By Julie Lavender @JLavenderWrites
I thought hiking up Tuckerman’s Ravine with my friends would be fun.
As we drove through New Hampshire toward Mt. Washington in the early autumn morning darkness, we viewed our adventure with cheerful optimism. But it wasn’t long on the trail that my sense of fun was depleted. This was one tough climb.
I was not prepared. Sure, I was a young and active college student. I wore my friend’s hiking boots and appropriate clothing for the season. But I did not have the stamina to sustain me for an hours’- long challenging climb. While my friends maintained high spirits as we marched upward, I was gasping for breath at the back of the group, knees shaking and legs aching, wondering if I could make it to the peak. Or die trying.
We began to pass signs on the trail warning of imminent danger. If the weather turned bad, we should turn back. Failure to do so could mean death. (Some of the worst weather in the world has been recorded at the top of Mt. Washington.) While my spry friends saw the signs as a photo opportunity, I perceived them as a harbinger of bad things. Had I made a big mistake in thinking I could do this?
My experience on the mountainside would one day foreshadow my struggle as a writer. And I am not alone. Most writers I know felt certain that God called them to write. They started hesitantly, but gained momentum as their work began to take shape. But when they began to submit to agents and publications, they received nothing but rejection. Publishers wrote that their work did not “match our publishing needs at this time.” Encouragement made to them at writers’ conferences appointments did not pan out—when they tried to connect after the conference ended, they received zero response.
Writer, Stay The Course by @JLavenderWrites on @BRMCWC #Writing #Writinglife #BRMCWC Share on XAll that rejection was daunting. Did God call them to write, or didn’t He? Did all this discouragement mean they got the call wrong? Why would God lead them to write, then after all their hard work, not make the way for them to be recognized?
Are failures or disappointments signs that we are on the wrong track? Did we not hear God correctly?
James wrote to encourage his readers to stay the course. Persecution was terrible, and they were facing unexpected difficulties. Why would God send the truth for them to hear then turn around and send such hardship their way?
The truth is, most callings include testing. As an educator, I made the tests I gave my students an opportunity to learn, to move into a deeper understanding of what they had studied. Essay questions helped them apply the principles we had covered in class in new ways. The goal was to broaden their understanding and help them move toward maturity.
So many biblical characters experienced that kind of testing as they moved toward their ultimate calling. Moses spent 40 years as a shepherd after losing his privileged position as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, only to live in poverty and humility. Later Scripture confirms as a leader, Moses was the “humblest man to walk the earth” (Numbers 12:3).
David was called to be the next king, only to be forced into exile for many years, hiding in caves, doing his best to survive as Saul chased him around the wilderness. He learned the hard way what it was to depend on God every minute of every day. The result: David prospered in all his ways “for the Lord was with him” (1 Samuel 18:14).
God uses difficulty to bring us to maturity. (As James wrote: so we would “be mature and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:4). So our frustration and waiting not without purpose. He will use it to hone us into who we need to be to effectively communicate and reveal who He is to the world.
James sums up his section with these encouraging words: “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12 NASB). In the end, God will reward perseverance.
To persevere means hanging in there, keeping an open heart to what God is doing in us. Stay the course, my friends. You will be a better writer for it.
Julie Lavender is the author of Children’s Bible Stories for Bedtime, Advent Stories for Bedtime, A Gingerbread House,and more. She and her husband enjoy writing children’s educational books together, too.
