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- Chris Fabry
- Married to Andrea since 1982. We have 9 children together and none apart. Our dog's name is Tebow.
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After finding and remediating mold twice in our Colorado home, we abandoned ship in October 2008. Because of the high levels of exposure, our entire family was affected. After months of seeing different specialists for all of the problems, we came to Arizona to begin comprehensive treatment to rid our bodies of the toxic buildup. In August 2009 we moved into a larger home, four bedrooms, south of Tucson, north of Mexico. I am doing my daily radio program/ writing from that location. Thanks for praying for us. We really feel it.
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Tuesday, October 10, 2017
A writing friend asked a question recently about a project he felt compelled to write. Publishers didn't clamor for his book and he was wondering what to do—actually, he was asking the pivotal question every artist/writer asks. Here's how I answered and I hope it encourages you in some way.
Dear Fellow Writer,
The question you ask, "Does God need somebody else writing books?" is a killer to the heart. But I get where that's coming from. I've heard that question many times in many forms, and the hardest place is when it comes from yourself. The answer is, "No, God doesn't NEED you." But it's the wrong question. The question really is, "Has God given you something unique that comes from your own heart and enlivens your soul to share with the world?" And the answer to that is YES! You wouldn't have spent the time to write the book if that weren't true.
The corollary question is, "What's the purpose of this thing I wrote? Is it supposed to be published and make a big splash?" I don’t know the answer to that any more than the singer at the local church who dreams of a recording contract and a big audience. Stay at your post and do your duty. Sing your heart out where you are. At a small church. At a prison ministry. In your bed in the hospital. At the Ryman.
Read Colossians 3:23-24. Seems he's saying that whatever you've been given to do, do it with all your heart.
So the follow-up question is—since a publisher hasn't snagged this idea, what do I do with it? My gut tells me you need forward movement. Take another step in the process of writing out your heart. That might mean sending it to yet another publisher. It could also mean putting that one away and moving on to a different idea. Who knows—perhaps the next idea will really sing with a publisher and you can tack this onto the caboose of the contract.
You're sitting at a really good place—but it doesn't feel good. You've opened yourself and your ideas up to the world and now it's responding. Or, in the case of the one publisher, they're not responding like you'd like. Okay. This is part of the hard process. You have to train your heart to wait, even when you don't feel like it. And even when you have a contract, you have to be in waiting mode of the heart. Always connected with what God is doing in you. That's the key to this—the stories, the books, the creativity that flows from you is doing something IN you. And for it to really make a dent in someone else, it has to first make a dent in you. You don't have control of how big a dent it makes. God controls that. You have to be faithful with what you've been given—and willing to go to the places of the heart he takes you so that the conforming he's doing in you leaks out in the writing and the speaking and everything that flows from it (or doesn't).
The other question you're asking is, "What is success?"
Most will point to a bestselling writer and say, "That’s success." They look at the numbers. Okay, that's fine. But put this in spiritual terms. Was Stephen a success? What about John the Baptist? Or the others in Hebrews 11 who were sawn in two? I want to be Joseph who spends time in prison and is elevated to "Pharoah" status so I can save my people. But what if that doesn't happen?
Write your heart out. God has given you this desire. Don't second-guess it. Go with it and see what happens in your own soul. And then release that good thing he's given, the ways he's working and changing and conforming you and let go of the expectation. You already have the success in the change that's happening inside you.
I used to listen to the voice, "Who are you to think you could write anything good?" Now I hear more clearly, "Who are you to hide what God has given you under a bushel basket?"
Dear Fellow Writer,
The question you ask, "Does God need somebody else writing books?" is a killer to the heart. But I get where that's coming from. I've heard that question many times in many forms, and the hardest place is when it comes from yourself. The answer is, "No, God doesn't NEED you." But it's the wrong question. The question really is, "Has God given you something unique that comes from your own heart and enlivens your soul to share with the world?" And the answer to that is YES! You wouldn't have spent the time to write the book if that weren't true.
The corollary question is, "What's the purpose of this thing I wrote? Is it supposed to be published and make a big splash?" I don’t know the answer to that any more than the singer at the local church who dreams of a recording contract and a big audience. Stay at your post and do your duty. Sing your heart out where you are. At a small church. At a prison ministry. In your bed in the hospital. At the Ryman.
Read Colossians 3:23-24. Seems he's saying that whatever you've been given to do, do it with all your heart.
So the follow-up question is—since a publisher hasn't snagged this idea, what do I do with it? My gut tells me you need forward movement. Take another step in the process of writing out your heart. That might mean sending it to yet another publisher. It could also mean putting that one away and moving on to a different idea. Who knows—perhaps the next idea will really sing with a publisher and you can tack this onto the caboose of the contract.
You're sitting at a really good place—but it doesn't feel good. You've opened yourself and your ideas up to the world and now it's responding. Or, in the case of the one publisher, they're not responding like you'd like. Okay. This is part of the hard process. You have to train your heart to wait, even when you don't feel like it. And even when you have a contract, you have to be in waiting mode of the heart. Always connected with what God is doing in you. That's the key to this—the stories, the books, the creativity that flows from you is doing something IN you. And for it to really make a dent in someone else, it has to first make a dent in you. You don't have control of how big a dent it makes. God controls that. You have to be faithful with what you've been given—and willing to go to the places of the heart he takes you so that the conforming he's doing in you leaks out in the writing and the speaking and everything that flows from it (or doesn't).
The other question you're asking is, "What is success?"
Most will point to a bestselling writer and say, "That’s success." They look at the numbers. Okay, that's fine. But put this in spiritual terms. Was Stephen a success? What about John the Baptist? Or the others in Hebrews 11 who were sawn in two? I want to be Joseph who spends time in prison and is elevated to "Pharoah" status so I can save my people. But what if that doesn't happen?
Write your heart out. God has given you this desire. Don't second-guess it. Go with it and see what happens in your own soul. And then release that good thing he's given, the ways he's working and changing and conforming you and let go of the expectation. You already have the success in the change that's happening inside you.
I used to listen to the voice, "Who are you to think you could write anything good?" Now I hear more clearly, "Who are you to hide what God has given you under a bushel basket?"
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