27 2013

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty" (Prov 14:23).
 
 "Is there something you would like to accomplish in life but simply cannot find the hours in the day to get started? Many of us suffer from procrastination. We justify putting our dreams aside because we don't believe we have the time or resources to accomplish the task.  Many times people tell me they believe they are called to write a book. I tell them, "Great, if God has called you to write a book, begin to write it." Sometimes the response is: "But I don't have a publisher." "That has nothing to do with it," I say. "That is not your problem. If God calls you to write a book, you are to begin to write. You may not be writing to get published. You may be writing for other purposes."

I went to check out the Just Do It logo online and saw this.....

 



Now that is more like it! Realism. Most of us want to do cool stuff like write a book. But it is so much work, so frustrating, and perhaps most discouraging of all, so thankless at times. Ever do what you thought was really good work and someone you shared it with was obviously underwhelmed and you begin to think...."I am such a loser." Or perhaps you harbor hostile thoughts towards the Ho-Hummer. It hurts man to get a yawn, "it's nice," or faint praise. Almost would rather receive a "It Sucks" and take the horns rather than get nicked.

I decided to write a Common Grace book because of some twists and turn. some of it really unfortunate. When bad things happen, remember that God superintends over the storm to move your ship in a different direction, even though the means He uses to do so may be quite painful. At some point He will say to the storm of adversity , "Peace, Be Still."

When writing my book, I went through so many rewrites and hearing my Editor's critiques. It hurt. I felt like I was trying to unlock a safe and didn't know the combination. It became a walking through the desert experience for two years with the last two chapters. I had the first five chapters pretty well structured within the first year of writing the book. What was needed there was some serious rewriting and editing, but the themes--like a photograph--were aiming at the right subjects, we just needed to work on cutting out, adding, and focus. The last two chapters were a different story entirely.

I had no idea of what I was trying to say which makes it quite hard to say it. I floundered about. My Editor came to the rescue for Chapter 6 when he told me what he thought I was trying to say but not doing a particularly good job at it. There was a thread of any idea that was tangled up in a multitude of messages, so we had to pull everything apart, throw away, a re-weave every word practically.

Then Chapter 7 came, and I was lost. A dead end. It was so frustrating to not know where to go from the end of Chapter 6. It was especially daunting since I was using a "Climbing A Mountain" metaphor for the collegiate journey and I, as a writer, was totally disoriented and walking in circles running out of inspirational water. And the best my editor could do was act as the Great Negator. As in, "No this is not working." Finally, in a fateful day last year over my birthday weekend, God provided the revelation of how to get out of it. God, the great circle and cycle breaker, in due time.

And, when I shared what I had written, my Editor gave it a thumbs up. Or maybe, I just wore the poor man out.

In my next blog I will detail how the publishing process has gone...that is a story in itself.

Book available on Lulu and Kindle