"I'm so done with this!"

Not so long ago I was out of town, driving down the street with friends, and this phrase escaped my lips before I knew it was needing to break free. "I'm so done with all this!" I proclaimed at the top of my lungs.

Mind you, this was not a bad thing, but a God thing. We were in the midst of the writing world, doing what good writers should be doing -- learning the craft and making connections. Yet in the center of this lifestyle of a calling, God pierced my heart.

As my friends looked at me in shock, and wondered if I was really the best person to be sitting behind the driver's wheel, I began to explain...

"I just want to glorify God. Can I please just glorify God? I can't spend my life doing anything less. I ache for the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with people."

That particular day, I was weary from the "stuff" that comes along with being a writer. Not ready to quit or stop working by any stretch of the imagination; ready to take a minute to refocus in the midst of challenges.

See, the writing journey is great. The speaking opportunities are an overwhelming blessing. The whole ministry thing is such a gift from God. Training and hard work are a necessary part of everything, and all of it is a part of how God equips you to do what He's called you to do. But, in any environment where a bunch of people get together who are in the same field, we can get spun up in our own little worlds and forget about God somehow. Well, maybe not forget, but put him on the back burner. He's the root of our message, but we've covered over our roots with our own mission statements, goals, proposals and query letters. We can get out of focus, putting more thought into how we strive to attract the right editor or publisher than taking time to make sure the idea is what God wants us to write in the first place. We strategize, publicize, platformize, marketize, and connectize until it is our name that gets more attention than God's.

Can I ever convey how much I never want to write something that God didn't call me to write?

I know what my own strength can produce, and it's awful. Just words without anointing. I only, only, only want to write the things God has equipped me through His Holy Spirit to pen. Please Lord, keep us all in that mindset, and all in that desire to follow Your calling.

Now, no peanut gallery grumblings here from writers -- yes there is a process, and yes there is work to be done, and yes, the CBA has created an environment where all these things are necessary in order to actually get a contract. But, take a minute to really process these thoughts:

Do we really think that if God called us to write something that it WOULDN'T get published?
It will be done just as He has purposed it.

Also, if we truly seek to glorify the Father, which is His complete will for our lives -- to enjoy and glorify Him forever -- would He forget or neglect to give us the desire of our hearts in His way, will and timing?

So let's relax a bit, and keep God the primary carrot that dangles before us. He is what we'd run around the track to catch. He's what we'd travel the earth to proclaim. It is because of His Word, Son, and sacrifice that we have a message at all.

So, you too can "be done with all this" -- you can recommit to making God the priority, and doing the work He calls you to -- in that order -- no matter what His calling on your life may be.