God is For Us!

"Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish."
--Marcus Aurelius

I went to a Write To Publish conference this past weekend in Wheaton, Illinois, and it was very excellent…and overwhelming.  I really, really want to publish some of my writing, and I kind of thought publishing was one of those things where someone notices your stuff, asks you to write for them, and BAM! you’re an author/freelancer/journalist.  But let me tell you:  I was wrong. 

The publishing industry is just that—an industry—and it takes a tremendous amount of work and dedication even to get an article printed in a reputable magazine.  Things are done in a certain, standardized way…and nothing is just “BAM! you’re in.”

Hard work always has an element of fear for me.  Is it like this for everyone?  I’m resistant to the complex recipe, the difficult sewing project, and the follow-the-rules diet.  Things that take lots of work always scare me into wanting to take the easy road; sometimes, I give in to myself and I take it.  And sometimes, I choose to do the hard thing.  The funny thing is that when I choose the less traveled and more difficult way, I feel exceptionally proud of what I achieve.  I don’t feel this way when I take the easy path.  When I jump out of my own lazy comfort zone and work hard and long and well, I often master what I thought un-doable. 

I tell you all of this to describe what I felt at this conference:  UNQUALIFIED. 

I am unqualified. I cannot do this.  It is too hard for me.  But it is not too hard for God.  And in Him, I am fully capable.  This is something that one of the speakers told us:  We are not qualified, but Jesus Christ is; and if He lives in us, we are capable of much more than we think.

It also comforted me this weekend in church as we learned about Joshua and the fall of of Jericho.  Jericho did not fall because of the great military prowess of the Israelites.  Jericho did not fall because the Israelites were of supreme intelligence.  Jericho fell because God worked wonders with a people who decided to obey Him in a seemingly impossible task.  God was the Victor in the fall of the wall; the Israelites were just his instruments. He used his power and their submission—and BAM!, the wall fell down!

I’m still a little intimidated by all the work that awaits me if I want to become a real author.

But the Author of our faith is not, so I will go ahead and hide in Him.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31