Have a Little Faith

When you venture into the unknown, trust yourself and believe that there’s great blessing heading your way:

~ by Jonathan Fields

Keep Going in the Face of Rejection

I’ve watched so many writer friends struggling with rejections lately, and I feel their discouragement and pain. It’s hard to pick yourself up and keep going when you’re continually hearing No, No, No, or worse yet, no feedback at all.

When I came across this comment on Margie Lawson’s site, I thought it was worth sharing:

“I made a commitment to myself that no matter what happened with my writing life, I would be okay. I think we need to remind ourselves that it’s the trying that matters most. That shows courage and faith. We are at our very best when we try, so I would have been darned proud of myself whether or not I got published.”  ~Kieran Kramer

If we can adopt an attitude like this, we’ll keep pursuing our craft, keep putting words down on paper, keep remembering our dream. Not our dream of being published, but our dream of being writers, of expressing ourselves, of crafting new worlds, of making sense out of life.

Endless Possibilities

Today I watched as ants crawled across the ground and into a gully that must look overwhelming to them and labored to the other side. Yet all it would take is a tiny bit of help from me, and they could cross that span in seconds with no effort. But they have no idea I’m even there or what I’m capable of or that I’m willing to help.

Even the ants who are aware I’m there don’t comprehend the vastness and power of me. They crawl over parts of me or climb across the bridge I make of my hand, but do they ever see all of me? And if they did, would they know who or what I am? Or would they just see me as another obstacle in their path?

Then I wonder if people aren’t doing the same thing as ants as they scurry around oblivious to a major source of assistance, to possibilities, to wondrous miracles that could take place in their lives if only they knew the source of help sitting beside them is so huge it’s unfathomable.

And even those who are aware of the source…can they ever comprehend the vastness, the power, the totality of it?

I’m wondering if atheists are the head-to-the-ground worker ants who see nothing but what’s in front of their noses, and agnostics notice the changes in their environment, but aren’t sure what to attribute it to. And each of the various religions are like ants scrambling across various body parts, reporting the world as they see it. But like the blind men and the elephant, they’re missing the whole picture.

Can anyone step back and see the whole? Or are we, like the ants, incapable of viewing, comprehending, grasping the full reality, the wondrous possibilities?

Hope in the Face of Darkness

Has life slapped you in the face? Are you struggling to survive an emotional or financial hit? Are you facing major roadblocks on your life journey?

If everything looks bleak and you aren’t sure you’ll ever recover, here’s a message of hope  from the wonderful inspirational speaker Corrie ten Boom, who survived living in a concentration camp and watching her sister die. The tragedies of my life pale when compared to hers, but as I’m going through them, my own trials loom large. If I let them, they can overwhelm me and block out everything but the pain. This wise lady helped me look at the larger picture.

She compared life to a tapestry. We see the underside with its tangle of threads and knots, and have no idea why so many threads are dangling or why our lives have so many dark patches, but God, the master weaver, looking down from above sees the beautiful picture that is our lives. Each thread–dark or light–has its perfect place in the finished work of art.

So when dark times come, I try to remember that God sees what I cannot, and I know on the other side lies a work of great beauty.

Life Is But a Weaving
by Corrie ten Boom

My life is but a weaving between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors; He works so steadily.
Oft times He weaves in sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and me the underside.
Not till the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas, and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the weavers skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.