The last few weeks I have settled into writing on this blog only on Sundays. The reason is I am spending my free moments writing and finishing my book instead.
I have been working in fits and starts on the first volume of my Moses series since the early 1990s. This Lent, God impressed upon me the importance of finishing what I have already started, promised, or committed to before taking on any new commitments. My three most long-standing incompletes are my first book on Moses, my study guide for Knowing God, and the house we live in.
I have been working on the first two. My study guide now has the first two of three sections edited and published on my web site. The third section is in process and I have been working through a final pass of my historical novel on the life of Moses, which will be the first of a projected five-part series. I have given myself until my birthday, April 8th, to complete it. I have even invited those who have helped me with the book along the way to a “I have finished my book” party on April 12. I am using those dates as motivation. God willing, this time next year I will have changed the course of my life to focus solely on writing and working on my house, the one commitment that will take several years to complete.
Besides those three, there are many other things that I need to deal with and I have set this year, 2008, as the time frame to accomplish them. There are projects to complete, people to see and relationships to settle, and promises to make right. I have talked with my pastor about the need, not just for me, but for all of us, to settle the past before we make commitments to the future. I believe God will honor that and I thank him for his patience with me. It has taken me a long time to get to this point. Now I have to see it through–one massive commitment encompassing all the others weighing on my soul.
While writing in my blog is one of those commitments, I am pairing it back to a once a week guarantee, usually on Sunday. I still have to work, and there is only so much time in the day, but I do not want this enterprise, which I began June 16th, 2004, to pass until I do. If I am even moderately successful as an author, this blog may undergo a few changes, but I will still be the place where I express my insights to living out the Christian life.
Any honest assessment will point out that I have am getting a very late start on all of this and the older you are, the less people are willing to believe you will finish another book, much less the ambitious plan I have imagined for myself. However, anyone willing to publish Beginnings: Book One in the Lawgiver Chronicles (my working title), will want some assurances I will finish the other four, even though they have all been worked out in my head, several times over.
My only answer is, I am committed, the rest is in the hands of God.
There is something freeing about a focused commitment and the keeping of a promise is like a permanent marker on the highway of your soul. The remaining portion of this year is about focus and planting permanent markers. May God in his graciousness allow me the time and resources to reach my goals.
Grace and peace. See you next weekend.
