You’re Not Too Old.  It’s Not Too Late.

My earliest memory of storytelling involves an adult taking me aside at a family gathering to discuss an amazing experience I had shared with my grandmother. The incident had something to do with a huge jet that flew so low it almost scraped the ground behind my house. I told the story with such detail and emotion that my grandmother believed me.

Trouble is, it only occurred within my boundless, four-year-old imagination.

It’s okay to tell stories, my grandmother said. Just make sure people know they are stories. Otherwise, your stories could be mistaken for lies.

That’s all the leeway I needed. Inches expanded into miles of exhilarating adventures as I made up stories to entertain my friends and begged my parents to read to me. I knew the words to each Little Golden Book by heart, but nothing brought them to life like hearing them spoken.

Upon observing me weaving a story for my friends one day during recess, my first grade teacher asked me to repeat the tale during storybook time that afternoon. From then on, once every week, I got to tell my classmates a new story of my very own.

When that teacher also taught me to read and write, the whole world became mine. I joined hosts of unforgettable characters on incredible adventures and absorbed education and experiences through voices that came alive across pages and resounded in my imagination. Best of all, my own stories could now be lured through a pencil and released onto pages for others to read!

I was ecstatic. I knew what God created me to be! By my teens, I had progressed from short stories, poetry, and songs to novellas and into the opening chapters of my first novel. I eagerly shared my career aspirations with my family…

…and was thoroughly reprimanded and discouraged by condescending adults who thought I was smart enough to know better than to think I could ever make a living as a writer.

I was young. They were authority. I believed them. I continued to write, but I looked elsewhere for an acceptable occupation. At fifteen, I thought I would like to become a veterinarian. When that desire was condemned, I looked into studying law at the age of sixteen, thinking perhaps this path might satisfy both them and me. I was wrong. No college, no career for me. I would, they decided, be a secretary.

And so it was. Business classes in high school. The Business Management program at our local vocational school. Years of clerical jobs, each just as gray and spiritually numbing as the last. A lifetime later, an office management position. As jobs go, I couldn’t ask for better. A peaceful environment in a privately-owned business with good pay and a variety of responsibilities. From the outside my life looks good.

On the inside, multitudes of souls scream incessantly for release from the chains that bind them to my spirit.

Their voices drown out decades of human oppression. They remind me that writing is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Writing is not a hobby. It is a calling. Not a waste of time, but a gift from God and, therefore, a blessing to be enjoyed and cultivated and most important of all, shared in order to bring glory to God and draw others into His presence – as He intended when He planted the seeds of this gift in the mind of a child.

I know I’m not alone in this. God’s enemy is our enemy, and our enemy’s purpose is to bruise us into spiritual silence, suppress the gifts God has given us to use for His praise and our joy, and wound our hearts until we close our eyes and hold still and become invisible so we won’t get knocked down yet again. That enemy aggressively wields parents, spouses, authority figures, friends, and even strangers as weapons to accomplish his goals.

So how do we break free of those strongholds to answer God’s calling on our lives amidst the clutter of full-time jobs, family obligations, health issues, debt, and discouragement? 

Recognize Your Waypoints.

Webster defines a waypoint as an intermediate point on a route or line of travel. This could be a stopping point or a point at which your course changed direction.

Set aside an hour to write your own story. Summarize your life. As you do, highlight your waypoints. You’ll be surprised at blessings and benefits that you didn’t recognize at the time. For example:

I have, on two occasions, earned a living as a writer – as a newspaper reporter and as a feature writer for an area magazine.

While working in the counseling office at a community college, I met the English professor who would become my editor upon completion of my first novel.

A supervisor shook me loose from a stronghold when she told me it was past time to break free from the voices of my past and give myself permission to do what I wanted to do. Beautiful advice, and though late in the offering, I took those words to heart. I joined a writer’s group, enrolled in a creative writing class, and gave my fictional characters voice again.

And vocational school, while completing the business program? I met and married the love of my life while I was there. He believes in the writer in me and unceasingly encourages me to make time to write.

Despite full-time jobs and debt and growing up and growing older, I have written and published three novels and a short-story collection. I ghostwrite a blog for my cats. My local college didn’t offer programs in English or journalism, so I completed a degree in Criminal Justice when I was 41 (remember my high school interest in law!), and I graduated with a 4.0 GPA.

God doesn’t stop working on His plans for our lives just because human influence and unforeseen circumstance forces us off track. He guides us, through miles and years, toward the purpose for which He created us all along.

Pray for direction.

Though it sounds like a contradiction, we’re not praying that God will provide the desires of our hearts. Our prayer focus is for God to lead us into His heart’s desire for us. We ache to use the gifts He has placed in us. He will show us how to do that.

Prioritize your responsibilities.

This step is vital to overcoming the Overwhelm.

There is too much to do; the mountain is formidable, and we lack the time and energy to climb. Like Peter walking on the water, we see the waves about to drown us instead of the God who asks us to focus on Him and take one step at a time along the path He has prepared for us follow.

Setting daily goals is easy. Setting realistic daily goals requires discipline. Your schedule is unique, so only you can set a personal standard of achievement. Perhaps you will invest time in one activity each day that moves you toward your goal. Celebrate that success! Don’t look down on accomplishing only one activity. Praise God for guiding you through the accomplishment of very real, significant progress! 

Budget your time…

… just like you budget your income in order to ensure all your bills are paid. Time is so much more precious, and God really does have more in store for you than years of earning money to pay off debt. Don’t take your gifts to the grave unopened.

We “make time” to do this, or “take time” to do that. But we don’t have to make it or take it. All we have to decide is how we’re going to use it. That’s where the budget comes in.

I just completed a Writing Week challenge hosted by author coach Shelley Hitz, founder of Author Audience Academy. I called myself crazy (and a few other uncomplimentary adjectives) even as I signed up for the seven-day event, because I already struggled just to get through each frustrating, exhausting day as it was – and did I honestly believe I was really going to find time for one more obligation?

One of the first things Shelley challenged us to do was write every single day, even if 15 minutes is all we could manage.

Well, now.

The first day, I wrote for 15 minutes during a break at work. Throughout the week I found time I had not previously recognized – during lunch at work, moments scheduled into my evenings to watch the daily Writing Week videos, respond to posts, pray for Shelley and others enrolled in the challenge, and work on my web site.

Best of all, this focus on time management for accomplishing my writing goals carried over into the rest of my life. I made it over the Overwhelm by setting realistic daily goals, completing those goals, and celebrating every accomplishment instead of beating myself up for not doing enough.

Writing Week concluded, but the benefits remain. Every morning I continue to pray for God’s guidance in budgeting my time so that when I come home from work in the afternoon, I am focused on a realistic schedule of achievable goals that serve His purpose and move me another part-time step closer to being able to answer His calling full-time.

Seek out Support and Accountability.

In Journey of The Dead, Sarah writes, “If there is one bane of human existence, one nightmare above all others, it is Isolation. Even the terrible demon Discouragement cringes like a mere imp before the dread shadow of Isolation.”

I learned this lesson again during Writing Week as I read the progress and challenges of other writers, shared my own discoveries, and prayed for others while others prayed for me. Writing is a beautiful, solitary engagement, but we also need to connect with other people for mutual encouragement, support, and laughter. Discouragement does its darkest work when we are isolated from others. It leads to procrastination, and the longer we hide, the harder it becomes to start again. One of the most powerful weapons against discouragement is knowing you’re not alone.

Sharing provides accountability, producing positive incentives that help our efforts flourish into daily success. It’s easier to achieve when others are aware of your goals, and when your thoughts are open to encompass the needs of others instead of only your own endeavors.

Answer Your Wake Up Call.

You might believe you have every reason in the world not to. Life is already too busy. The burdens you carry – family, work, health, debt, age – leave you too far behind in one direction and too far gone in another. Just trying to keep up leaves you physically exhausted and mentally fried. Spiritually? Your spirit crept into the darkest corner of your soul and hid there long ago.

Whatever else you may or may not be, you are a treasured child of the most high God. His plan for you outshines everything else. Every. Thing. Else. Ask for His guidance. Let Him lead you. Follow His direction. As you move forward, you’ll recognize miracles among your waypoints.

You’ll see that those dark clouds were punctuated with flashes of lightning that illuminated your path through the storm. You’ll recognize that all those seasons of rain activated the precise nourishment your soul needed to grow.

And you’ll see that what you thought were seasons of death in which you left your dreams buried alongside the path behind you were actually … oh, my friend, breathe this assurance deep into your heart … they were gardens, not graves. Some dreams grow in hindsight and send forth tendrils that outrun you so that along some future road you trip over the revelation that they aren’t lost after all. Our God delights in gifting us with happy surprises.

And His timing really is perfect. It’s not too late. You’re not too old. His purpose and plan for your life are right on schedule.

I am thankful for the myriad waypoints through which God reminds me that He is in control, that He does not forget, that He restores me in ways beyond my comprehension. Though we may have traveled far afield of our intentions and endured experiences we would never have chosen for ourselves, we still achieved knowledge and understanding that we could not have received any other way.

I write every day, even if a few minutes are all I can find to record a shred of dialogue, a detail in a character sketch, a glimpse of foreshadowing in a scene, a paragraph that will become a blog. The voices of all those souls are sharing their journeys. Months, perhaps years from now, they will live across the pages of novels through which they will entertain and inspire all who read their stories.

Oh, and that scene with my grandmother when I was four years old? I bequeathed that experience to 12-year-old Freddy in Chapter 23 of Journey of The Dead. Because we all need to be reminded that our talents are gifts from God. Using them as He intended is our gift to Him and to our world – starting right now.