Living the Call

**Part 4 of 5 on God's Call

As you know from my previous post, I know—without a shadow of doubt—that God has called me to be a writer.

So why then do I spend so much of my time figuring out how not to write?

Don’t get me wrong; I love the idea of writing. I love writing itself, when the words flow from my brain to my fingertips to the keyboard. When the story practically writes itself, and all I have to do is be a vessel for creative genius.

Which happens much less often than I would like.

Most of the time, I struggle. Life gets in between me and the fictional world of romance I’m trying to craft. It’s hard to care about two imaginary people falling in love when my daughter is sick; the car’s acting up; or I’m just plain ‘ole tired.

So how do I stay faithful to living out God’s call in my everyday life?

Let me first say, I fully believe it’s okay to skip a day, to rest when you feel so worn out that one more task on the to-do list will push you over the edge. God understands when we’re tired. He knows that life is stressful, demanding, and draining. He understands that I keenly feel a mother’s guilt when my two-year-old asks me to play and I’ve got a deadline looming on the horizon.

I don’t believe He holds it against me when I shut the laptop and help her build a castle. On the other hand, I can’t argue that I’m being true to my calling if I never actually do it. There comes a time when my protestations for why I can’t write are simply excuses.

When I’ve allowed my mind to magnify what I love into a chore I loathe. When that’s the case, living out the call is difficult, but only because I’ve made it so.

I’m not here professing to hold the secret to compartmentalizing the bad stuff in your life, or magically erasing stress. This is as much a learning journey for me as anyone. But the one thing I know with all certainty is that as long as we persist in making excuses, procrastinating, or otherwise thwarting God’s plan for our lives, we’re being disobedient.

It’s a hard, hard lesson I’m, unfortunately, learning the hard, hard way.

Whether God’s called you to be a teacher, a mother, a caregiver, a painter, a chimney sweep, or all of the above, He’ll give you the passion, the drive, and (even though at times this may seem doubtful) the time to do what He’s asked of you.

And the question I have to keep asking myself is what am I going to do with that time?

Complain?

Evade?

Or get it done?


--Mandy