When You Want to Give Up

By Tamara D. Fickas

There’s a picture floating around Facebook of a guy eagerly digging a tunnel in search of diamonds. He’s been at it a long time and finally gives up. We can see the whole picture and know that just a few more plunges of his pickaxe will unleash the diamonds. He doesn’t know that. He’s tired and he walks away. Just before the reward.

Writing is like that. We work feverishly for long hours, never knowing when the reward is coming. We struggle. We run out of energy. We want to give up and do something easier. There is so much that gets in the way of our writing. For some, it’s a day job. For others, it’s family commitments. Still others deal with writers block. Or we hit a dry season. Whether good or bad, there is much in life that drains our energy.

As Christian writers, we also have attacks from the enemy. Our words carry messages of hope, forgiveness, and love. We have the power to share Christ with our readers, and draw them away from the lies of the other side. This makes us a big target. Many of my Christian writer friends have experienced horrendous attacks. Each day they face the choice of giving up or staying the course.

Daily we sit down at our computer never knowing how close or how far we are from the diamonds. The words we pen today may be the ones that reach a lost soul. Ultimately, that’s our goal. If we quit before we get there, we aren’t the only ones who suffer. That person who needed to read our words also loses.

So what do we do when we just can’t swing the pickaxe one more time? When life is so full of everything else that the words get stuck?

We stop. Just for a few moments. We drop to our knees and remember from whom the words come. We soak up some beautiful worship music. We immerse ourselves in the life giving words of the Bible. We sit on the floor and play with our children. We hug our husbands. We pet our kitty cat. We take a walk.

Then we go back to our pickaxe and get back to the task before us. We continue because we never know just when we will reach the diamonds that will change someone’s life. This is the task God has given us. He will give us the strength we need to complete it.

Tamara Fickas is a child of the living God, storyteller, writer, speaker, encourager. She lives in the foothills of the beautiful Rocky Mountains with her beloved kitty boy, Wilson. She has an essay in the anthology God’s Provision in Tough Times by Cynthia Howerter and LaTan Murphy. She writes a weekly post at Girls Night In – the blog for single, over-40 women. She’s an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers. When not writing, she loves to try new adventures, spend time with her Dad, read any book she can get her hands on, and make others laugh. Her writing is fueled by life experiences, her over-active imagination, coffee, and Hot Tamales.