2020 Vision

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By Shirley Gould

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to put the year 2020 behind me. I want to decorate the Christmas tree and cook a turkey and call it done! Do you feel the same way?

As a writer of Christian Fiction, I’m trying to do NaNoWriMo as a good ACFW member should, but things keep getting in the way. However, I persevere and get words on the page…

In one of my writer’s block moments, I was comparing our quarantine, mask-wearing, social distancing experiences to events in the Bible. I found a great comparison. It’s in John chapter five. It’s the story of the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda waiting to be healed. Think about it—there were sickness and death at every turn, people were experiencing fear, despair, and disappointment. He couldn’t be with friends and family. He couldn’t work or provide for his loved ones and was facing an uncertain future. There was lots of waiting and hoping and…NO TOILET PAPER!

Then Jesus showed up and asked if he wanted to be healed. The paralyzed man did exactly what we would do. He began to list the reasons why it couldn’t happen. He was a paraplegic, he didn’t have anyone to put him in the pool when the waters were stirred, and he wasn’t fast enough to get himself in, so someone else always beat him into the water and received their healing.

In John 5:8 ESV…

Jesus said to him, “Get up, take your bed, and walk.”

When he focused on Jesus, he was instantly healed! Great story, right? There’s a lesson in there for each of us as we deal with the challenges of the writer’s life and endless social media tasks in these tough times. We need to get our spiritual eyes off the difficult season we’re walking through and get focused with perfect 2020 vision on the one who is standing right beside us.

We know He never leaves us or forsakes us, so invite Him into your presence through worship and He will come and bring ALL that He is with Him. What would you ask Him for? Do you need a Savior, a healer, a provider, a Prince of Peace? He is all you need.

There was nothing normal about a shepherd boy killing a giant or a God who parted the Red Sea or three Hebrew Children who didn’t burn in the fiery furnace. It is time for our new normal. We must change our of our pajamas and put on the armor of God, then stand on His promises and step into a new season victoriously. Its time we get up, make our bed and, write that novel. We have books to pen. Messages to cast to the world. People who need the message of The Savior. Our readers are waiting.

So American Christian Fiction Writers put your glasses on—or put your contacts in and embrace your new normal with 2020 vision focused on Jesus. With Him guiding your work as an inspired author, called to write, the sky is the limit.

Shirley Gould is an inspirational speaker, an African missionary, and an author. She’s the founder of Kenya’s Kids Home for Street Children, an orphanage in Kenya. Shirley has written articles and newsletters for thirty years and is presently writing Christian Fiction novels. She lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area.

 

 

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