In a recent interview, I was asked how I balance all of the different stages of a book. How do I keep all those balls I’m juggling in the air at the same time? My answer was something along the lines of “Not very well.”
Of course, sometimes it is easier than others. I don’t always have as many books in varying stages as I have had in August and September of this year. The stress of trying to meet all the different deadlines—writing, revising, line edits, page proofs, marketing forms—on time revealed itself in my answer.
My advice, simple as it may seem (and speaking to myself as well as to whoever reads this post), is to just do the best you can and keep moving forward. Pray. Be disciplined with your time. Stay focused. Refill the well. Pray. Don’t neglect your health. Get the sleep you need and the exercise you need. Eat right. Pray some more. And remember, like everything else, this too shall pass.
One day at a time. It’s how we need to live. Not borrowing trouble from tomorrow for today has enough of its own.
After writing the above words, I stopped and read the entry for September 21 in Jesus Calling. Wow! I love how God spoke to the anxiety I’d confessed to feeling. What a perfect answer. How glad I am that I stopped and opened that devotional in answer to the quiet nudge in my heart because it was exactly what I needed to hear.
WAIT QUIETLY IN MY PRESENCE while My thoughts form silently in the depths of your being. Do not try to rush this process, because hurry keeps your heart earthbound. I am the Creator of the entire universe, yet I choose to make My humble home in your heart. It is there where you know Me most intimately; it is there where I speak to you in holy whispers. Ask My Spirit to quiet your mind so that you can hear My still, small voice within you. I am speaking to you continually: words of Life . . . Peace . . . Love. Tune your heart to receive these messages of abundant blessing. Lay your requests before Me and wait in expectation.
And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 1 KINGS 19 : 12
In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. PSALM 5 : 3
As I open the story I am currently revising, I’m going to allow those words to continue echoing in my heart.
~robin
