Doing Big, Crazy Things

By Sara Davison

Have you ever made the spontaneous decision to do something you know is crazy but that you also know is absolutely the right thing to do (but it’s still scary)? That’s how I felt a few weeks ago when I decided I was going to release a book, The Color of Sky and Stone, this November that I hadn’t actually planned to put out until next year at the earliest.

The book has been ready to go for a few months, and it’s a book very, very close to my heart that I can’t wait to share. However, I kept trying to reason with myself, remind myself that I needed to put out other books first. I was really quite adamant about that.

Starting a new series when I already have two open ones does not make sense (and if any of you are anxiously awaiting the final books in those series, I apologize—they will come out in the next year, Lord willing). Still, I couldn’t shake the sense that I was not supposed to wait, that I needed to move ahead with this book before the others.

Sometimes you just have to do a wild, crazy, nonsensical thing for no reason other than that you feel God is opening all the doors and that this is the right timing—His timing.

When I chose to go ahead and take this leap of faith, the fact that it was the right decision was affirmed over and over. What should have taken months to accomplish—getting the book onto my cover designer’s schedule, finding out when my editor could fit this manuscript into her
normally completely full calendar, even reserving a spot on a publicity tour—fell into place in days. Which on the one hand surprised me and on the other hand, knowing God, didn’t at all.

Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” This verse has been a good reminder for me as I contemplate doing this big thing. From a human perspective, maybe it isn’t the most logical next move. But I believe God has plans for
this story that I cannot imagine, so I am choosing to step out in faith and trust that He knows what He is doing, even if I am only feeling my way along in the dark.

I’m not suggesting that what God has planned is for this book to sell millions of copies. It is entirely possibly that He has five people in mind, and He wants to use my story to impact them in some way. That’s not up to me. If I do everything I can to make this story excellent and then promote it to the best of my ability and resources, the rest is up to Him. Whether or not I ever know what His plans were for this book and for the timing of it to be released into the world, if I am obedient and do my part, I can be one hundred percent confident that whatever God wanted to do with it will be done. And, as far as I’m concerned, that makes it a success.

So, friends, if you have been feeling led to do something big that doesn’t make a lot of sense but that fills you with as much excitement and joy as the idea of putting this book out right now instead of a year or two from now does for me, pray hard and listen for God’s leading. If He is in it, He will establish your steps, and then nothing, even human logic, can stand in your way.

Sara Davison is the author of twelve (about to be thirteen) romantic suspense novels and is a Christy Award finalist and a Word, Cascade, and two-time Carol Award winner. She resides in Ontario with her husband Michael. Like every good Canadian, she loves coffee, hockey, poutine, and apologizing for no particular reason. Visit Sara on her website or learn more at Fiction Finder.