Write from the Deep

The incarnation. The wonder of God, in human form, dwelling with us. These are more than just words. They are a profound reality filled with mystery and sacrifice and wonder. But do we really embrace this reality? Join us as we savor and explore this deep wonder—a miracle that has the power to refill our creative well and nurture our weary spirit.

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

During this time of year, many Christians celebrate Advent. Advent comes from the Latin word adventus and literally means “coming.” Or we can think of it as “arrival.”

One of the definitions that Merriam-Webster lists is “the coming of Christ at the Incarnation.”

We hope you’ll take some time for rest and reflection this Christmas season. To stop for even just the duration of this podcast, if nothing else, to rejoice and focus on the miracle of the incarnation. The miracle of God with us. We hope it will refresh your perspective on how our amazing God is and why he breathed life and creativity into us, and why we write.

The Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen, came to earth as a tiny, helpless baby to restore the relationship we broke, to make a way for us to have peace with God. Listen in as we share Scriptures and quotes for you to immerse yourself in.

“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [Jesus]  is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Colossians 1:13-20 (ESV)

I love the focus of that passage, because it twice tells us that Jesus is fully God. And always was fully God. It’s important not to confuse the incarnation as being the point where Jesus came into existence. That isn’t the case—he was always in existence. Joseph Scheumann stresses this in his article “Five Truths about the Incarnation.” He writes:

“The virgin conception and birth in Bethlehem does not mark the beginning of the Son of God. Rather, it marks the eternal Son entering physically into our world and becoming one of us.”

Scheumann also wants us to remember that the incarnation is still a mystery in many ways:

“Answering how it could be that one person could be both fully God and fully man is not a question that the Scriptures focus on.”

Scheumann also quotes Deuteronomy, where Moses writes:

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV)

The apostle Peter also speaks of this mystery:

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” 1 Peter 1:8-12 (ESV)

Even though the “how” of the incarnation is still a mystery, consider the blessing we have—we’re on the other side of Jesus’ birth on Earth, just as those Peter was writing to were. While we don’t have Jesus in physical form walking among us, we KNOW the person and time of God’s coming to us, the time the prophets spoke about, the time the prophets could only imagine and wonder at. We have the accounts of what happened when God became flesh, and when he suffered, died, and rose again and established the Kingdom of God, the already-not-yet Kingdom. 

This is what many of us write about. This time we’re living in, when Jesus is active in Spirit in this world, doing his work of redemption in the lives of us who inhabit this weary physical world. But what a time of wonder made possible by these prophecies come to pass. These prophecies of God made flesh and of His Kingdom coming.

The incarnation also makes us consider the staggering reality of what Jesus, in becoming human, had to give up.

“When the time came, [Jesus] set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.” Philippians 2:5-8 (MSG)

Here are more great quotes for reflecting on what the incarnation meant for Jesus. You can find these and more at thepastorsworkshop.com:

“The ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal: nothing disembodied, nothing abstract, nothing impersonal. Incarnate, flesh and blood, relational, particular and local.” Eugene Peterson

“Jesus loved the will of His Father. He embraced the limitations, the necessities, the conditions, the very chains of His humanity as He walked and worked here on earth, fulfilling moment by moment His divine commission and the stern demands of His incarnation. Never was there a word or even a look of complaint.” Elizabeth Elliot

“The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation.” J.I. Packer

“To achieve the divine purpose of becoming the Savior, the divine glory needed to be veiled. Christ voluntarily, moment by moment, submitted to human limitations apart from sin. The humiliation was temporary. The incarnation was everlasting.” John F. Walvoord — a Christian theologian, pastor, and president of Dallas Theological Seminary from 1952 to 1986.

“What self denial! What self abasement! What self emptying! He, whom no infinitudes can hold, is contained within infant’s age, and infant’s form. Can it be, that the great ‘I AM THAT I AM’ shrinks into our flesh?”  Henry Law, author and pastor of a church in England in the late 1800s.

“Man’s maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.” Augustine of Hippo

This is from a preface that C.S. Lewis wrote to the first part of a new translation of the New Testament by J.B. Phillips.

“The New Testament in the original Greek is not a work of literary art: it is not written in a solemn, ecclesiastical language, it is written in the sort of Greek which was spoken over the Eastern Mediterranean after Greek had become an international language and therefore lost its real beauty and subtlety. In it we see Greek used by people who have no real feeling for Greek words because Greek words are not the words they spoke when they were children. It is sort of ‘basic’ Greek; a language without roots in the soil, a utilitarian, commercial and administrative language. Does this shock us? It ought not to, except as the Incarnation itself ought to shock us. The same divine humility which decreed that God should become a baby at a peasant-woman’s breast, and later an arrested field-preacher in the hands of the Roman police, decreed also that He should be preached in a vulgar, prosaic and unliterary language. If you can stomach the one, you can stomach the other. The Incarnation is in that sense, an irreverent doctrine: Christianity, in that sense, an incurably irreverent religion. When we expect that it should have come before the world in all the beauty that we now feel in the Authorised Version we are as wide of the mark as the Jews were in expecting that the Messiah would come as a great earthly King. The real sanctity, the real beauty and sublimity of the New Testament (as of Christ’s life) are of a different sort: miles deeper or further in…” C.S. Lewis

Here’s a quote by J.B. Phillips, who wrote the Phillips version of the New Testament that C.S. Lewis was talking about:

“The modern intelligent mind, which has had its horizons widened in dozens of different ways, has got to be shocked afresh by the audacious central fact that as a sober matter of history, God become one of us.”  J.B. Phillips

The next two quotes (and more) for reflection can be found at wolfmueller.co:

“What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger…” St. John Chrysostom, Nativity Sermon

“The Bread of Heaven came down to earth to feed the hungry.” Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 12

We’ve given lots of quotes about the sacrifice, the humiliation of the incarnation, and the wonder of it, but what about the motivation? Every good story, fiction or nonfiction, is driven by people with reasons for doing what they do. What is God’s motivation for the incarnation?

We often think of the next verse as a salvation verse, but it’s also an advent verse, because it tells WHY God became flesh and made his dwelling among us: because of God’s great love for us.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (ESV)

In his book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, W. Phillip Keller wrote:

“Here we commemorate the greatest and deepest demonstration of true love the world has ever known. For God looked down upon sorrowing, struggling, sinning humanity and was moved with compassion for the contrary, sheep-like creatures He had made. In spite of the tremendous personal cost it would entail to Himself to deliver them from their dilemma He chose deliberately to descend and live amongst them that He might deliver them. This meant laying aside His splendor, His position, His prerogatives as the perfect and faultless One. He knew He would be exposed to terrible privation, to ridicule, to false accusations, to rumor, gossip and malicious charges that branded Him as a glutton, drunkard, friend of sinners and even an imposter. It entailed losing His reputation. It would involve physical suffering, mental anguish and spiritual agony. In short, His coming to earth as the Christ, as Jesus of Nazareth, was a straightforward case of utter self-sacrifice that culminated in the cross of Calvary. The laid-down life, the poured-out blood were the supreme symbols of total selflessness. This was love. This was God.  This was divinity in action, delivering men from their own utter selfishness, their own stupidity, their own suicidal instincts as lost sheep unable to help themselves.” W. Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 (affiliate link)

The apostle Paul writes to Titus about God’s love, but also the hope that the incarnation brings us:

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7 (ESV)

These other quotes also help us embrace the hope we have in God:

“He who was born at Bethlehem is God, and ‘God with us.’ God—there lies the majesty; ‘God with us,’ there lies the mercy. God—therein is glory; ‘God with us,’ therein is grace. God alone might well strike us with terror; but ‘God with us’ inspires us with hope and confidence.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, God with Us: Reflections on the Incarnation (affiliate link)

“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus instructs us to come to him, a person who is God and yet a man. Jesus doesn’t tell us to come to a religion or a set of rules, but a person. God is relational, and in that relationship we find rest.  

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Paul talks about our freedom and rest in his letter to the Galatians:

“But then the chosen time came. God sent his Son. A woman gave birth to him. He was born under the authority of the law. He came to set free those who were under the authority of the law.” Galatians 4:4-5

Another thing we can see in those previous verses in Galatians is that even though Paul is talking about the law, meaning God’s Old Testament rules, the ten commandments and all that is commanded in the Torah to set apart the Israelites, this passage also reminds us that Jesus was born under the broken human institutions at the time: a brutal Roman government. They were dealing with bitter oppression. But what Jesus addressed was the spiritual condition of the people.

Yes, Jesus healed people, but those physical illnesses weren’t his main emphasis. The healings often were about showing his authority to address the spiritual issues. So at Christmas, even with all the upheaval of our world and the political problems, let’s make sure we take time to look at our spiritual condition as Christ did when God became man in our broken world. Are we living a holy life?

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2 Timothy 1:9-10 (NIV)

When we think about all the incarnation was and is, is it any wonder that when the angels came to bring the news to us on earth, a whole host of heavenly angels burst into song?

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’” Luke 2:8-14

So stop, right now. Imagine it. You’re settled back against a boulder, gazing over your flock of sheep, watchful. A light brighter than anything you’ve ever seen splits the darkness. Startled, you look up, and fall on your knees, for there, all around you, are angels singing the sweetest, most powerful Gloria in excelsis Deo. Glory to God in the highest! You jump up and run to Bethlehem. To a stable. And there, in the straw, amidst the livestock, you find the baby. As you stand awestruck at the tiny bundle of holiness, you hear, as we all do still today, the call that rings through our hearts and spirits:

Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing;

Come, adore on bended knee, Christ the Lord, the newborn King.

Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Gloria in excelsis Deo!

How does the incarnation inspire you?

We’re grateful for a sponsorship from the Novel Marketing Podcast, with host Thomas Umstattd Jr. It’s the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. We know and trust Thomas, and his podcast is full of great information and advice—like Novel Marketing’s 10 Commandments of Book Marketing, which we’ve been bringing you.

This week we’re talking about Commandment #6: Thou Shalt Own Thine Own Platform.

You only need to look around at what’s happening in the world today, where a social media platform can cancel you in a heartbeat and you lose access to the readers you may have spent years growing. Or those platforms can make you pay, anytime they want, in order for your audience (that you worked so hard to cultivate!) to see your posts. And this has happened.

That makes growing your platform on those types of ground an unwise investment. Own your platform. The two most important things for you to own is your website and your newsletter list. This is what you should be spending time and money developing.

Your website is your home base. It’s a place readers can find you, a place you own, so it can never be taken away from you. And your newsletter is how you communicate directly with your readers. Again, those email addresses can never be taken away from you by some company that decides to cancel you.

For more book promotion and platform help listen to Novel Marketing in your favorite podcast app or at NovelMarketing.com.

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our December sponsor of the month, K.D. Aster. She’s hard at work on her novel: Kingdom of Azur, and we’re excited to see how it turns out!

Many thanks also to the folks at Podcast P.S. for their fabulous sound editing!

The post 156 – How the Incarnation Can Rejuvenate Your Writing appeared first on Write from the Deep.

So many writers find themselves torn between writing during the holidays and spending time with family and friends. If they take time off, they feel guilty or like they’re being “unprofessional.” But it’s not only okay to take time off, it’s beneficial! We’ve got great ideas from other writers to help you thrive during the holidays in a way that refreshes your heart, spirit, and creativity.

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

We’re into early December now, in the midst of the holiday season. For some of us, we’re feeling frantic and hurried, perhaps with writing deadlines, or holiday parties, or chaotic households, or even just trying to buy a Christmas present with disrupted supply chains.

We don’t want this holiday season to be just another event you struggle to survive. Instead, we want you to thrive. So, let’s talk about some of the ways we can do that. We’ve asked for input from other writers and editors so we’ll be reading parts of their answers and adding some of our own thoughts.

First, let’s deal with the practical aspects of whether we even try to write during the holiday season. Is it unprofessional to say you’re a writer, or an editor, and then not write or edit during the holidays?

Author and editor Karin Beery has this to say:

“Skipping meetings and missing deadlines is unprofessional, but taking time off for the holidays isn’t inherently unprofessional. I choose to take two weeks off every year at Christmas because I travel to see family and spend time relaxing at home. I don’t take any clients during that time and I let my current ones know that I’ll be unavailable during that time period. I’ve never had a problem.”

It’s great that she lets people know she’s unavailable, that she’s out of the office! If we do that, we don’t have to feel bad if we don’t answer emails right away or whatever. We’ve already let people know what to expect.

Karin continues:

“That’s one of the joys of owning my own freelance business. I make my own hours. I plan ahead to make sure it will work. My husband works a “traditional” job, but he’s been able to take 10 days off at Christmas each year for several years now (with three different employers)…I know several editors, agents, and writers who work through the holidays. If that works for them, that’s great! It’s not my preference, though. That doesn’t mean they’re more professional than me. It just means we have different priorities.”

Hallee Bridgeman adds this:

“For some writers, children being home in unusual times means you can’t write. I never used to schedule writing time during children’s school vacations…I worked vacation time into their vacation times and didn’t even try. I had all the school holidays off of work and summer breaks to boot. And I’ve written 36 books in 9 years, so I think I’m doing pretty well maintaining a professional standard.”

Best-selling author Deborah Raney says:

“One of the reasons I chose writing as a career was because it would allow me to work from home, schedule my deadlines around my kids being home in the summer, and take vacation time as needed.”

She agrees that we should be professional in our conduct, and then she says:

“Many people choose jobs based on the flexibility of hours and free time, etc. That’s a perk of being a writer, so I wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of it as long as I’m not delaying my publisher or failing to hold up my end of the financial income for my family.”

It’s interesting to me (Karen) that someone would even ask whether it’s unprofessional because most professions allow vacation time. For many of us, and I count myself in that group of professionals who take time off, family is our #2 priority (God, of course, is #1). We spend extra time during the holidays to focus on family and friends, to celebrate Christ and draw closer to Him and each other.

That doesn’t mean we aren’t professional in our job as writers. In fact, I’ve always found that taking that time off and focusing on other things refreshes my creative juices. So I do it first because I want to, and then also because it’s beneficial for my writing.

Gail Pallotta says:

“For me writing during the holidays means wrapping up my tasks at least two weeks before Christmas, so I can devote time to my family and the season…I usually put up a Christmas blog, which I write ahead and post right before Christmas. If I have a deadline to submit edits or a finished product by Christmas, I complete the work early, even though I might go over it right before the deadline. As for social media, during this time of year I limit my posts, and many of them pertain to Christmas. I send a Christmas newsletter but like to have it finished and emailed around the first week in December.”

What about those who can’t take time off? After all, sometimes you don’t have control over your deadline.

Best-selling author Cara Putnam says this:

“I learned this one the hard way. Be realistic about the family and holiday commitments. Then be relentless to write around that. Invariably I’ve had books due January 1 to 15th.”

I love the advice about being realistic. Sometimes we’re too much of an optimist, thinking we’ll get more done than normal, or that we’ll have more discipline than normal. But when the whole family is gathered around a cozy fire, or drinking hot cider and watching It’s a Wonderful Life, we’re not going to want to head off to our writing desk, so we have to plan ways to adjust our schedule. If we can, plan more writing before the holidays or get your family on board with what you need to do during the holidays so they can help you.

Tamera Alexander, another best-selling author, says:

“I mark off the last two weeks of December. Always. Between Belmont and neighborhood parties, and annual ‘friends’ parties, and then cooking and baking and hosting everyone, from the middle of December through the first few days of January is ‘off’ for me…So basically, I write up until mid-December then totally surrender to the season. Then come back in January and start again.”

I love that phrase surrender to the season. For many, that includes parties and celebrating. And I love that God himself celebrates things. In fact in Zephaniah 3:17 there’s a picture of God celebrating:

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

If God celebrates, then we, as his image bearers should also celebrate.

Psychologist Polly Campbell, in an online article for PsychologyToday.com, says:

“Any celebration, big or small, is really about taking a beat to notice the good stuff in your life. It can also be a reminder of our talents and abilities, skills and persistence. Drawing on those things can motivate us to keep working toward our goals.”

It’s so important to be purposeful about celebration. Campbell says doing so “boosts our well-being,” and who couldn’t use a good well-being boost? Social psychology researcher Fred Bryant is among those who say stopping to savor the good stuff helps create a buffer against the bad and build resilience.

Campbell stresses:

“Even mini-celebrations can plump up the positive emotions which make it easier to manage the daily challenges that cause major stress. When we have something to look forward to…we feel more optimistic.”

Gail Pallotta says:

“I see the Christmas season as a time to remember Christ’s coming and the great sacrifice He made for us and a time to do what I can to spread joy to others. Of course, we should always do that, but Christmas calls us to focus more intensely on Jesus and what our faith means to us and what we should do for others because we are blessed. I’m spiritually refreshed most especially at the Christmas Eve service and that in turn spills over into my writing.”

I love that she talks about being spiritually refreshed, that’s so important. I think there are ways we can be creatively refreshed during the holidays as well.

Laurie Sibley says:

“I try to remember that thinking about my story, reading lovely books, being in cozy Christmassy settings, reflecting on our Savior, and maybe squeezing in a romantic date(!), all count as ‘research and writing,’ even if they’re not actually the act of putting the story down on paper. So if there’s not time to scribe during the few weeks around Christmas or while family is in town, I can still be engaged in the process of writing. Then I’m refreshed and ready to get back to a more regular writing schedule when January arrives.”

I think it’s important, as creatives, as imitators of God, our Creator, that we stretch our creative muscles. In Todd Henry’s book The Accidental Creative (affiliate link), he talks about “unnecessary creativity,” which is basically doing creative things without any pressure of performance or judgment. Without any pressure that it has to lead to some amazing thing in and of itself. It’s just creating for the sake of creating, kind of like when I take pictures of birds just because I like to look at God’s handiwork. Giving ourselves permission, and even encouragement, to do these things because we’re inspired by the holiday season is a great way to nourish ourselves and thrive during the holiday season.

I (Karen) have a good friend, author Lori Benton, who loves to bake. She creates these remarkable things. One year she made these Christmas mice cookies. It’s an amazing outlet for her creativity. In the way we decorate we can refresh our creativity. In the way we even walk around and savor God’s creation, his beauty. Making gifts, giving gifts, singing, all of that is a way to express creativity in ways other than writing.

Dare I (Erin) say that even the housecleaning you do around the holidays can feel refreshing? I know for me, if I’m having company, it’s nice to have a cleaner house if possible. I might even be persuaded to clean the refrigerator so all my Christmas goodies will fit in it. Admittedly, cleaning can be tiring, but for me, it’s creating order out of chaos, and that gives me a sense of peace and calm.

Thanksgiving seems like the point where we start getting ready for Christmas holidays. We celebrate and savor Thanksgiving, but we need to carry that spirit of thanksgiving, of gratitude, throughout the entire season and into the new year.

One way to do that is to create a gratitude box. Everybody who’s going to be around for Thanksgiving or Christmas can write on a paper what they’re grateful for and put it in the box. Then you have a time to take those out and read them to each other. It’s amazing to share gratitude with each other.

I see people doing this online. They’re posting over the course of several days what they’re grateful for. Whatever it is, let’s extend that spirit of thanksgiving all the way through the next year.

But we don’t want to forget that for some, the holiday season can be a painful reminder of loss, of friends and family they miss, of loneliness, of difficult health issues, or grief.

Gail Kittleson says:

“Years ago I read about Advent being the ‘season of darkness and possibility.’ With the increased awareness of losses in our lives that comes with the holidays, I make it a point to try to embrace both the darkness—part of being a whole human being—and the possibilities. With all kinds of things to detract from the true meaning of Jesus’ birth, I attempt to focus on how He’s WITH US—Emmanuel—regardless of our challenges any particular year. And of course, that brings us to the wonderful possibilities of growth, serenity, and peace, at least in our own spheres.”

She goes on to say:

“Remembering, gratitude, depths and heights of the year gone by, topics like these seem to come naturally during this time. Memoir-like—or creative nonfiction,  if you like—snippets or essays that surface and beg to be written down.”

You can journal, you can write these things down so you don’t forget them. You can never tell when these nuggets will end up in a book or whether God just wants them to be for you, for your own heart and spirit.

In my (Karen’s) family, the holidays, any holiday but especially Thanksgiving through New Years, overflowed with fun and laughter and worship. My mother was the queen of celebration, and she instilled in me a love of celebration as well. When my mom died and those holidays came around that year, it was so painful to realize how different everything was without her.

But because she’d instilled that love of celebrating in me, I made a conscious effort to make new traditions, new ways to celebrate. I had to do the same thing in 2016 when my dad died. When you lose people who are an integral part of your celebrations, it’s important to give yourself time to grieve, however long that is. But a time will come when the memories of them bring smiles and gratitude. That’s a great time to reevaluate your holiday celebrations and make them both an honoring of those who are gone, and a celebration of all we still have.

One last thing we want to mention to help us thrive during the holiday season is to use this season to reflect, recenter, and refocus for next year.

Writer Christy Bass Adams says:

“What I typically do as a writer over the Christmas holidays, is pick a book that is deep and has a thought provoking theme. Something that will lead me to a place of reflection about the year behind and towards a place of anticipation and planning for the year to come. As I read the book, I make time to journal about what I’m learning and pick out the pieces I want to focus on in the new year. Lots of self reflection about successes and failures and future directions. A great time to recenter.”

I think this is a great idea. Especially in that time between Christmas and New Year’s Day when our schedule may be more relaxed. We’ve enjoyed time with friends or family, we’ve eaten good food, (and for me, we have leftovers and I don’t need to cook), and so it feels like a good time to open ourselves to new ideas for the new year. To pray and ponder our focus and what we want the coming year to look like.

One other thing you can do over the holidays is read. All those books on your TBR pile? Those books loading down your e-reader? Take time over the holidays to read and highlight what you like or love in the books. Make notes that will help you in your writing. Reading is an excellent way to refresh your creativity. And since reading is a part of your job as a writer, you can even feel good about doing that!

Taking time to savor and celebrate during the holidays is imperative to writers. We’ve got to give ourselves time to refresh, to let our creativity spark again, to recenter our focus. God calls us to celebrate, to come and worship, to enter into the wonder of the holidays. Let’s do that with an open heart, knowing that God is in control of what we write and when we write it. If he gives us freedom to take time off, then we need to do that, and come out of that time with a renewed sense of anticipation of what we’ll write. What we’ll have to share with a weary world that desperately needs it.

Worried about striking the right balance between writing and family over the holidays? Check out these ideas to help you not just survive, but thrive! #amwriting #Christianwriter
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What are some of your favorite things to do during the holiday season? In what ways do those things refresh you?

We’re grateful for a sponsorship from the Novel Marketing Podcast, with host Thomas Umstattd Jr. It’s the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. We know and trust Thomas, and his podcast is full of great information and advice—like Novel Marketing’s 10 Commandments of Book Marketing, which we’ve been bringing you.

This week we’re talking about Commandment #5: Thou shalt not dig thy well whilst thou art thirsty.

It takes time and money to develop your craft and build your platform. A successful writing journey isn’t an overnight trip, so don’t fall prey to anyone who promises that it is. You have to plan ahead and work at a pace you can sustain over the long haul.

Be leery of anyone who offers you an instant audience for a price, or who offers instant sales. They’re typically better at taking your money than anything else. They’re taking advantage of your desire to make a quick profit from your writing.

Instead, create a budget for both your time and money, no matter how small the amount, and stick to it. Don’t go into debt, and don’t bet the farm. Your goal is steady growth over the long term.

For more book promotion and platform help listen to Novel Marketing in your favorite podcast app or at NovelMarketing.com.

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our December sponsor of the month, K.D. Aster. She’s hard at work on her novel: Kingdom of Azur, and we’re excited to see how it turns out!

Many thanks also to the folks at Podcast P.S. for their fabulous sound editing!

The post 155 – Thriving as a Writer During the Holidays appeared first on Write from the Deep.

Most writers would love to be writing full time, but it isn’t financially feasible. Enter the day job, which, let’s face it, can sometimes feel more like a curse than a blessing. Author and pastor Tom Nelson is here to tell you why your day job matters far more than you know. In fact, your work is built into God’s very design for humanity. You’ll come away with a whole new appreciation for the wonder of God’s plan, and come Monday, you’ll be ready to face your day with renewed hope and energy.

About Tom Nelson

Tom Nelson is president of Made to Flourish, a network that seeks to empower pastors to lead churches that produce human flourishing for the common good. He has also served as senior pastor of Christ Community Church in the Kansas City area for over 30 years. Tom is the author of several books, including Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work, Economics of Neighborly Love: Investing in Your Community’s Compassion and Capacity, and The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership.

Karen: Hello, friends, and welcome into the deep with us today. Boy, have we got a treat for you! We have a guest, and I’m going to let Erin introduce him. 

Erin: I get to introduce somebody! I’m excited, and I am delighted. I get to introduce Tom Nelson. He is the author of several books, including Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work. We’re going to be talking about that today. He’s got another book coming out soon. Tom is the president of Made to Flourish. That’s a pastors network for the common good.

He’s also served on the board of regents for Trinity International University. He’s a regular speaker and facilitator on faith, work, and economics. If that’s not enough, he has a doctorate from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. On top of all that, he’s been a senior pastor at Christ Community Church in Kansas for almost, I’m thinking, thirty years. Now, the reason I know Tom is because when my husband and I moved to Kansas, this happened to be the first church on our church shopping quest.

We thought it was going to be a long and arduous quest. Some of you guys might be familiar with that church shopping thing. Well guess what? For us, we went there and we never tried anywhere else, because one visit was enough for us to know Christ Community needed to be our church home. Now, Tom Nelson is a humble guy, and he’d probably want to tell you that it is not all because of him that this church is the wonderful place that it is.

But I’ll tell you, I think a big part of it is because of Tom’s example as a genuine and caring servant leader. And that carries through the entire church leadership team and down into the congregation. We feel like we’re on mission together. My husband and I are delighted to be part of the church, and now I am delighted that Tom could be here with us today. Welcome, Tom. 

Tom: Wow, Erin, that’s wonderful. Thank you. It’s a delight to be with both of you on this podcast. I’m thrilled and excited to have a conversation with you guys. You seem like pretty amazing, amazing people. 

Karen: Yes, of course we are. But you see, now you have to answer the question every guest on our show has to answer. What does the deep mean to you? 

Tom: Well, when I think of the deep, I think of St. John of the Cross, the great Spanish mystic who labeled this experience of the Christian, and maybe it’s an experience of all humans in their journey, as the dark night of the soul. So when I think of deep, I think of dark, right?

Or our place is difficult. And for me, when I think of the deep, however we understand that time, I do see it both as a time of disorientation and a time of orientation, or reorientation, because in my sort of journey in the deep, there’s some clarification in the deep, and I’ll just say a couple of things that really stand out to me. 

The deep experience, whether it’s in my own relationship with God, my work, my creativity, whatever, it helps me to separate adequacy from competency. I have to continually remember that I have a stewardship of competency in my life, but that I’m never adequate. God is my adequacy. So the adequacy/competency dynamic becomes more clear in the dark. 

Another one would be intimacy versus accomplishment. I mean, I need constant reorientation that intimacy is the most important, and that actually accomplishment flows out of intimacy. Intimacy is foundational. Sometimes I get these things confused. I’m busy, and adequacy and competency sort of comes together. I get the wrong convergent there. Intimacy/accomplishment gets out of whack. 

Other than that, I’d say mystery versus creativity. I think that’s really true for writers because the dark helps me to not miss mystery. Sometimes I confuse mystery with creativity. So it helps me prioritize mystery over creativity. 

I think lastly, would be a sense that the deep for me helps reinforce where my hope lies. Not ultimately in the seen, but the unseen realm for my security. So, you know, the deep is disorienting. It sounds negative. But it does have a potential to reorient our lives to greater wholeness and greater flourishing, I think. That’s what I think of when I think of the deep. 

Erin: Yeah. I love that. 

Karen: That’s wonderful. Thank you. 

Erin: Very cool. So, I said we were going to talk about Tom’s book Work Matters. You guys, I really liked this book. It has a lot of great perspective about work, which, let’s face it, that makes up a lot of our day, whether you’re a full-time writer or whether you have a day job on top of writing. I know that there are writers out there who maybe don’t love their day job, and that’s where this book can really help us.

So, Tom, let’s just start with some groundwork here. In the book, you talk about how humans were created for work. Why do you think that’s true? 

Tom: Great question. And again, I am assuming that my answer to that question, at least my comprehensive, integral answer to that question, is found in Torah, which is the first five books of the Old Testament. So that’s where I’m coming from in terms of my framework. 

If we look at the early chapters of Genesis and the Torah, which means instruction, this great repository of wisdom from the past, what we have in the first three chapters in Genesis, which again is the first part of the Torah, you have a profound picture of a God who works and who reflects that working aspect of his being in making humans. 

The emphasis of the first two chapters of Genesis, the primary emphasis, is work. God’s works for himself. God is a creator God. In fact, the first verb in the Genesis account is bara, it means to work, it’s to create. So God introduces himself, where he’s introduced, one true God, in the Hebrew standpoint, as fundamentally a worker. 

Now we understand he’s more than that. He’s a personal God and so forth, but that begins to be unveiled later in revelation. So if you didn’t know anything about the God of the Hebrews, you would begin to realize right away that God is a creator. God is a worker. God’s an active God. 

Then he makes humans in God’s image in chapter one. Right after he says male and female are made in God’s image. Image here, selem, this brilliant Hebrew word, has a sense of reflection and connection. The two main semantic threads. Humans reflect God’s image, and they do that in terms of reflecting what God is like, what he does and his personality, his creativity, but also in not only reflection but connection—that God is deeply relational. That his created expression is deeply relational and humans are that, of course.

Then right after that, in verse twenty-eight, there’s five Hebrew imperatives put together, which is very unusual Hebrew. It’s a picture of how humans fit into the integral creation. So you have this beautiful, integral creation, an integral God, and he says be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion. We can unpack this at great length, but what we understand is that humans have a job description. That’s the picture. They have a job description.

Then in Genesis chapter two, you have another full picture of how humans fit into work. There’s an incompletion. There’s water, bush, land, but there’s no human to work the ground. So God creates Adam puts him in the garden. And in chapter two, verse fifteen, you have two Hebrew infinitives. Again, writers love this, I trust. Language really matters, right? Language really, really matters. The artistry and the etymology and morphology. 

So in Genesis 2:15, you have this picture that God puts Adam in the garden, right? Because the garden was not complete without Adam, without man, a human guide. There’s an incompletion, okay? That’s the picture that they’re to cultivate and keep the garden. That’s the English translation. So the idea of cultivate, nourish, keep, and protect. So you have this brilliant picture of how humans fit into that created order. And then you have this scripture where God says, “It’s not good for Adam to be alone. I’m gonna make a helper.” 

Now, helper is not at all demeaning. It’s not less. It’s a very misunderstood word. It is a sense of a partner. And the question is, why is it not good for Adam to be alone? Yes, there’s a relational component and marriage is going to respond to that. But the primary focus of the Genesis text is a job description and it’s not, you know, cultivate the garden, protect the garden, it’s not to do the work without Eve. 

So, I mean, I did a little more of that because there’s so much emphasis of work in the Genesis text as we’re introduced to God and our creator and our place in creation. So it’s not that we worship our work, because of course, that’s idolatry, but our work paid or unpaid is a real big part of our worship.

I’m going to wrap it up there, but I’m just saying, if we understand the early chapters of Genesis, if we don’t get the book end of the story right, if we don’t get the front and the end, we’re going to miss this story. So the early chapters of the story, of the biblical story, are so important, and a major thread, a MAJOR thread, of that story and how humans fit into it, is the work they do. Your work is fundamentally contribution, not compensation. It is our creative contribution for the created order. 

Our work is fundamentally our creative contribution for the created order. #amwriting #chritianwriter @karenball1
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Erin: I like that. Now, in Work Matters you also talk about this distortion of work dualism where one type of work is seen as maybe a higher vocational calling than another. For writers out there who feel tasked by God, called by God to write, are we in danger of falling into this distortion if we think our writing is a higher, more sacred calling than, say, our day job? And if that’s bad, how can we change that view? 

Tom: Yeah, it’s very bad. It’s very common for all vocations. Let’s go back quickly to theology and then I’ll press some more into it. If we go back to Genesis chapter two, I mentioned verse fifteen that we were created to cultivate. That word cultivate in creation is avodah and in the Torah avodah, or to cultivate, actually work the garden, is a seamless idea. In other words, it’s used to describe a priest in the tabernacle doing priestly things. It’s used to describe a farmer in the agrarian context working the land, and it’s used to describe someone worshiping God. 

Now this is very important because there’s no separation. The picture early is that all of life is meant to be a seamless act of 24/7 worship. 

The picture in Genesis, chapter 2, is that all of life is meant to be a seamless act of 24/7 worship. #amwriting #christianwriter #dayjob @karenball1
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Karen: Yeah. 

Tom: Again, Genesis, chapter 3, comes in and disintegrates that. But the good news of the Bible story is that Jesus came to bring integral-ness back and new creation back. My point is, Paul will often say whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord. There’s no place in the biblical story for a platonic dualism of the secular and sacred. 

Here’s another reason why. Because regardless of what a writer does, how will we make our loving, whatever we do, if we’re changing diapers, if we’re helping grandchildren, if we’re helping a neighbor, if we’re working in the garden, if we’re running a company, whatever we are doing or writing, we live and breathe and serve before God, our audience of one 24/7. We were created to worship God in all that we are, all that we think, all that we do, and every relationship we have as an act of worship. 

So again, what is so perilous about a secular sacred dichotomy is it impoverishes God’s worship. God should be worshiped in everything we do and say. So we have to reorient ourselves that worship is not just what we do on Sunday. That matters, right? I mean, if you’re a Christian, you’re a part of a church, or a faith community, we do have a joy of corporate praise or worshiping, but our primary place of worship is Monday, wherever God calls us and whatever we do.

Our primary place of worship is Monday, wherever God calls us and whatever we do. #amwriting #christianwriter #dayjob @karenball1
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I don’t worship God more when I give a message or preach than I do when cleaning a bathroom at home. All of it is to be an act of worship, and that brings such fullness and meaning and joy, even for the most mundane task. Even when our economic engine, you know, to help us provide, is not the same passion as our calling. And many of us find that. 

Karen: I’ve always kind of been aware of this because my dad was a pastor of the same little church for forty-five years. He and my mom pastored there. But the church was so small that it could never pay him a salary. So he was bi-vocational. His job was as the program director at the YMCA here in the Rogue Valley. And the work that he did there with kids, and the things that he did to support those kids and encourage them, especially young men who were from very difficult backgrounds, that was as much a part of him and his ministry as his work was in the church. 

We lost my dad in 2016, and I was both amazed and yet not amazed that so many of those kids that he impacted just by being who he is, came to his service and talked about the change that had happened in their lives because of Dad. Even if they didn’t accept Christ, which I continue to pray that they will, but he was the first positive influence, man influence, for a lot of those kids.

He looked at everything that he did as an outgrowth of who God made him to be and what God made him to do. 

Tom: Yeah, and that is so true. What a great example. Theologians, I’ve heard this said by a handful, but I think it’s true, that the greatest heresy of the 20th century in the Western church is the sacred secular dichotomy. The damage of elevating one kind—now again, we’re not diminishing missionaries and 501C-3 workers and pastors, that’s an important calling—but to raise their calling at a higher level than a stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home dads, or whatever, that is really unbiblical, and it’s damaging to the church, to our world.

So many people, you know, I run into this as a pastor, will come up to me and say, “I’ve always felt like a second-class citizen because I didn’t go into full-time Christian ministry,” which again is another terrible phrase. I was with someone who was a good soccer player in college. He knew I was a part of a Christian organization. He said, “Because I didn’t go on staff in that kind of organization, I went in corporate international business, I always felt like I was on the B team.” 

Like pastors and missionaries were, using an athletic metaphor, the A team, and he’s the B squad. This is so common across our nation and even similar parts of the world, tragically. This is one of the greatest perils. We need to work very hard at having a biblical understanding that everyone is called to serve God in different places, different ways, whether they’re paid or not paid. And they’re to do it for the glory of God, and love of their neighbor. The transformation would be amazing. 

Karen: Don’t you think that dichotomy, that dualism, is what plays into the whole celebrity status of so many high powered pastors and pastors of mega churches. And then it contributes to the fall because it gets so focused on them as the center of what’s taking place. 

Or for authors as well. Best-selling authors. People treat them like super-humans, and they’re not. I can tell you, they’re not. Not in a negative way. But they struggle every day, just like we do, and they’re discouraged and they’re disheartened. When we hold them on those pedestals, we do them such a disservice. 

Tom: Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. There’s a whole combination of factors at work there, but fueling that, like you’re saying, can be a sacred secular dichotomy that leads to some people viewing that they have a greater ministry or are more important because it’s bigger. You know, both sides of those are very true. It’s like if we have a sacred sector dichotomy and pride to evolve that, what happens is some people think they’re way too important. Like, “I’m really used by God!” And other people live under the terrible cloud. Like, “I’ve just not done enough for God. I’m just not as good.” And so one leads to great pride, one leads to discouragement and despair, and it’s so dangerous. 

Karen: On that issue of believing you’re better and you’re all that, in publishing we call that believing your own press. That’s never a good idea. 

Tom: That’s true for pastors, speakers, all kinds of celebrity stuff. Very perilous. 

Erin: Let’s talk a little bit about another thing you wrote in your book, which I found so fascinating. You were talking about Jeremiah’s message. This is in Jeremiah 29, verses four through seven. You were talking about how Jeremiah tells God’s covenant people, they’re in exile, they’re in Babylon. They hate it there. And yet, Jeremiah says, “Hey, settle down. You’re going to be there for awhile. Seek the welfare of Babylon.” How does that apply to writers? Maybe not just in their writing, but also at their day jobs. How do they seek the welfare of Babylon?

Tom: Yeah, it is surprising because I think the Jewish people at that time thought, “Babylon’s so bad. I just want to get back to Jerusalem.” It is stunning. And the language that Jeremiah uses is, you know, picture a family, economics, work. It is truly seeking the best of a very pagan city and really being, I’ll use James Hunter’s language, a faithful presence there rather than separate from culture, or accommodating the culture. To be fully present there for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor. 

A couple of things come to my mind as I think about writers or what we are doing. A good understanding of creation—I’m gonna go back to that again—tells us that God’s creation was good. You remember the word good, good, good. At the end of Genesis two it’s very good. 

Erin: Yeah. 

Tom: When Genesis three comes, I’m going to go back to this, but we have to get the first part of the story right. Then you have a massive disintegration of God’s good creation, but you don’t have the eradication of it. There’s still a remnant of goodness, right? So that’s where common grace comes from. I think writers need to think about the difference between saving grace and common grace. That everyone has God’s image print on them. That humans haven’t fallen as far as they could have. There’s a gracious aspect that everyone gets part of the story right. 

So what is important, I think, in common grace is to look at my workplace, look at my context, and to have a posture of humility, a posture of curiosity, a posture of respect for others. And to realize that God’s creation is still good. It is fallen, but it’s still good. It’s worthy of our encouragement, to try to build that culture, to love people, respect people.

And then to remember we are in a moment of human history and redemptive history where we are in the “already-not-yet.” One day, yet future, it will be as it ought to be, but I live in the “is” moment. Like what is now. And I am called to be a redemptive agent in that. How I love people, how I do my work, how I serve.

In this already-not-yet moment we are in proximate context. We’re not in the full perfection context. So I just encourage people to say wherever God has called you, God has specifically called you there. And common grace is there, and love is there. And to do your best to nourish that common grace. 

You don’t have to agree with everyone. Obviously we’re going to see things differently. But how important it is to be present by your words and your deeds in that place of work, and do good work and love your employees, or love your fellow colleagues. I’m just saying live in the common grace, and understand how important it is in your Monday world, again, whether you are actually doing your writing or supporting your writing, or whatever. 

Then stay curious. I think we need to have not a life of certainty but that of teachability. I think writers need to constantly be observers who can be teachable and curious. One of my favorite bumper stickers—I’m not a real bumper sticker fan, y’all—but it said: stay curious. It’s a simple two words. Stay curious. What is God up to? What’s going on in the world? What can I learn here? How can I be teachable? To be a sponge that way. 

Erin: Yeah. I had an example. I used to work in a library, and I had to explain something to a man who was kind of hostile. “Kind of” is probably a nice way of phrasing it. He was angry, and I had to explain, I had to take him through a whole process of doing a self-checkout, which he did not want to do. But for many reasons, I had to do it that way. This ten second process for most people took like five minutes. And he was, you know, he did it wrong and was frustrated and was angry.

For whatever reason, God gave me an amazing patience with this man. I have to say it was God. We went through this process and, finally he left. He still wasn’t happy, but he got what he needed and he left. I didn’t know that there was a librarian nearby, just because of the setup, and she was listening to this whole interchange. 

She said to me afterwards, “How in the world did you answer that man so kindly and so patiently through that whole process? I could have never done that.”

I got to thinking about that and I’m like, “Oh, yay, I’m so glad someone noticed that,” was the first thought I had. Then the second thought I had was, “You know what? Yes, I was shining God’s light and that was purely God’s grace. But even if nobody saw that, I still am called to shine that light, and to treat this man as an image-bearer. He deserves my respect, even if he’s not nice,” which, you know, we dealt with nice people, and we dealt with not nice people.

Anyway, the next thing, or the last thing really, we have time for is I’d love to know if you have any other tips or advice for writers who are struggling with their day jobs. Maybe they feel creatively stifled or physically or emotionally drained. Any thoughts that you have for them? 

Tom: I don’t know if I have any good wisdom. I always encourage people—because I can relate to that, I mean, I have multiple tasks on my plate when I’m writing. There are many things I’m doing and sometimes it feels like it takes away from my best energy. A couple of things I encourage is that God doesn’t waste anything. And sometimes it’s frustrating if we feel like we have too many distractions. I’m not saying we shouldn’t plan well and build margin that can create a space to think. I mean, obviously that’s part of our stewardship. 

But interruptions, things that come at us that we think take us away from our writing can actually be used by God as a remarkable opportunity that comes back into our writing. I think of that over and over again, where I’ve been frustrated because like, oh, I’m trying to get this chapter done. I got this, this, and this. Then there’ll be something, not always, I’m not trying to be Pollyanna, but there’ll be something where I felt like it was a distraction, but actually God used it, not only to teach me, but it found its way into my writing very soon. 

Things that come at us that we think take us away from our writing can actually be used by God as a remarkable opportunity that comes back into our writing. #amwriting #Christianwriter @Karenball1
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Pastors are known for this, right? I have people kidding me, “Hey, there’s an illustration for you, Pastor.” I’m not minimizing that. You know, life is hard. Work is hard. It’s meant to be worship, but sure it’s hard. It’s fallen. But I just find that the writing process is always live. The question is are you depending on your competency or adequacy? Do you have a good sense of God’s presence and timing? And patience? 

Transparently, one of the hardest things for me, I mean, I plan for my writing because I write best early in the morning. I should do some planning. I think that helps, but it’s a mystery. It’s a faith journey. My adequacy has to be in the Lord. As much as I want to be competent. 

But some of my struggles and frustrations around my life, whether it’s personal relationship or it’s work, actually can be a space where I’m more centered when I recognize the dependency on God, and God uses some of that in ways…I’ve just been stunned. Like most of my writing has come out of my failure. I never imagined I would write on work or economics because I made some bad mistakes or failures as a pastor. God often uses our frustrations and failures if we have a longer time horizon. 

Karen: Nobody can say God doesn’t have a sense of humor.  

Tom: Yeah. Often it’s our weakness or some of the hardest times that God uses the most. 

Erin: Right. 

Karen: Tom, this has been so delightful. I have loved hearing everything that you’ve shared with our listeners. I just know that God is going to use this to bless them and encourage them. It’s been a delight for me because I’m realizing that I’m really simpatico with you. I actually have a whole talk that I do, two of them. One is “Nothing is Wasted in God’s Economy.” And the other is “The Detours are the Journey.”

It’s really important for us to recognize that everything that comes to us comes by the hand of God, and everything that comes to us is there first and foremost to, as you said, make us into a reflection in God’s image, and to refine us, and to give us that sense of who he has asked us and called us to be as his children, in whatever context he has put us.

Tom, thank you so much. We will have to have you back again. I say this to a number of guests, but it’s because as I listen, I think to myself, this guy is a wealth of wisdom for our listeners. Thank you so much for planning to put us in your schedule and taking time out of everything that you have to do to be with us.

Tom: Thank you. It’s a delight to be with you both. 

Erin: Thanks, Tom!

Do you have a day job? Have you seen any ways you can use it to serve the common good?

Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work by Tom Nelson

The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership by Tom Nelson

We’re so grateful for the sponsorship from the Novel Marketing Podcast, with host Thomas Umstattd Jr. It’s the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. We know and trust Thomas, and his podcast is full of great information and advice—like Novel Marketing’s 10 Commandments of Book Marketing, which we’ve been bringing you.

Today we’re talking about commandment #4: Thou shalt measure thy marketing.

It doesn’t do you any good to spend time or marketing dollars on tactics that don’t generate sales for you. And the only way you’ll know is to measure it. To look at the data. We writers have limited resources in time and money, so we need to be wise in how we invest.

You also have to be careful about copying someone else’s tactic that worked for them because it might not work for you. Worse, it might not even work for them, because they may or may not have measured their own data.

Another bonus to measuring your marketing is that it frees you from blindly following any marketing fads or superstitions that may be out there. You don’t have to feel guilty about not doing some hot new thing everyone else is doing if you know it doesn’t work for you.

For more book promotion and platform help listen to Novel Marketing in your favorite podcast app or at novelmarketing.com.

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our November sponsor of the month, Stacy McLain. We’re praying for you on your writing journey, Stacy!

Many thanks also to the folks at Podcast P.S. for their fabulous sound editing!

The post 154 – Why Your Day Job Matters with Guest Tom Nelson appeared first on Write from the Deep.

Ever feel like your prayer life lacks power? Or like it’s more cursory than robust? How would our prayers—and our writing life—change if we understood how to hear God’s Spirit, and knew how to stand firm in our authority as God’s children? Guest Brandilyn Collins shares a powerful, game-changing model of transformational prayer.

About Brandilyn Collins

Best-selling novelist Brandilyn Collins is known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense. Her harrowing crime thrillers have earned her the tagline “Don’t forget to b r e a t h e . . .” She also writes insightful contemporary novels with rich characters. Her awards include the ACFW Book of the Year (three times), Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice. Brandilyn is also known for her distinctive, deep-level teaching of the craft of fiction and for her nonfiction book Getting into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors.  (Affiliate link)

Thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, we’re able to offer an edited transcript of the podcast!

Erin: Welcome, listeners. We’re excited to have you back. Hopefully you’ve heard part one of our interview with Brandilyn Collins. We’ve been having a great conversation, and today we’re bringing you part two, the rest of our conversation. We were just so blessed by Brandilyn, and I know you will be, too. So here we go.

Brandilyn: When Christ offers salvation, the gift of salvation, just because he offers it doesn’t mean everyone is saved, right? You have to accept it. In the same way, once we are saved, he holds out his gifts of authority and his gifts, many, many gifts to us. The gift of peace, many gifts to us. The gift of walking in no fear, but we must accept those things. We must walk in them. 

Karen: When we think about that as a believer, I tell people, I don’t have some great conversion story. I came out of the womb saved, because my mom and dad were so steeped in faith and steeped in the Lord. And yes, there came a point when I embraced faith for myself, and it became mine instead of my parents’ faith.

So, I’ve heard these kinds of terms that you’re talking about and these kinds of things, and I’m sure many of our listeners have heard them as well, most of their lives, or through most of their walk with Christ. And yet we just kind of blip over those things. For me, the miracle of all of this is that it’s moved me to go deeper into understanding what all this means. Understanding who I really am as a child of God, who I really am as a coheir with Christ, who I really am in what I do every day, whether it’s writing, or whether it’s working in my garden, and praying, whatever it is. 

I don’t have to be afraid. I don’t have to be afraid of demons. I don’t have to be afraid of what’s happening in the world because God is in control. Almighty God has it all in his hands, and I don’t have to freak out. 

My mother-in-law went into the hospital earlier this week and just this morning had a pacemaker put in. My husband flew out to Illinois to be with her and with his siblings because they weren’t sure what was happening. But unlike other times when I’ve prayed for people, I’m learning because of you and your ministry, Brandilyn, I’m learning to go to the Lord and to say, “In your power, Jesus, you already have dominion over all of this and over her body, your will be done.”

The most powerful prayer for me is to seek God’s will for whoever is involved in this, and to seek God’s will in whatever I do in my writing, in my standing, whatever, and to not walk bowed down, but to walk in the sure knowledge that my Father’s got this. It’s just an amazing thing to me. 

Brandilyn: Isn’t it? It is the most freeing thing because the biggest tool, one of the biggest weapons that Satan uses against us is fear. No fear is of God. If we start walking in fear, we can know that that’s not of God. That’s a good check for us. Because again, if we sit in the authority of the heavenly places right next to Jesus, what in the world—in any world, in any spirit level world—would we have to fear if we understand we are coming from that place and we have authority?

This helps me every day to renounce fear and to walk with God, listening to his Spirit. 

I am also learning, boy is this a big lesson to me, our words have great, great power. This is why the Bible says there’s the power of life and death in the tongue. What we speak is what we are aligning ourselves with. Do you understand? If we start speaking in fear and allowing ourselves to walk in fear, we are not aligning ourselves with God’s Spirit.

So, I’m learning to be very careful in what I speak. This does not mean that some emotion of fear or trepidation or something won’t enter my head, but you know, that’s why Paul says to take every thought captive. Immediately, when the emotion comes into my head, I can see it for what it is. I can take the emotion before the Lord, but I never ever turned the emotion into fact. 

Karen: Right. 

Brandilyn: I can say, “Lord, this scares me, but I understand I should not be scared in you.” I will speak loud and I will say, “Oh God, I will not give into fear. I do stand on my authority that you have told me in Ephesians and Colossians, and I speak against any entity which would cause fear in my life, and I stand in the authority you have given me, and I stand in your peace, and I totally trust you. Oh God, I totally trust you.” 

Those words spoken aloud out of my mouth gets me back on that path, straight and narrow. It’s not denying emotions that might hit me at the time. It’s simply teaching me to walk in victory above any emotion that hits me in time. Aren’t you glad that the truth of God is not dependent on our ephemeral emotions? 

Karen: Amen.

Erin: Brandilyn, you just gave us a really great sample prayer for dealing with fear. I love that. I’m a practical person here. I’m thinking, like for that writer who’s going to sit down and start writing, but before they write, they want to seek God’s Spirit and be in touch and in tune with their place in the heavenly realm. What kind of sample prayer—I’m not meaning that this needs to be some routine or something—but what kind of prayer would you do if you were right about to start your novel?

Brandilyn: I would say something like this, and actually this goes with any task that the Lord gives us. It certainly covers writing, and it covers any other tasks that you might be given, whether it’s to speak to someone about God or, you know, any task before you. It’s what I do when I sit down to pray each day.

I say, “Lord God, good morning, here I am. Thank you for being with me for another day. I am now coming before you in the calling that you have given me. Lord, align me right now with your Spirit. Open my ears to your Spirit, and yours alone. I don’t want to be led by my desires, or any other spirits’ whisperings to me. I want to align only with your Spirit. Teach me, lead me, guide my words. Thank you for this task. I know that you have called me to it. I know that you are giving me every bit of power that I need to complete the task, for you would never call me to this without giving me the power and the victory over it, to complete it, according to your will. And so I align myself with your will and hey, God, let’s go for the day.”

That’s what I do. 

Karen: I love that. 

Erin: I love that, too. The next thing I was going to ask you was if you had any tips on how we can be better listeners to God, and you answered that in part just now, because that prayer was about listening. It was about asking God to help us hear God’s Spirit.

Do you have any other thoughts or tips for us? Because I know a lot of writers are trying to find God’s will and they struggle to hear God. Do you have thoughts on how to do that better? 

Karen: Before you do that, let me just tell you something that happens to me when I pray that kind of thing that Brandilyn was praying, or when I hear her pray this, I get chills. 

Erin: Right?

Karen: Chills that travel from my head all the way down to my toes. It’s like my body suddenly wakes up to God’s power. There is nothing like that sensation. There is nothing like it. I don’t even have to say, “Lord, is this from you?” Because it’s so clear that it is. I love that about God. I love that when we open ourselves to him, he comes in and he does his part. He does his thing, and he uses us for his purposes. Okay, your tips. 

Brandilyn: Yes, absolutely. That’s getting in the glory, Karen. That when he’s releasing some of his glory on you and you feel his Spirit. I know what you’re talking about.

One thing I do when I pray, and I pray a lot for other people, and with some, and I ask God, well, let me just say this. When I first start to play, my first words are “Lord, how do you want me to pray for so and so?”

I’m immediately aligning myself to him. Then I stop and I listen. And he begins to tell me how to pray. He will speak to me. Sometimes, you know, it’s an odd thing. They may come to me and say, “I need you to pray for XYZ in my life.” And God says, “Pray for ABC.” 

I mean, it’s something totally different that I didn’t know was going on in their lives. He will tell me something totally different because I’m aligning myself with his Spirit. 

I will say, and I’m learning this, that it is a lifelong process to hear God’s voice and become very attuned to his voice. This is something that I have really embarked on in the last year. I pray every day, “Lord, you know I want to hear your Spirit. You know I want to hear your voice even more, even better, even on a higher level than I currently am. Teach me to hear your voice in all the different ways you may speak to me.”

Oh boy, that’s a prayer God loves to answer. He knows what we need. When we start out trying to listen to his voice and it’s hard for us to discern, he may speak to us a little louder. You know, he may hit us over the head with it so we go, “Oh, okay. I know that’s you God.” 

Then as we attune to his Spirit every day and say, “Lord, help me to understand, even hear your whispers. I’m learning now to hear the different ways you speak to me.”

You know, it’s not uncommon, it’s very common, you hear it as those who are mothers who learned the different cries of their baby. Even in a nursery with twenty babies and they hear a cry and know it’s their child. This is a tuning to a voice because you are listening, and you are experientially everyday growing in the knowledge of that voice and what the different things that voice and the tone of that voice may mean at any given time.

I’m constantly aligning myself with God’s Spirit in this way, saying, “God, lead my prayers.”

Then I sit and listen. When I’m actually praying with other people, I will warn them. I will say, “If I sit and I’m quiet, I’m listening. Don’t feel you have to fill that void with words or anything. I’m listening. God will speak to me. It may just take some time.” 

So they’re understanding that part of praying is sitting and listening to what God has to tell us, right? 

Karen: Right. 

Brandilyn: So, it is a process. It’s not something any of us are going to learn right away. But if we sincerely seek his voice and say, “I want to be attuned to your voice and yours only,” and ask him to do that every day and then use that tool in our prayers every day, asking him to lead our prayers, he will do that.

Will we mess up sometimes? Yeah, sure. But we go to him with that and we say, “Oops, Lord, I messed up. But you know my spirit, you know what I want. I want to be closer to you, Jesus.” And he will help us in that. This is what Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added to you.”

So seek first his voice to be closer to Jesus, to be closer to God’s Spirit, seek that first. And all the other things of completing your task of finishing your book, or whatever your writing is, or doing whatever other tasks you have to do, or having peace in your life, or whatever it is, those things will be added unto you.

Erin: Yes!

Karen: Amazing. Brandilyn, thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing the things that God is doing in you. Thank you for helping us to better understand again what we as believers leave on the table, and we need to take those things and embrace them and utilize them for his purposes and for his glory in our writing, in our lives, all of that. Do you have any final words of wisdom that you want to share? 

Brandilyn: I would just like to pray over the listeners. May I do that?

Karen: You may indeed. 

Brandilyn: Oh, dear Jesus, lead my prayers right now for the listeners. For God, you know who is out there and what they need to hear. Thank you, Lord. I see, actually I see tears out there right now. Oh, God, I feel their tears. Oh, thank you, Lord, for giving me the empathy. I feel the tears of those who are saying, “Oh, God, I haven’t been doing this.” Or “Lord, I don’t know how to do this.” 

Jesus, you are such a compassionate, loving Savior, and I know that you love to wipe away such tears and say, “Let me lead you.”

I know that you will guide them. I know that you will open the listeners’ hearts to your Spirit and you will teach them their authority in you. You will teach them how to walk and speak in your authority. How to align their words only with words that are in line with your will, oh God. 

Open their hearts to you, and then pour out your Spirit and your glory upon them, Lord. Thank you that they have come to hear this podcast today, oh God. We love you, Jesus. In all your majesty and glory, we glorify you and bless your holy name, oh God. Almighty King above all names, all power and glory due your name. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. 

Erin: Amen. 

Karen: Amen.

Guest @Brandilyn shares a powerful, game-changing model of transformational prayer for writers. #amwriting #christianwriter @karenball1
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How do you think we can we be better at letting God’s Spirit lead our prayers?

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The post 153 – Deep Prayer with Guest Brandilyn Collins, Part 2 appeared first on Write from the Deep.

As believers, we know about prayer. But do we really? Do we use ALL the tools God has given us for prayer? Guest Brandilyn Collins takes us deeper into understanding how to pray with Christ’s power and authority.

About Brandilyn Collins

Best-selling novelist Brandilyn Collins is known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense. Her harrowing crime thrillers have earned her the tagline “Don’t forget to b r e a t h e . . .” She also writes insightful contemporary novels with rich characters. Her awards include the ACFW Book of the Year (three times), Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice. Brandilyn is also known for her distinctive, deep-level teaching of the craft of fiction and for her nonfiction book Getting into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors.

Thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, we’re able to offer an edited transcript of the podcast!

Erin: Welcome, listeners. We’re so happy to have you here with us, and we’re happy because we have a guest. Karen, of course, we’re going to let introduce our lovely guest.

Karen: Brandilyn Collins is our guest, and where do I start? She’s a best-selling author of over thirty books in the Christian market. She’s known for her seatbelt suspense novels, her energetic and insightful speaking about God and his power to change lives, and her deep level teaching on the craft of fiction.

But in the last year, something exciting has happened. Has it been a year or two years, Brandilyn? 

Brandilyn: Over a year. 

Karen: God has led her into a new and exciting ministry, and that’s what we’re here to talk about today. I confess when she first told me about it, I was kind of skeptical. But I’ve seen in the last few years what God has done for her and through her. I’ve seen the power, and I’ve heard the power, in her prayers. I’m really excited about how we all can experience the wonder of God’s touch and power in our lives and writing. So, Brandilyn, welcome! 

Brandilyn: Oh, thank you so much. It’s just wonderful to be back talking with you both today. 

Erin: Thank you for being here. We would love to start out asking the same question because it’s so fun. Brandilyn, what does the deep mean to you? 

Brandilyn: Oh my goodness. Well, I was with you before and I don’t even remember how I answered it then. I no doubt will speak differently of it now, because I have learned so much in this last year. 

The deep is going deep in the Spirit to speak with God on the Spirit level, in which I can hear his voice. He leads my prayers. He speaks to me. He gives me words for other people, and it is a complete tuning my ears to hear what he has to say to me. And it is simply… Hmm, simply… that’s kind of the wrong word to use. It is simple in a sense, but it’s difficult to get to, you know what I mean? 

It’s a deep concept, and the concept is to get past our own thoughts and our own ideas, if you will, of what should happen and what we should ask God, and truly go to God in prayer and say, “Lord, what do you want me to pray to you today? How do you want to speak through me in my prayers back to you today?” That is the deep to me. 

Erin: I love that, and it feels like it’s getting close to what they’re talking about in Romans, right? Where the Spirit is interceding for us, too. It’s like we’re taking part in that. We’re getting to that level, so I love that. 

Karen: Brandilyn, talk a little bit about how God started you in this new ministry and what he’s taught you, and the impact that it’s had for you and for others. 

Brandilyn: Well, he really backed me into it. God can be sly at times. He knows our weaknesses, and he knows that if he had told me fourteen, fifteen months ago, “Hey, Brandilyn, you are not going to write anymore, and instead you are going to serve hours a day as an intercessor for America,” I would have said, “Um, I cannot do that.” 

So what God did is he put me on a sabbatical from writing. I was taking a break, and then the break stretched out a little longer. I began to hear in my Spirit a sense, a deep sense, that God was taking me somewhere else, that he had a new thing for me to do. I honestly had no idea what it was, but the sense grew within me. 

Then as of last year, COVID hit, people were in their houses. I had to have a surgery, which put me down for quite a while. On top of that, I got COVID. And on top of that, my back was hit through all of this so that I literally could barely move. So basically for about three months, I was totally on the couch, down and in a lot of pain. So that kept me from going out anyway. During all of that, I found myself just with this hunger of spending the days in the Word, and in prayer, and learning how to go deeper and deeper in his Spirit in prayer.

I found myself interceding for America because so much evil was hitting America. We were undergoing incredible times. So I actually was doing this new task that he had called me to do before I understood what I was doing, or even before I had a name for it. Suddenly around last, I don’t know, November or so, I became aware that I was serving as an intercessor for America. I honestly went to the Lord and said kind of, “Oh, that’s what I’m doing. Oh, that was that task you had for me. Okay, well now that I’m doing it, okay, I can do this.”

It has been the greatest blessing. Even through those three months of intense pain and sickness and all of that stuff, I remember the pain, but honestly, what I remember is the great blessing through it all. Because I could just sit all day and do that. And now that I’m over that recovery and up and moving around again, and I’m fine, very healthy, this is still my calling through the day. 

So really what’s happened is all of the times I would have spent writing during the day, I am now spending in prayer, and in study, and in listening to God speak both to me personally, and through voices he has out there that I trust. This is what I do for the course of my day. And it’s just been, I’ve grown so much in the past year. I mean, I’ve grown more in the past year than I’ve grown in the last decade or two put together. 

Erin: You know, Brandilyn, the first thing that is hitting me about this is that here you are an author of over thirty books and what I really want, aside from all this amazing prayer stuff here, the first thing I want listeners to notice is that it’s okay to be a writer and write one book or ten books or thirty books or a hundred books. And then one day you do something different because God leads you there.

I don’t want our listeners to miss the fact that when it’s time to leave writing, it’s okay. God will let you know. And maybe, Brandilyn, you’ll come back. Maybe you won’t. But that’s for God to decide. But God let you know. I love that. You’re not locked into being a writer forever just because you started as a writer. 

Karen: I also want the listeners out there not to be afraid of being called away from writing. Because God sometimes has us let go of the good to receive the best. We’re not saying at all, you guys, that you need to stop writing, and you need to do exactly what Brandilyn is doing. That’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re simply talking about having a better understanding of going deeper with God, spending more time in prayer, spending more time in embracing God’s power, as you pray over your life and your writing, and understanding how much we as believers leave on the table. 

Brandilyn: That is absolutely true. God spoke to me back in 2012. I was minding my own business, driving down the road, music blaring, and all of a sudden God said, “I have some things to tell you.”

So I turned off the music and said, “Here I am, Lord. Speak to me.”

He told me three things. One of the things he told me at that time was, “I want you to continue writing Christian fiction.” It was very clear. So I continued to follow that calling. I honestly thought I would be following that calling until the day I died. I mean, it didn’t occur to me I would not be a writer. This has really been a huge surprise for me. But this now is clearly where he has led me.

What I’ve learned is it’s a completely different focus. I went from writing books that, if you looked at it just from a sort of worldly view, these books were selling in the thousands then going out across America and across the world and people were reading them. And now he calls me to sit in my home and speak “just” to him. Now, of course, that JUST is just in parentheses as if it has no power, which of course it does. 

But you see in the world that we could look at that and go, “Oh my goodness, I’ve gone from a writer with this huge audience to a pray-er. I’m just speaking to God and I’m releasing his word to a few people in my immediate sphere of influence, which he has called me to do.” So, you know, I’m speaking to fifty or a hundred people instead of thousands. But you know what? That is God’s task for me now. 

One, the power of prayer is above the power of everything else. And two, no task that God calls us to is small. This is Zechariah 4:10, “Who has despised the day of small things?” 

That day of small things was not God’s idea. This was said back when they were building the temple, and temple they were building was much smaller than Solomon’s temple. Some of them were wailing because their task was small and insignificant. How dare we ever turn to God and say, “Oh, the task you have called me to is small and insignificant”?

Whether that applies to your writing, whether it’s writing books or writing for a church newsletter, or whether it’s sitting alone praying for the nation, God’s task for us at the moment is never small. It is great in his eyes. Our task is to follow his calling, and to do what he commands us to do, and to understand that we are fulfilling his purpose in our lives for that season. 

God's task for us at the moment is never small. It is great in his eyes. @Brandilyn #amwriting #christianwriter @karenball1
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Karen: Here’s the thing that I love. If we would make that the focus, can you imagine this nation? If they would make their focus seeking God first? I mean, I think I’ve heard that somewhere before–I don’t remember who wrote it. Like it was maybe in the Bible about seeking God’s kingdom first!

If we made that our focus about going deeper with him and coming closer to him and then whatever ministry we perform, that he calls us to, we let him infuse us with what he wants done in that, if we truly become the soldiers who look to the general to be mobilized and to attack or go against whatever wrong there is, can you imagine the power in people’s lives and in writer’s words and their books to come out and to change the world? If we knew, if we truly knew at the core of who we were, that this is what God wanted to speak through us, to the readers, it’s just astounding. It’s amazing. 

Erin: Yeah!

Let’s ask this though. You mentioned like a general here, you know, like an army, but what about maybe the person who doesn’t have a lot of experience with prayer? They don’t even know where to start. Brandilyn, what kind of advice would you give to somebody who just doesn’t even know how to do this, how to begin to pray? 

Brandilyn: What I have learned so much in the past year is our authority in Christ. Now, we read these verses in the Bible. I had certainly read them many, many times. But we tend to not understand the depth and the gravity of our authority in Christ as we pray. So what happens is we end up praying prayers of what we want to happen, how we think God should act. Or we end up pleading with the Lord, “Oh, please do this. Please do this.” 

You know, we have authority in Christ. We do not need to plead with the Lord. We never need to plead with the Lord. That is our own thought. Like we have to say, “Oh, please, please, please do this, Jesus,” as if he’s not inclining his ear to his children.

So if I may, I’d like to lead you through three different sets of verses, which are the foundation of what I have discovered as our authority in Christ. These verses are in Ephesians and Colossians. First I’m going to read from Ephesians, chapter one. I’ll start in verse, well, I’ll start in 18 because the verses sort of all run together and go through verse 21.

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his (God’s) right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, all authority and power and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come.” Ephesians 1:18-21

So here we see Paul talking about God’s power, and he uses different words. He uses the words power, strength, and might, and those words are different in the Greek. They cover many different forms. They cover physical power. They cover dominion, strengths, coming from the root word to mean perfect, complete. They cover the words ability and force. All of these different meanings are in those words. 

Then it says God raised Christ and seated him in the heavenly place. This is in the third heaven, the highest of heavens that we read about in the Psalms, the heavens above the heavens. And he’s seated in the heavenly places. This is above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, which cover both angelic and demonic (fallen) angels. 

So basically Christ is seated with God in the highest of heaven, above all the bad guys. Right? That’s kind of the bottom line of it. From someone who writes suspense, here’s where the good guys sit, and they’re above the bad guys. 

Now that we know where Christ is, he’s above all in the heavenly places, above all rule and authority. Now, oh my goodness, you have to listen to these two verses in the context of that first passage. The second passage is Ephesians 2:4-6, and they start with my favorite two words in the entire Bible. Every time I come across them, I underscore them: but God. They are the two most powerful words in the whole Bible. But God. 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ—by grace, you have been saved—and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-6 

Oh, my word! Where are we seated? In that third heaven. Right next to Christ. Where does that put us? Above all rule and authority and power and dominion. Above every demonic entity out there. Above all forces of evil out there. We’re seated in the heavens with him. Right with him. Which means—and it says he made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up there, and we sit up there in Christ—which means we have been given all the authority over evil that Christ has been given.

All authority. I mean, we could meditate on that for days, 

Karen: Right. Even just trying to wrap our minds around that, when you consider what evil has been made in the world today, and how evil always seems to win in the media, in movies, in books, evil is never fully defeated. You know, in those movies where evil is having heyday in the world, and then they’re defeated. There’s always that little something at the end that shows evil is still alive and coming after us. It’s created such a sense of fear in us as believers about demons and demonic power and all those kinds of things. And yet, as you’re saying, we have the authority over all that in Christ.

Brandilyn: We absolutely do. Absolutely. Here is the third verse to just go off with what you were just saying. This is Colossians 1:13, “For he rescued us from the domain of darkness.” Now start right there. Where are we before we’re saved? We’re in the domain of darkness. We are dead in the water. We are hopeless and helpless.

“He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son.” Colossians 1:13. Now, where is the kingdom of his beloved Son? Seated in heavenly places above all rule and power and authority and dominion and power. Okay? 

He took us from the domain of darkness. This verse goes very well with the verses I just read you, Ephesians 2:4-6. So he rescued us from the domain of darkness, and now we are transferred to God’s kingdom. We are again seated in the heavenly places with Christ above all evil. When he tells us, also in Ephesians, you know, we’ve often read about the passage about putting on the whole armor of God and, you know, we’ve got the helmet and the breast plate, the belt, and all of these things and we’re carrying the sword, so imagine that.

When Paul wrote that, he was in prison, and he was standing next to a Roman guard. He was looking at a Roman guard and copying all that the guard had on, you know, and putting it in spiritual terms for Christians. 

So imagine a soldier like that decked out for war, but the soldier is trudging along, you know the energy. And the sword, he’s barely hanging on to the sword, and it’s dragging on the ground behind him, and his shoulders are stooped. That is the perfect picture to me of how I used to be as a Christian before I understood my authority in Christ. I had the sword of the Spirit, I just wasn’t using it. I was dragging it on the ground. 

But now, literally, and I’m saying literally because it happens to me literally, it just happened to me a few days ago when I am facing, face on demonic entities and they’re coming at me through somebody, they’re trying to attack me, and I understand it, I can stand in my authority and tell them to be quiet. Tell him they cannot attack me. I can absolutely stand in my authority in Christ and tell those powers they have no authority over me, because that is my authority in Christ that I have been given.

The only caveat I will add to that, and it’s a really big one, is that Christ gives us all these things when we become his children. There is no greater power and authority to become a child of the Most High God, because then we reign with the power he has given us, which is Christ’s resurrection power, by the way. Don’t forget that. We have in us Christ’s resurrection power.

So the only caveat, and it’s big, is that we must walk in it. It is always held out. That authority and power is always held out for us to grasp hold of and use, but we must accept it and walk in it. Otherwise, we can be Christians, we can be saved, we can be on our way to heaven, but we are not standing and walking in the authority that Christ is literally holding out his hand and offering us as a gift.

It is no different than how we understand it that, when Christ offers salvation, the gift of salvation, just because he offers it doesn’t mean everyone is saved, right? You have to accept it. In the same way, once we are saved, he holds out his gifts of authority and his gifts, many, many gifts to us, the gift of peace, many, many gifts to us, the gift of walking in no fear, but we must accept those things. We must walk in them.

Karen: Oh man, guys, I don’t know about you, but I am loving this conversation and we’re going to end this part right now, but stay tuned for the next podcast, because that will be the second half of the conversation and you are going to love it! 

Erin: Amen. I can’t wait!

How can we as believers be better at accepting and walking in our authority in Christ?

We’re so grateful for the sponsorship from the Novel Marketing Podcast, with host Thomas Umstattd Jr. It’s the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. We know and trust Thomas, and his podcast is full of great information and advice—like Novel Marketing’s 10 Commandments of Book Marketing, which we’re going to be bringing you.

Commandment # 2: Thou shalt write for the reader, not vice versa.

You may have heard this before, but one way that you can ensure that you’re writing for your reader instead of for yourself is to kill your darlings. What that means is you only include in your book those things, those sentences and thoughts and passages, that are going to impact the reader. So maybe you have a little section that you love, but hey, if it’s not going to serve the reader, it needs to go.

Another thing that might help you write for your reader is to write the back cover copy before writing your book. This helps you keep the reader in mind and why they might want to read the book. Remember, if you’re writing for publication, it’s about serving your reader, not yourself.

Of course. It’s about serving God first, but then serving your reader, not yourself. For more book promotion and platform help listen to Novel Marketing in your favorite podcast app at novelmarketing.com.

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our October sponsor of the month, Tammy Partlow! She’s a speaker at women’s retreats, and her debut novel Blood Beneath the Pines, a suspense set in the deep South, is now available. She’s hard at work on the next book in the series!

Many thanks also to the folks at Podcast P.S. for their fabulous sound editing!

The post 152 – Deep Prayer with Brandilyn Collins, Part 1 appeared first on Write from the Deep.

We know that good habits can have a great influence on us, but negative habits have an influence too. Everyone knows how hard it is to break a bad habit, but there’s good news! Come discover effective ways to replace your bad habits…and their destructive influence.

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

In our last episode we began talking about habits, which are learned routines or behaviors that we repeat pretty much without thinking about them. We’ve taken the bulk of our material from a book by James Clear called Atomic Habits, as well as a book by Charles Duhigg called The Power of Habit. They’re worth your time to read because they’re full of interesting information—more than we can cover in two podcasts. 

We also talked about the habit loop that James Clear wrote about. It consists of: Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward. The cue is the trigger that causes your brain to initiate a behavior. The craving provides the motivation to act. The response is the actual action, the behavior. And the reward is the goal, the thing you get for doing the behavior. We encourage you to go back and listen to that episode if you haven’t yet.

In today’s show, we’ll give more tips for developing a habit, plus we’ll talk about some ways to say goodbye to habits that aren’t serving you well. The reason why this is so important is because habits shape our lives.

James Clear writes in his book Atomic Habits, “Researchers estimate that 40-50 percent of our actions on any given day are done out of habit.”

That can be good, because habits reduce cognitive load and decrease the number of necessary decisions we have to make, which frees up more brain power for creative tasks. We’re writers, so of course we want all the creative energy we can get.

Our goal is to give you some tools to put new habits in place to help you live a life more in tune with God’s vision and purpose for you and your writing. For example, maybe you want to start a habit of:

Often people will ask how long it takes to form a habit, but James Clear argues that that’s the wrong question. He says, “Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition.” It’s these repetitions that actually change your brain. So the right question to ask is how many repetitions does it take?

To help you feel like you DON’T have to be a perfectionist about this, studies have shown that missing one repetition isn’t the end of the world. It’s not like you need a string of thirty successful attempts in a row or you’ll have to start all over again. But when you do miss, you’ve got to get back on track as soon as possible, because you don’t want to start repetitions for a new habit of skipping your habit.

If we want to create a new habit, our goal is to make sure the behavior gets repeated. And one of the best ways to do that is to make it easy. So easy it almost feels hard NOT to do it. You want to reduce the friction associated with that habit to as close to zero as you can get.

1. Prepare in Advance

One way to reduce friction and make your habit easier is to have what you need ready in advance. If you want to start a habit of going to the gym to workout, for example, pack your workout bag ahead of time and have it ready to go. Choose a gym that’s on the way to or from work.

Or, do you want to eat healthier? Make healthy meals on the weekend and have them ready to warm up during the week when you’re too tired to cook and you’re tempted to eat junk food or fast food for dinner.

2. The Two-Minute Rule

Another way to make a habit easy is to use the two-minute rule. The new habit should take less than two minutes to do. Our biggest hurdle can often be just getting started. The two minute rule makes the habit so easy that you’re willing to do it, and it’s almost hard NOT to do it.

If you want to start a daily writing habit, for example, consider starting with one sentence a day. It’s almost ridiculous, right? You can do that. One sentence. ANY sentence. You might even feel silly not writing another sentence after the first one. But don’t write that second sentence. Because that’s not the habit you’re working on. What you actually want to establish is the habit of putting your behind in your writing chair every single day. You’re working on the habit of showing up for your writing time.

After a month or so, when you’ve repeated this action—putting your behind in the writing chair—often enough that you go there almost without thinking about it, you can work on staying long enough to write two sentences, or a paragraph. That’s just one possible way of making a writing habit easy to start, but you get the idea. The two minute rule is probably the single best idea on how to start a new habit. 

3. Make Habits Satisfying

Another way to make a habit easier to start is to make it more satisfying. We like to repeat behaviors that feel good, that give us some sense of pleasure. 

In Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit, he talks about how people rarely, if ever brushed their teeth before a toothpaste called Pepsodent came along. Only about 7% of Americans even had toothpaste, but a decade later, 65% had toothpaste, mainly Pepsodent. And it was effectively sold all over the world.

The inventors of Pepsodent had a brilliant ad campaign that helped create a habit of teeth brushing. What nobody realized at the time was that part of the appeal of Pepsodent was that they had added citric acid, mint oil, and a few other chemicals that were supposed to make it taste fresh. But those ingredients also acted like a mild irritant that created a cool tingling sensation in people’s mouths. This sensation was something people liked. It made them feel like their teeth were clean. The tingling made the habit satisfying, and it turned into a craving that helped drive the habit loop.

Within a few decades, other toothpaste manufacturers figured this out and started changing their own recipes to create that same sensation. Even today, most, if not all, toothpaste formulas are created to have the same effect. 

So when you want to form a new habit, look for ways you can make that habit immediately satisfying. For some habits, this might be easy, but for others, it can be challenging, because for some habits, while we know they’ll benefit us in the long run, it’s hard to see a benefit right NOW. 

For example, if you want to exercise everyday, this has long term benefits, but on your first day of exercise you’ll probably feel none of those benefits. You might even feel more tired than normal. So how can you give yourself an immediate reward to help satisfy you?

Remember the commercial for apple watches that showed a couch potato type of guy sitting on his couch, and then his watch reminded him to stand up? Then they fast forwarded through time and repetitions, and he started walking, then running. They showed this happening over and over and with each repetition this guy goes farther and passes his old self, and at the end, he’s swimming. What was that commercial all about? Creating a picture for a reward. Apple was effectively showing this guy’s long term benefit all in the space of thirty seconds to help create a craving for that new self.

Another way to create an immediate reward is by using habit tracking. For example, the little rings on the Apple watch that keep track of how many times you stand or move during the day aren’t an afterthought. They’re deliberate. They give you an immediate reward, the satisfaction of filling all your rings. They even have little games with cute animal rewards.

If you like to keep things low-tech, you can habit track by putting a big check mark on your calendar for everyday you perform your behavior. All those marks help you see your progress. They offer proof that you’re making a change that’s important to you. They also provide a visual cue for the habit you’re working to create.

Habit tracking also helps keep you focused on the system. Remember that the idea is to slowly incorporate change into your life by focusing on systems that help you create the life you want to live. 

Habits can be wonderful tools for productivity and for a life lived in accordance with our values. But there is a flip side. Remember how we said 40-50% of our actions on any given day are done out of habit? That means you may not be aware of a significant amount of your behavior. So, how do you know if your habits—these things you’re not thinking about—are serving you or hindering you? 

We said this in our last episode and we’re saying it again now because it’s so important: We encourage you to devote time to carefully observing your behavior. Make a list of your habits—write them down!—so you can consider them impartially. Then you can make choices about which habits and behaviors point you in the trajectory you want your life to go, and which don’t. And the ones that don’t? It’s time to change them. 

For example, many writers struggle with doubts and negative self-talk. And, side note here, we’ve seen it so often we developed a Going Deeper Workshop called Overcoming Damaging Self-Talk to help writers break that insidious habit.

James Clear has some useful guidance on changing habits. For every idea he gives to helping you start a habit, he applies the opposite advice to habits you want to change.

1. Avoid Cues

Rather than making your cues obvious to help you start a habit, one of the best things you can do to change a habit is to eliminate your exposure to cues. So, rather than create a time and place plan to help you do a behavior, figure out instead how you can avoid that time and place to help you avoid a behavior associated with that time and place. You want to avoid your cues. If you drive by a coffee shop everyday on your way to work, and you want to stop getting coffee there because you’re trying to cut down on caffeine, or save money, or whatever, change your route to work. Even if it takes you longer, it’s worth it not to drive by your temptation everyday.

Changing your behavior isn’t about staring at your temptation in the face and saying no. Often it can be as simple as avoiding that temptation to begin with. James Clear points out that research shows those who we think are disciplined are really just better at “structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control.” That’s a big piece of the puzzle when it comes to changing habits.

In fact, the reason willpower isn’t the way to go when trying to change or avoid a habit is that those cravings are engraved in our brains. Once they’re set, we can’t help but be affected by them. But, when you eliminate the cue that starts the craving, you don’t have any reason to do the behavior. 

So, one way to help change habits is to make your cues invisible. If you feel you eat too much junk food, don’t buy it. Send your spouse to the store so you’re not even tempted to buy it. Or don’t go down that aisle. Or put it on a high shelf way in the back of your cupboard—like the cupboard over the refrigerator that’s practically impossible to get to so you don’t see it every time you open your cabinet for something else. 

If watch too much TV, get rid of it. Or, get rid of cable and internet so you have far fewer options. Or put it in a room that you don’t go in very often. Have you noticed that so many houses seem to face all the furniture toward the TV? Rearrange your furniture. Take your TV out of your bedroom if you watch too much late night TV.

Another thing you want to do when you’re looking at what’s going on with your cues is to check what’s happening with your habit stacking. Maybe you find that you come home from work, change clothes, and grab a dinner that you eat in front of the TV, and then never get up until bedtime. Change the stack. Don’t eat in front of the TV. Don’t rely on your willpower to turn the TV off at 7pm so you can write. Or maybe, if you must eat in front of the TV, put your TV outlet on a timer that shuts off at 7pm, and use that as a new cue to stand up and to go to your writing spot.

2. Make It Hard

We talked earlier in this podcast about making the behavior of a habit easy if we wanted to encourage it. Well, if you want to discourage it, make it hard. That’s in essence what we’d be doing if we stuck all our junk food in the cabinet over the fridge—not just taking the cue out of sight, but also making that junk food hard to get to. There’s a lot of friction involved in dragging a chair or step ladder over to the fridge and digging that food out.

If you want to cut down the time you spend on social media, take the app off whichever device you mostly use. If you’re always on Facebook on your phone, take it off your phone and only allow it to be on your computer. Or, download one of those apps that limit or cut off access to websites you designate. That’s one way to use technology to help you. It becomes a commitment device, and a choice you make in the present locks in your behavior in the future.

Use technology for your benefit where you can, because in today’s world, technology is sometimes against us. Have you noticed how binge watching has become so popular these days? One reason is because companies like NetFlix make it so easy to keep watching. The next episode just starts right up for you. You have to work, to exercise willpower, to actually turn it off, and that can be hard.

3. Make It Unattractive

Aside from technology, You can use people to help you change your habits. You can use what’s called a habit contract, which can make your habit less satisfying.

To make your habit less satisfying, create an unpleasant cost, basically a punishment. Remember that our brain wants to repeat behaviors that are rewarded and avoid those that are punished. So perhaps you want to stop worrying, or swearing, or whatever. You can make a habit contract with a willing friend. You tell her you’ll put a dollar in a jar every time you give in and actively worry, or swear, or whatever, and every week your friend gets the money and goes out to a fun coffee place without you. You get left behind, or whatever else is painful to you. Maybe she’s a supporter of a football team you hate, and she gets to buy hats and mugs and all kinds of stuff for her team, and you have to then use them all. Be creative and have fun with this.

Of course, we don’t want to leave you with the idea that all habits are simple and fun to break. They’re not. In fact, Charles Duhigg writes, “…a habit cannot be eradicated—it must instead be replaced.” He also stresses that there isn’t any one, sure-fire method that works for everyone to create behavior change. But in his book, he walks through what he calls “the Golden Rule of habit change.” 

Studies show that you can’t completely extinguish bad habits, but you can have a great deal of success if you keep the old cues, keep the old rewards, but substitute a different behavior. That’s the simple rule, and it makes sense because it’s the behavior that you’re trying to change.

This is a good method because some cues you just can’t avoid. For this to work, however, you first have to recognize what your cues are, what the reward is, and most important, you have to be very sure what your craving actually is. James Clear writes that “a craving is just a specific manifestation of a deeper underlying motive…It is the desire to change your internal state.” 

The behaviors we have attached to satisfy our cravings aren’t necessarily the best ways to achieve the desired change in our internal state. Cues and rewards aren’t necessarily bad, but the behavior we choose after the cue to get that reward can be a problem. For example, someone may feel anxious and crave relaxation, but if the behavior of getting drunk sprung up to get that reward, that’s not good. Relief from anxiety can be found in other ways that don’t involve alcohol, so that’s the behavior that could be modified. You can have a cue of anxiety, and a desire for a relaxed state, which gives you motivation to act, but you achieve that reward with a different behavior.

Charles Duhigg gives a good example of how behavior can be modified through habit reversal training which is founded on the Golden Rule of habit change. There was a woman who wanted to stop biting her fingernails. Her habit was so bad that her fingertips were often covered with scabs. Her psychologist, by questioning her, helped her uncover what the cue was for this habit—she felt tension in her fingertips.

Awareness of the cues is the first step in modifying a habit. So many of us do our habits out of…well, habit, so we may be completely unaware of what our cues are. But it’s crucial that we identify them. For example, one of the reasons Alcoholics Anonymous is so effective is that it forces members to identify all their cues.

The therapist for the woman biting her fingernails sent her home with a notecard and told her to put a checkmark on it every time she experienced the cue of tension in her fingers. This helped her become even more aware of her cues.

But you also have to understand the reward. Through her therapist’s questions, the woman discovered that she was often bored when she felt the tension in her fingers and after she bit her fingernails it was better, and it turned out that what she was craving was the physical stimulation.

So the therapist moved to the next step and gave her what’s called a “competing response.” When the woman felt the cue in her fingers, she was to put her hands in her pockets, or pin them under her legs, or grab hold of something like a pencil—anything that would make her unable to bite her nails. After that, she had to immediately find some sort of quick physical stimulation like knocking on a tabletop or rubbing her arm. So she was achieving the same reward—a physical stimulation, with the same cues triggering it. But she was changing the behavior—the response or routine. The end result is that the undesirable behavior is successfully modified to something acceptable.

To sum it up, you recognize your cues, identify your craving and rewards, and introduce a competing behavior that can achieve the same reward. And we can’t stress this enough: you have to go deep to accurately identify your craving. For example, our alcoholic isn’t craving being inebriated. That person is craving something that being inebriated provides, be it relaxation, numbness, acceptance within a peer group, the ability to forget something terrible, or whatever. So it’s vital that you dig deep into your own motivation.

If you write fiction, pretend you’re a character in one of your novels and don’t be satisfied with the superficial answer. Maybe you want to stop snacking at work. You need to understand why you’re snacking. Ask yourself what you’re really after. Are you truly hungry? Are you just bored and in need of a break? Or are you tired and need something to wake you up?

There’s one other important aspect of successful behavior change we need to cover, and that is the belief that change is possible. You have to believe it. Charles Duhigg quotes J. Scott Tonigan, a researcher from the University of Toronto, who says, “I wouldn’t have said this a year ago—that’s how fast our understanding is changing, but belief seems critical.”

One of the things that helps boost belief is the power of others believing. Groups can help foster belief. Duhigg points out that belief is a vital component in Alcoholics Anonymous. He quotes a senior scientist at the Alcohol Research Group who says, “At some point, people in AA look around the room and think, if it worked for that guy, I guess it can work for me. There’s something really powerful about groups and shared experiences. People might be skeptical about their ability to change if they’re by themselves, but a group will convince them to suspend belief. A community creates belief.”

So one of the best things you can do when trying to change a habit is find other like minded people who can support you and help foster your belief. But let’s not forget the most powerful belief. The belief that with God, all things are possible. 

Some of you may know that Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, attributed his ability to overcome alcohol to God. And many other people interviewed by researchers also point to God as the reason they don’t relapse even in the most difficult of times.

Of course, researchers wanted to discount this. You can’t really test God in a hypothesis and that, among other things, can make researchers uncomfortable. But God kept coming up over and over in the interviews. So much so that researchers couldn’t discount it. Their solution was to neutralize the notion of belief into a generic statement that belief is necessary, but they say a belief in general, either in themselves or some other higher power, will do.

I think we do need belief, we need hope. But we as Christians understand that the highest power in all existence is God, the Creator of all things. And he’s not bound by our understanding, our limitations, our beliefs, or our habits. Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV) says,

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

How encouraging it is that when we want to change behaviors or create new behaviors and routines, we have Almighty God. Take this to God. Ask him which behaviors are helping you and which are harming you. Trust him to give you the guidance you need.

Jeremiah 32:27 (NIV) says, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” He can show you your habits. He can show you how to change them.

Job 42:2 ​​(NIV) says, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” God knows what works best for you. God knows which habits are hindering you.

Isaiah 46:9b-10 (NKJV) says, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.’”

We serve an amazing God. A God who wants us to act in a way that’s best for us. In a way that he designed us. In a way that makes us better reflections of him. Take this to him and watch and see what he does!

Come discover effective ways to change your bad habits...and their destructive influence in your life and writing. #amwriting #christianwriter @karenball1
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Have you ever had to change a habit? How did you do it?

Atomic Habits by James Clear

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

We’re so grateful for the sponsorship from the Novel Marketing Podcast, with host Thomas Umstattd Jr. It’s the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. We know and trust Thomas, and his podcast is full of great information and advice—like Novel Marketing’s 10 Commandments of Book Marketing, which we’re going to be bringing you.

Commandment #1 is: Love thy reader as you love thy book.

This is the greatest commandment and the most foundational. If this is wrong, you can’t fix it with the other commandments. If you want readers to care about your book, you need to care about readers.

A lot of new authors fall in love with their books. They write the book they want to write, regardless of what readers want. Then writers start trying to figure out how to find readers and make them want the book. That’s backwards. Caring about your reader isn’t something you tack on at the end as a promotional tactic. It is where you must start. 

You need to know thy reader, listen to thy reader, and serve thy reader. Jesus told his disciples that the greatest among them would be those who are servants. Approach your writing out of love and with a servant’s heart. 

For more book promotion and platform help listen to Novel Marketing in your favorite podcast app or at NovelMarketing.com.

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our October sponsor of the month, Tammy Partlow! She’s a speaker at women’s retreats, and her debut novel Blood Beneath the Pines, a suspense set in the deep South, is now available. She’s hard at work on the next book in the series!

Many thanks also to the folks at Podcast P.S. for their fabulous sound editing!

The post 151 – How to Replace Bad Habits with Good Ones appeared first on Write from the Deep.

We all have habits. Some good, some not so good. But did you realize that your habits can save you from such things as decision fatigue and damaging behavior? Come listen in as we explore how to turn your habits into powerful allies in a world overflowing with tension and struggle.

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

We talked about decision fatigue in episode 149, and we mentioned that habits can help us reduce the number of decisions we have to make every day. Then in episode 146, we covered five things no one told you about the writing journey—and one of those things was that you need more healthy habits than you realize. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to those episodes, I encourage you to do that. 

Today we want to help you put healthy habits into practice by covering how to build habits. Not only that, but how to build these habits in a way that doesn’t take Herculean effort.

Let’s face it, sometimes we see a person who has all kinds of great habits, and we think she must be the most disciplined person in the world. Guess what? She’s probably not. And you don’t need to be either. There are secrets to building great habits, and we’re going to share them with you.

Let’s start with a simple definition so we all know exactly what we’re talking about when we say “habit.”

First, here are a couple of definitions of habit from Webster’s dictionary:

: a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior

: an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary

But I like how James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits, defines a habit. He says it’s “a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and, in many cases, automatically.”

Atomic Habits is a useful book for lots of information, ideas, and examples, and we’ve taken the bulk of the material for this podcast from it. It’s worth the time to read because we can’t cover it all, so I recommend it to you. Another classic book on habits is Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit.  

James Clear argues in Atomic Habits that “changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.”

I agree with this, and I think it helps to put habits in a more user-friendly light. Habits shouldn’t be about radically changing your life to incorporate fifty new regimens. Instead, creating habits is about implementing small changes that slowly accumulate into the kind of lifestyle you’ve always wanted but maybe didn’t think you were disciplined enough to have.

Let me reiterate. We’re saying these changes SLOWLY accumulate, and slowly make a difference. The effects of habits generally don’t operate on a linear progression. So no, you can’t go from being a couch potato to a marathon runner in one week, any more than you can instantly go from being a person who can’t seem to find time to write to a person who produces a novel every 6 months.

But you could do those over time if you developed the right habits and overcame the wrong habits. Now, there’s nothing wrong with having goals like that: to run a marathon or write a novel in 6 months. But, counterintuitively, James Clear says that one of the secrets to helping people build habits is to focus not so much on the goal as on the process. 

He gives an example about cleaning a messy room. If you manage to get it cleaned up, you’ve got a momentary change—it’s now clean. You’ve solved the problem at a surface level. But if you’re not a tidy person, then that room is going to be messy again very soon, and you’re back to square one. If you focus on your system, on creating habits that a tidy person would have, then you’ll be solving your problem at the systems level, and you won’t have a messy room to begin with.

So how might this apply to writing? Writing a novel is a wonderful success that lots of people never achieve. But it’s also just one achievement in time. Becoming a consistent, dependable, productive writer is a lifestyle. If you build habits that focus on the systems level of that lifestyle, you can write one book or, just as easily, you can write thirty books. That kind of productivity becomes much less daunting. 

So, how do you build a habit? James Clear’s book breaks habits down into a four-step process. This is a predictable pattern because our brains are predictable. They’re always trying to figure out what’s happening around us and how to respond in a way that’s most satisfactory to us. When our behavior results in good consequences, our brain says, “Hey, that was good. Remember that and do it again.” When the consequences are negative, our brain says, “Hey, don’t do that again.”

The pattern of a habit is: Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward. 

CUE

The cue is a trigger that causes your brain to initiate a behavior. It’s a situation your brain recognizes and ties to a reward. For example, you come home from work to the smell of cookies baking in the oven, because let’s imagine you have a wonderful spouse who loves to bake, and sometimes when you come home, there are cookies in the oven. Your brain knows that the smell of cookies often ends in a delicious, satisfying taste experience. And this wonderful aroma of cookies leads you to the next step of the habit pattern: craving.

CRAVING

You WANT that delicious cookie. You desire that cookie. You are motivated to get and eat that cookie. And it’s not because it’s an attractive round shape or color, though it may be a lovely cookie. What you’re really after is that delicious taste sensation that happens when you eat the cookie. 

Without motivation, you have no reason to act. Without a spouse making cookies, you don’t come home to a cookie smell. But we’ll pretend you do have that spouse, so there is a cookie smell. So what do you do? You make a response.

RESPONSE

The response is the third step of the pattern. A response is the behavior you do because of the craving. This behavior is the actual habit. Now, a response does depend on how motivated you are and how much resistance there would be to carrying out the behavior.

For example, if you just came home from having dental work done, and your tongue is completely numb so that you couldn’t taste anything, much less chew, you’re probably not going to eat that cookie. But most of the time, a plate of your favorite cookies fresh out of the oven will generate the response of eating one, and this will bring you to the last step of the pattern: your reward.  

REWARD

The reward is the delicious taste sensation. Rewards are the whole reason you do the behavior. James Clear calls rewards “the end goal of every habit” because they satisfy our cravings. They also teach us which behaviors we should repeat.

If your spouse’s cookies always taste great, your brain will want to repeat the reward over and over. But, if your spouse has an unfortunate and consistent problem following recipes, and salt frequently gets substituted for sugar, the terrible taste will be a negative reward, and your brain will urge you NOT to eat those cookies no matter how they smell.

So, if you have a cue that triggers a craving, and the craving motivates a response, and the response provides a positive reward which satisfies the craving, that becomes a cycle you’re going to repeat. The reward will eventually become associated with the cue and you’ll have a habit loop.

One other quick example of habit is putting on your seatbelt when you get in the car:

Cue: You get in your car.

Craving: You want to travel safely. 

Response: You put on your seatbelt.

Reward: You aren’t injured during the trip.

Now, lots of times you don’t even get in an accident, but if you do, chances are you were safer because of your seatbelt. We all probably know somebody who’s life was saved by a seatbelt. 

If you know someone who was injured because of wearing a seatbelt, that may have become a negative reward, and so you DON’T wear a seatbelt.

Ultimately though, many of us put on our seatbelt without thinking about it because habits become unconscious.

IMPLEMENTING HABITS 

This is all fine and dandy information, but where is the part about this being easy? About not needing to be a hyper-disciplined person? That comes in understanding some tricks to making habits easy to start. This is where James Clear’s book really shines and becomes worth the read. We only have time to give you a few of his tips.

1. Make a “time and place” plan

Two of the most common cues that initiate a habit are time and place. If you want to develop a new habit, decide in advance where and when you’ll do that. So, if you want to develop a habit of exercise—let’s say walking everyday—then determine when and where you will do this.

This actually works. An experiment about exercise in Great Britain showed that participants who made a plan of when and where they’d exercise were far more likely to follow through.

Be sure to pick a specific time that happens everyday without fail, and a place that’s easy to get to.

For example: Every morning, right after breakfast, I will walk around the block.

“Every morning” does happen everyday, but that’s not specific enough. “After breakfast” is specific. And the place “around the block” is simple enough. You don’t have to drive to get there. Just go out your door.

Another benefit to making a plan is that you don’t have to make a new decision. You’ve already made it when you made the plan. Your job is to merely follow through with the plan you already made.

Here are some other examples of plans:

At noon every day I will stand up and stretch for 10 minutes.

Before I get out of bed every morning, I will be still and listen to God for 10 minutes. Psalm 46:10 even encourages us to do this when it says to, “Be still and know that I am God…”

To help you pick good a good time to plan your habit, make a list of things that happen in your life everyday without fail. That’ll give you more flexibility and options that you may not think of otherwise.

Think about what might be your pivotal times of the day, where one habit can alter the course of your whole day. For example, I know that I do best if I exercise first thing in the morning. For me, that’s become a key to starting my whole day off right.

2. Stack Your Habits

Sometimes the easiest way to get a new habit started is to attach it to a habit you already have. One simple example of this is if you wanted to build a habit of flossing your teeth, you could stack it on top of brushing your teeth, assuming brushing is something you do everyday. 

Another example is something I do: I eat a protein bar every morning. I cannot get my work day started without food. So that’s the time when I do my Bible study. It’s a linked habit now. I grab my protein bar and my Bible and I know I’m unlikely to skip Bible reading because I’m extremely unlikely to skip my protein bar.

Stacking your habits can become an extremely powerful means of creating a lifestyle you want or need. I suffer from severe chronic insomnia, and I need every possible help I can get when it comes to falling asleep. After habit stacking, I’ve come to the point where I have a whole wind-down routine every night (that takes into consideration the lighting, the temperature, what I’m focusing on etc.). It starts an hour before bedtime, and truly it’s helped.

One of the reasons why it’s effective is that not only am I doing the right things to help prepare for sleep, I’m not making any decisions about whether I want to do this specific thing or not. I’m just doing it and letting my mind go to the places it needs to go to for calmness and sleep.

Randy Ingermanson, in his Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, wrote a article on habits and what he called his “Daily Startup Habit.” That’ll give you another real-life example of how you can powerfully use habit-stacking.  

One key to habit stacking is to make sure you pick a good time and a compatible habit. Like flossing your teeth goes pretty well with brushing them. But if you’re brain dead in the morning before your first cup of coffee, don’t stack a habit of writing before your coffee. And maybe not even after, depending on how long it takes you to wake up. If you love to eat messy barbecue chicken wings for lunch, don’t decide your lunch hour is the best place to stack a habit of writing either, unless you want a messy keyboard!

One of the things James Clear suggests is that you do a “habit inventory” before you think about what new habits you want to start and which habits you might want to stack. It’s good to be thoroughly familiar with what you’re already doing—habits you like and want to keep, as well as habits you don’t like and want to stop.

3. Make Your Cues as Obvious as Possible

Remember, a cue is what begins the habit loop. It’s the reminder. You want it to be as noticeable as possible. A simple example of how important visual reminders can be is the end caps in bookstores. Those are prime places that publishers pay extra for. They want potential buyers to SEE and crave their books.

I have a medication I need to take every night. It’s on my nightstand. That’s an obvious visual cue. When I wanted to be sure I practiced guitar everyday, I had it sitting out on a stand, not put away in the case. The healthy snacks at my house are easier to spot than the chocolates.

When you’re trying to start a new habit, ask yourself what you can do to create an environment that encourages your habit. Maybe, if you want to become the type of person who only eats healthy snacks, you only have healthy snacks in your house. James Clear says, “If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, make the cue a big part of your environment.”

Or, let’s go back to wanting the habit of writing everyday: create a dedicated place in your home where you write. You see the space, it triggers the cue to do your writing, because it signals to you that you want to be the type of person who writes.

4. Increase the Temptation of Your Habit

This is a simple trick: If there’s a habit you want to start that you don’t anticipate liking very much, bundle it with another activity or habit that you really like. Maybe you love looking at puppies on Instagram, but you hate processing your email. So, you can decide something like this: After I have my coffee everyday (so you’re picking a time), I will process email. After I process email, I will look at puppies for five minutes.

Or, if you want to start a habit of eating one vegetable snack per day, you could say: At 3:00 while I have my afternoon vegetable snack, I will look at puppies. Again, this would totally work for me!

But there’s more…

We’ve talked about what habits are and given some tips to easily building new habits you want. Stay tuned for the next podcast in this series, where we’ll bring you a few more tips for building habits, as well as some guidance about how to change habits you no longer want.

Until then, think about your habits. Pray about them. Ask God to show you what he thinks about your habits. Which ones are serving you well? Which aren’t? What do you need to add in your life to help you in this task of writing he’s given you?

Are your habits working for—or against—you? #amwriting #christianwriter @karenball1
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What is the easiest way you’ve found to build a good habit?

We’re excited to have a sponsorship from the Novel Marketing Podcast, with host Thomas Umstattd Jr. He knows what he’s talking about, friends, and we highly recommend his podcast!  It’s the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. You can find it at NovelMarketing.com or in your favorite podcast app.

One of Thomas’s recent episodes was “How to Write Book Reviews Readers Will Want to Read.” I loved this episode because it covered a useful skill writers can use to help build a following among readers. Thomas talks about different kinds of reviews, different angles you can take for your reviews, as well as how to write reviews that are NOT boring. 

If you want to attract readers to your writing, writing reviews in an interesting way not only helps readers get to know you and your style, but readers love you for providing useful information for them. They WANT to find new books to read. I encourage you to check out this episode of Novel Marketing in your favorite podcast app or at NovelMarketing.com, where you can find plenty of other book promotion and platform help as well!

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our September sponsor of the month, Priscilla Sharrow! She’s working on her memoir called Bonked! Life, Love, and Laughter with Traumatic Brain Injury, which is under contract with Redemption Press. Learn more about Priscilla at her website priscillasharrow.com and follow her blog for the TBI/PTSD community.

Many thanks also to the folks at Podcast P.S. for their fabulous sound editing!

The post 150 – How to Build Useful Habits appeared first on Write from the Deep.

Decisions. More and more of them are thrown at us today than ever before. And in so many cases, we just don’t have the knowledge or information we need to make wise choices. In fact, we have so many decisions and choices to make that we’ve become immobilized. Making decisions seems like the hardest thing in the world! Let us help you find ways to break free of the dreaded decision fatigue.

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Remember how terrible we all thought 2020 was? I remember turning to my hubby, Don, on New Year’s Eve, and saying, “What if 2021 is looking at 2020 and saying, ‘Here. Hold my beer.’?” In other words, what if 2020 was just a warmup for 2021. We consoled ourselves that that couldn’t happen. And it didn’t. Not for us, at least.

Until March. When we discovered that our water heater was leaking. A lot. In came the workmen, and they discovered all manner of mold in all manner of places in our entryway…under the floor, in the walls, even under the subflooring. Thus began the unending repair process. 

Because of Karen’s lung disease and the danger the mold was to her, Don sent her off to Erin’s house for almost two weeks. Enough time for them to tear everything out, deal with the mold, then get the subfloor put in. Then, when Karen got home, they’d pick out new flooring and it would be put down in a week or so. Well…you know that old saying “Man plans and God laughs”?

The day before Karen went home, they found the water damage was more extensive than they thought. And it impacted not just the entryway but the kitchen. 

So instead of coming home to a mold-free house and having the fun of picking out new flooring, Karen found the entryway and kitchen cut off by plastic sheeting while they continued to work, tearing up the kitchen floor now. Good news, though. Don had saved a good portion of the flooring from the last time they replaced the kitchen floor, so at least we wouldn’t have to put a new floor in the kitchen. We chose a new floor for the entryway, which involved getting floor samples and taking them home and trying to decide which one matched everything best. Then it was Karen’s job to pack up everything breakable in the kitchen and figure out where to store it all.   

Yes, it’s too late to make this long story short, so we’ll just hit the highlights:

The job was finally, finally finished in late July, four long, decision-laden months. But by that time, Don and Karen were both dealing with:

Procrastination. No matter what a decision was, like what do you want for dinner or what shall we watch on TV, they both put off choosing. Karen had brain fog like never before.

Impulsivity. Karen would decide things by closing her eyes and pointing. If Don asked why she picked that one, she’d just shrug. She had no idea. She just wanted the decision to go away.

Avoidance. More than once Don told Karen, “I can’t deal with this right now.” Karen’s line was, “If I have to make one more decision, I’ll scream!”

Indecision. They’d waffle back and forth, then second-guess each other. And then snap at each other. Which brings us to…

Irritation. They were so mentally exhausted, if either one of them asked the other for something, it was like poking a tiger with a toothache. 

As you may have guessed, Karen and Don were DEEP in decision fatigue.

As we were talking that over one day, we realized that while not a lot of you may be facing what Karen and Don did, thanks to the state of the world today, you’re probably facing your own nightmares of one decision after another after another. Studies have shown that decision fatigue is rampant. No surprise when you consider the countless number of decisions the Pandemic has brought our way. Should we:

Wear masks, go to the store, send our kids to school, homeschool, let people come over or don’t, go to work, find a place to work at home, which news sources to watch, to read, to trust, go to church or watch online, travel or don’t travel, and on and on it goes. Medical, family, and safety decisions abound, and we have to deal with them all! 

That’s not all. Writers still have to make everyday decisions for their work and careers and story lines. I can’t even tell you how many online discussions I’ve seen with writers wondering if they should be honest about what they think on social media, how to deal with the censorship, should they address the pandemic in their books, what about cultural appropriation, will my factual historical storyline offend readers and should I change it, and on and on. And just when we think life is returning to normal, there’s a new crisis and MORE decisions to be made. 

Not just that, but what about every new marketing idea or social media fad that comes along? Should you hop aboard or sit it out?

It’s no wonder so many of us feel like crawling under the bed and not coming out until we hear the trumpet call of Christ’s return. And it’s no wonder so many of us struggle with decision fatigue. 

So what, you ask, IS decision fatigue? 

In an article on Usatoday.com, Roy Bauimeister, the psychology professor at Florida State University who coined the term, explains, “It’s a state of low willpower that results from having invested effort into making choices. It leads to putting less effort into making further choices, so either choices are avoided or they are made in a very superficial way.” 

Bauimeister adds in another article on Healthline.com that “decision fatigue is the emotional and mental strain resulting from a burden of choices.” 

The Newport Institute, in their article called “Change Fatigue and Decision Fatigue,” defines decision fatigue as “a mental overload resulting from constantly having to make stressful choices.”

Basically, our minds have limited energy, and when we are constantly making decisions, we drain that energy to a dangerous level. Why dangerous? Because when we don’t have the necessary physical and mental resources, we often make decisions that negatively affect our lives—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—and the lives of those we love. Bad decisions can:

Another factor in decision fatigue is that the days of operating on automatic pilot, making decisions easily because the situation is familiar or routine, have gone out the window. Everything is changed. Everything is unpredictable. Too often we don’t have the information we need, or we have too much information and it’s all conflicting, to make wise decisions.

Look at publishing. Editors are making decisions about historical novels based on “sensitivity” readers or readers’ “feelings” rather than on historical facts. We heard from best-selling novelist Tamara Alexander about that in podcast episode 130. Contracts are being cancelled and books and/or authors are being blasted, even threatened, for perceived offenses. Just recently author Karen Witemeyer was awarded the RWA’s Vivian Award for the best romance of the year “with religious/spiritual elements.” An award that was rescinded by the organization when people came after them and Karen for “romanticizing” the Battle of Wounded Knee. In reality, Karen wrote a moving story of how God redeems a man who took part in the horror of Wounded Knee. But the “people” have spoken, and so the award was rescinded. 

The publishing world, both secular and Christian, has turned on its head. Some are calling censorship brave and necessary, embracing the very cancel culture it used to condemn. How on earth do we navigate THOSE stormy waters? Elizabeth Yuko, a writer and staff member at the Fordham University Center for Ethics Education, expresses this well on USAToday.com:  “We’re …making high-stakes, moral decisions…that have consequences we’ve never had to deal with before. These things come with such a moral weight on them, it comes with even more stress.”

So, decision fatigue is real. As are its consequences. In the Healthline.com article, “Understanding Decision Fatigue,” the stress over time of having to make so many decisions can lead to irritability, increased anxiety, depression, and cause physical issues such as tension headaches and digestive issues. It can cause us to shut down emotionally. It can create mental stress, hinder our ability to reason and process things, reduce our desire or ability to compromise and work for a win/win solution, and, not too surprisingly, lead to depression.

Now that we know what decision fatigue is, how do we know if we’re dealing with it? We talked about some of the signs already: Procrastination, Impulsivity, Avoidance, Indecision, Irritation, depression. Other signs include:

Does any, or even all, of that sound familiar? Yeah, it does to us, too. So what can we do about decision fatigue?

1. Take your struggle, and your decisions, to God.

Ask for peace, clarity, and wisdom. Remember Solomon? The wisest man who ever lived? In Ecclesiastes 7:12, he wrote: “Wisdom is a shelter…Wisdom preserves those who have it.” Don’t make important decisions without God’s wisdom.

Read God’s Word. Consider doing word studies on wisdom, rest, peace, knowledge, and other words you find calming and inspiring. 

Trust God to lead you. As He says in Psalm 32:8,10, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you…the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him.”

2. Share your struggle.

Talk with those in your family about the issue. Be honest, and let them be honest as well. 

Ask each other for help. Work together to develop a strategy to deal with decision fatigue. See how you can help each other in your places of weakness. If one of you loves to cook, that person can get input from everyone else to develop a meal plan for the week. If you hate deciding what to wear but one of your kids is a fashionista, ask for help choosing outfits for whatever events/appointments are coming up. Maybe you don’t even have to make that decision. That’s an important point to consider. Don’t make decisions that you don’t have to.

Talk with trusted counselors and seek their prayers and counsel. Remember how Moses couldn’t hold up his staff in Exodus 17? Aaron and Hur came alongside him and enabled him to do what God has asked. Let those you trust come alongside you, too.

3. Make a plan ahead of time for how you’ll handle decision fatigue when it hits.

Making a plan can take the pressure off when you’re feeling overwhelmed at having to make a decision. A good place to start your plan is with a primary question to ask yourself when you have to make a decision. It could be something like, “Which choice can God use to refine me?” or “Which choice will bring glory to God?” or “Do I need to be the one making this decision?” Work through the possible answers and responses until you have a workable “script” to follow. 

Churchleaders.com gives a great suggestion to add to your plan: Resist. “Specifically, resist external pressures that might affect your decision-making that are motivated by such things as partisan politics, bad theology, fear, anxiety or personal felt needs. It’s not that some external pressures aren’t worthy of being taken into account; just never allow yourself to make a decision simply because of external pressure.” 

4. Focus on self care.

Keep watch for the signs of decision fatigue. When you see them in yourself, admit what’s happening and take care of yourself.

Be sure you’re eating healthy. 

Get the sleep you need. This includes naps. If you’re fading during the day, a nap can work wonders. If you can’t nap, take a short break. Do something that rejuvenates you. 

Exercise. Exercise boosts endorphins, which make us feel more energized, and increases oxygen levels in the blood, which is imperative for thinking straight. The brain’s cells are hypersensitive to decreased oxygen in the blood. My dad always said if I was feeling tired, go for a walk rather than take a nap. I thought he was crazy until I tried it. It’s amazing how energizing moving and walking can be. 

Develop routines to cut out unnecessary decisions (e.g., what time you’ll write, when you’ll go to bed, when you’ll get up, etc.) and maintain them. We’ll be talking more in an upcoming podcast about how to develop habits and routines. Because again, that can help you decrease the amount of decisions you have to make.

Don’t be afraid of wrong decisions. Know you do the best you can with what you know in the moment. 

Step away. Give yourself time and space to think and pray things through. Don’t be rushed by the tyranny of the deadline. Consider Mark 6:31. Jesus and his disciples had been teaching and healing for days. “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, [Jesus] said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’”

Never underestimate the power of taking the time to recoup. To let your heart and spirit reset on what’s most important. Remember God’s words in Isaiah 30:15, “This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.’” Don’t be like the Israelites who wouldn’t listen to Him. Take His truths to heart and rest in them. 

5. Focus on WHEN you make decisions.

Believe it or not, timing matters. Opensourcedworkplace.com shares a fascinating study done by the National Academy of Sciences back in 2011. Over 10 months they studied the rulings of over 10 thousand judges. What they discovered was that “the judges in a parole board who heard prisoners’ appeals early in the day were more likely to give a favorable ruling about 65% of the time. But as more and more decisions were made, with deliberations done over and over again, the chance of prisoners receiving parole in their favor dropped to almost zero. The researchers also recorded the judges’ two daily food breaks, and found that after the percentage of favorable rulings dropped to nearly zero, it jumped back to about 65% after each break.” 

Food doesn’t just feed your body, it feeds your brain. The glucose enables it to have the energy to think more critically. Daniel Kahneman talks about this as well in his book Thinking Fast and Slow.

In the case of the parole board, the judges decisions at times had nothing to do with the prisoners or the judges personal feelings. It was all about the timing. So, if possible, make your decisions in the morning after a good night’s sleep and after healthy meals.

God’s Peace and Wisdom to Overcome Decision Fatigue

We deal with so many strange things in the course of our lives as writers and believers. Where making decisions seemed easy, almost second nature, it can now become so overwhelming we’re frozen in indecision. But God doesn’t want you stuck in decision fatigue. He’s with you in every decision you have to make. He’s ready to guide you, to whisper truth and wisdom to your heart and spirit. Don’t let the craziness of the world make you forget that the God of the universe loves you unconditionally. And He offers you rest, peace, and wisdom. As Paul wrote in Colossians 3:15-17: 

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do (or decide!), whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Are you making decisions when you shouldn't? #amwriting #christianwriter @karenball1
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What are the hardest decisions you’re facing today?

We’re excited to have a sponsorship from the Novel Marketing Podcast, with host Thomas Umstattd Jr. He knows what he’s talking about, friends, and we highly recommend his podcast!  It’s the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. You can find it at NovelMarketing.com or in your favorite podcast app.

The last episode on Novel Marketing was An Author’s Guide to StoryOrigin. StoryOrigin is a useful service for authors trying to build their newsletter list, which is crucial these days for author marketing and connecting with readers.

StoryOrigin helps you create a landing page for your reader magnet, which is something you give to people when they sign up to your mailing list. StoryOrigin handles the delivery of that file so you don’t have to, which is nice, because trust me, readers can have all sorts of problems downloading files. 

StoryOrigin also helps authors connect with each other to develop a network for cross promotion. For lots more information about this resource, and it’s potential for you, check out Thomas’s interview with the creator of StoryOrigin on the Novel Marketing podcast in your favorite podcast app or at NovelMarketing.com where you’ll also find lots more book promotion and platform help.  

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our September sponsor of the month, Priscilla Sharrow! She’s working on her memoir called Bonked! Life, Love, and Laughter with Traumatic Brain Injury, which is under contract with Redemption Press. Learn more about Priscilla at her website priscillasharrow.com and follow her blog for the TBI/PTSD community.

Many thanks also to the folks at Podcast P.S. for their fabulous sound editing!

The post 149 – How to Overcome Decision Fatigue appeared first on Write from the Deep.

So often writers wonder how to find themes for their books, but our guest this week, Laurel Thomas, has good news! God has planted rich themes in your own journey and life! Come listen in as Laurel gives us guidelines and tips for not just finding those themes, but understanding what to do with them.

About Laurel Thomas

Laurel Thomas loves words and their power to convey remarkable stories. She’s written for inspirational magazines including Guideposts and Mysterious Ways, as well as ghosted nonfiction. Her novel River’s Call was published by Wild Rose Press and boasts five-star reviews. In her position as general administrator for WriteWell, SellWell and WriterCon 2021 in Oklahoma City, she teaches and supports other multi-published industry professionals who equip writers for success through national conferences and weekend intensives. Find out more about Laurel Thomas at her website: laurelannthomas.org.

Thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, we’re able to offer an edited transcript of the podcast!

Karen: It’s another day at Write from the Deep, and we are so delighted you’re here to join us. We are also delighted to welcome a guest. Erin, tell us all about her.

Erin: Her name is Laurel Thomas, and she is a dear friend of mine. Laurel Thomas is a former high school English teacher who loves words and their power to convey remarkable stories.

She’s written for inspirational magazines, including Guideposts and Mysterious Ways, as well as ghostwritten nonfiction. And her debut novel River’s Call was published by Wild Rose Press. She’s also a writer’s coach and a chaplain to the Oklahoma state bureau of investigation. How about that?

She’s a general administrator for the conferences and writing intensive of WriteWell, SellWell and Writer Con 2021 in Oklahoma City. Aside from all of that, though, Laurel is one of the sweetest, most gentle-spirited women I have ever met. I’m telling you, her love for Jesus and for others actually radiates out of her whenever you get like within five feet of her. It’s like this wave. Laurel, I am just so delighted to have you here with us today. Welcome!  

Karen: Welcome. 

Laurel: Well, it is wonderful to be here and to see Erin’s face. I’ve missed her since she moved away. Thank you, Erin, and thank you, Karen, for inviting me today. I’ve been so excited. 

Karen: We were, too. 

Erin: Yes! So our first question as always, Laurel, what does a deep mean to you? 

Laurel: For years and years, I wrote nonfiction and loved nonfiction. What I would do was in the morning, when I had a quiet time, the Lord would show me something special. And so when I first started writing, I thought, I think I’ll just practice blogging. So I would take those little mini revelations and I would apply them to real life and get them down on the blog.

That’s how I started really getting my writing out there. ‘Cause I had written, ghosted nonfiction for pastors and you know, lots of different venues, but I really had never gotten my work out into the universe. So, that’s kind of how I started.

I have learned over the years that our Father is the Creator, and he has incredible insights into people, into life, that really need to be communicated. So when I think of write from the deep, I think of that scripture, and I told Erin this, from Psalm 42, that deep calls to deep. There’s something about the wooing of the Spirit who calls to our spirit. There is such joy, such riches, such treasure there. That’s basically how I would translate the deep. 

Karen: That’s wonderful. I like that.

Erin: Yeah, and it really ties in with the things that we wanted to talk about today, because we wanted to talk about how our journey with the Lord offers those rich themes and how we find those themes. What do we do with them? This is something that you’re doing well. So talk a little bit about how you do this. 

Laurel: Thank you. You know, I made a big shift in 2013 into fiction. It was funny. As a writer, I thought, how hard could it be?

Well, it turns out, it was difficult.

I was like, “It’s still writing…” Well, the learning curve was incredible. When I started, I wasn’t very good, but I started anyway. I really have realized something so important as a writer, and really it’s true for life, too, that growth really means going into those uncomfortable, new places that we are not familiar with, that we’re not really totally comfortable with, and really we don’t have mastery over.

But the Lord beckons us into those places. And if we will humble ourselves and be willing to go with him in those new places, it’s just kind of amazing how he will expand us, and what he’ll release in us that we maybe didn’t even know was there. If that makes sense.

Karen: It does. That’s what I really love about God when he draws us into this task of writing. I don’t think I’ve known any writers in all the years I’ve been in publishing who’ve come into this task and said, “I can do this,” and didn’t have a sense of, “What the heck am I doing?” Yet what I love about it is that God knows where we’re at every stage. And at every stage he draws us deeper, not just into him, but into our own selves and to understanding who we are and why we are and what it is that motivates us and what it is that stirs us.

I remember a lot of years ago, I loved to read romance novels, but reading the Bible, wasn’t all that appealing to me. So I actually prayed for God to give me a love and a desire for reading scripture. When I went to read scripture next, there was such excitement inside of me. The words were living water that came into me and refreshed me and gave me new insights. That was my first step into the deep with Jesus. Then that informed the writing and the work that I did. So, yes, it makes absolute sense. 

Erin: I love also what you said about going into a place that’s uncomfortable, which we don’t want to go into, obviously. I mean, we know we’re not good at it. We have no control over it. The only way for us to do that is to be humble. Humility is the key. 

It reminded me of the Israelites wandering through the desert. Why did God give them manna, like over and over and over again? It says in Deuteronomy 8:16-17, by the way, Deuteronomy one of my favorite places to find verses because they’re so good.

So it says this: “In the wilderness, he fed you manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and that he might test you to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, my power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.” 

I love that because if we’re not humble, we’re not acknowledging that it’s God who’s doing the work. It’s God who’s getting the glory. So that’s my favorite keyword there. 

Laurel: I love that. Of course, it’s true for probably any career that we really feel called to. I mean, there is a certain amount of equipping. I had to learn the craft of storytelling. That meant that I had to humble myself to begin anew. To go to conferences, to study craft books.

And then to actually write fiction and actually get it out there and let other people, like in critique groups or writers intensives, see it. It had to have eyes on it. It had to have readers’ eyes. It had to have published novelists’ eyes. That was a venture again into the deep where you just kind of have to practice.

I remember, Erin, the first time that I went to Mount Herman. You were there. I got all of the recordings. All of them. When I got home, of course, technology was different then, but I listened to all of those recordings. Over and over and over. I prayed, “Lord, is this going to be like osmosis? Is this going to be like immersion therapy? I hope so.”

I mean, it was great for getting me started. But still there was so much practice and there was so much that I needed as far as feedback. I’m grateful that I’ve had really kind people around me. I haven’t had people who really have shot me down.

Well, I entered a few contests. I might have been shot down a little bit…

Erin: I’ll tell you, I’m a fan of getting the recordings of conferences. I can’t tell you how many conferences I bought the full set of recordings for. I learned so much that way. It’s just a crash course. 

But let’s circle back to talking about how our journeys with the Lord give us rich themes for writing. You probably have some examples or stories from your own life where you’ve done that. 

Laurel: This is one of my favorite things, Erin. I get so excited. Years ago, I had a dream and my husband and I were in the dream. We were living in a mountain chateau, and we had a whole bunch of children around us. It was pretty unlikely. We have never visited a mountain chateau. But anyway, all of these children were there. When I woke up, I was like, “Lord, that is…it was such a vivid dream.”

I had this sense that the children were in danger, and that the reason they were there was because we were supposed to protect them. So I started researching about hidden children. Sure enough, I got all kinds of information about Jewish children who were sent away during the Holocaust for their own protection, because the Nazis considered them useless eaters. They were less than the least. 

I was like, “Oh, this is amazing!” I tried to create a story from that dream about these children who are hidden away in a mountain chateau. But setting it in World War II was just too much. I couldn’t get a handle for it. So I put it on the shelf for a long time.

Erin: Right.

Laurel: One morning, I was thinking about the magi. I had studied the magi, and what the Old Testament calls cities of refuge. It was interesting, both of those concepts. Let me just go back real quickly to cities of refuge. The cities of refuge were put in place early on. They were fascinating because the path to a city of refuge had to be lined out very clearly. Those refuge cities were built in white limestone. They were placed on top of the mountains so that if anyone was accused of manslaughter, they could run to that city of refuge, and they would get a fair trial at the city of refuge, if they made it.

If they didn’t make it, there was a blood avenger, usually a family member. So if they didn’t make it to the city, then a blood avenger could kill them legally for that manslaughter, which was, of course, accidental. Anyway, the long and the short of it was I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to write kind of a fantasy about a city of refuge? And who would the enemy attack? Maybe magi children? And magi children who were gifted in ways that would impact their world in a way that really was supernatural, but was supernaturally natural?” 

As I had done a little bit of research on the magi, I found out that Daniel was actually the chief of the magi during his time with the kings. When he worked with, I think, four or five different kings.

But anyway, the magi kind of got this, I don’t know, this bad reputation. But really they were known kind of in our culture, our Christian culture, as magicians or occultists. But that’s not really what they were, especially during Daniel’s time. 

They were influencers of culture. They were often spiritual counselors to kings. So they were known for supernatural wisdom. So when we see the wise men coming to meet the new King, Jesus, they were not occultists. They were learned wise men who came from a different culture, but who were recognized as counselors to kings. So the fact that they came to see Jesus is very significant. 

This is convoluted, but I’m just showing how a story arrived and evolved out of two things the Lord showed me, which were the cities of refuge and also the information about the magi. 

Karen: It’s funny. I’ve talked with a lot of writers over the years, and I’ve heard a lot of stories where they say, “You know, God showed me this X number of years ago, and I just didn’t know what it was for, so I just tucked it away.” Then at some point down the road it’s as though that thing just hits them again. Because of the current circumstances, or what they’ve learned since then and their relationship with the Lord, suddenly it’s so clear to them, and they build this whole story, fiction or nonfiction, around what they learned.

One of the things that we can learn from this is that we need to be focused on what God is telling us. We need to be focused on what he’s speaking to our own hearts and why, and what we’re learning about him. Not so much focused on getting published, but focused on growing in him. 

Then when he gives us the tasks that he does, whether it’s writing, or whatever creative endeavor it might be, we’re prepared to go in. He enlightens us so that we can enlighten others. I love that about him. 

Erin: I like what you’re saying, Karen, because we can get so focused on what’s happening externally. We can get so focused on goals and so focused on, you know, finishing the book. We forget to pay attention to what’s happening inside us, our own internal journey and how much we, in our relationship with God and what he teaches us, how much of that we can put in the story. Instead we’re just like, “Oh, I got to, you know, do all these things, I don’t even have time to spend time with God today. Sorry.” That’s not going to make it work. 

The other thing I like, Laurel, is that you did not hold that vision, that dream as sacred. Like, “I can never change it. It must be a mountain chateau and all of these children.”

I love how you held that loosely. How you were like, “You know what? That’s just sort of an ingredient in my crockpot, and it’s going to simmer, and it’s okay if it comes out as a fantasy that has nothing to do with the chateau.” Nothing to do, even, with your first exploration of the Jewish children. That whole transformation. You were so free and willing to let that transform. 

You know how difficult it is when a writer has something in their mind, some vision that they can’t let go of and they can’t let it morph and grow and bloom and transform to meet who they are today and what they’re growing into, and to have all of their experiences coming to a head at one point. That’s just a great example of how you let that simmer and stew and transform into something great. 

Laurel: That’s such wisdom. So you haven’t read these, but actually, there’ll be two books out of that idea. The one right now that is under consideration is called When Stars Brush Earth. 

Erin: I love that title.

Laurel: I wanted to say, too, Erin, that this is very personal, but you’ll find it in River’s Call and you’ll find it also in When Stars Brush Earth and The Stones of Promise, is that there’s always a heroine who really has no clue who she is and who struggles basically with an orphan spirit. You know, not being able to connect, not recognizing love when love is all around her.

That has been a personal journey that I know well, and so that has really been inscribed into my protagonist and really it’s in all of my novels. In some aspect, there is a main character who really has no clue who she is. Yet, who she is is shouting to her, all around her, to the people who truly love her. 

You see a little bit of that in Missy. That’s where I began to investigate that in River’s Call. So that would be like a major theme. As far as, like, how do we take a personal journey and then communicate it in a way that is engaging in a story, in story form and in our main character. So it’s been interesting. 

Erin: That’s cool. 

Karen: Laurel, believe it or not, our time is almost up. As you think about all the things we’ve talked about, and you think about those who are listening to this podcast, do you have any final words of wisdom or encouragement? 

Laurel: I always say trust that the Creator who created you loves to create through you. 

The journey of creating through words… I have a scripture, real quickly, that I read this morning. It’s Psalm 33:9 in The Passion Translation. It says, “He breathed words and worlds were created.”

I just thought, “Oh, my goodness. Some thoughts from God are so big.” 

I think that in a way, what I see, Karen, is that I would love to understand and to really communicate to other writers that the bigness of God can be imparted into a craft. It’s kind of a dance, and it’s kind of a playground, and it’s kind of a discovery that is so delightful that it—if as Erin said earlier we’ll take the pressure of pride out, and the pressure of ego out—it becomes this really delightful journey with the Lord that is rich and that blesses other people. It doesn’t get any better than that. 

Karen: That’s a, win-win. Thank you so much, Laurel. It’s been wonderful to have you here. 

Erin: Thanks, Laurel. 

Laurel: Thank you so much. I enjoyed talking to both of you.

Have any themes from your life made their way into your books?

We have a sponsorship from the Novel Marketing Podcast with host Thomas Umstattd Jr. It’s the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. We don’t take a sponsorship like this lightly. We agreed because we know and trust Thomas, and his podcast is full of great information and advice.

Not only does he talk about book promotion and marketing, but he also covers various aspects of business. For example, one of his recent episodes was An Author’s Guide to LLC’s. This is something many writers have questions about. And if you don’t, you probably should, because it’s important to be knowledgeable and wise in all aspects of the writing industry.

This episode covers issues like: What is an LLC? Why you may (or may not!) want one, and how LLC’s tie into estate planning. Remember, as writers, you’re creating intellectual property that has value for years. You need to understand how to be a good steward of it. For more book promotion and platform help listen to Novel Marketing in your favorite podcast app or at NovelMarketing.com.

River’s Call by Laurel Thomas

We use affiliate book links. You can help support the podcast by using these links if you plan to purchase any of these books. Thanks!

What’s the best source of themes for your writing? Guest Laurel Thomas gives us guidelines and tips for not just finding those themes, but understanding what to do with them. #amwriting #Christianwriter @karenball1 @LaurelT84325053
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Thanks so much to our August sponsor of the month, Bobbi Updegraff! You can find out more about another important cause she sponsors at friendsofrenacer.com. It’s a wonderful ministry of presence—of praying, visiting, listening, encouraging and helping financially—the orphaned children in Honduras!

Many thanks also to the folks at Podcast P.S. for their fabulous sound editing!

The post 148 – Using the Stories in Our Lives with Guest Laurel Thomas appeared first on Write from the Deep.

It’s a fact: control is an illusion! And nowhere is that more true than in publishing. Yes, we can control what we do and how hard we work. But the results? That’s all in God’s hands. Cara Putman—a talented writer, professor, and mentor—with a definite A+type personality—shares the wonder and joy found in giving up control and trusting in God.

About Cara Putman

The award-winning, best-selling author of more than 35 books, Cara Putman graduated college at 20 and completed her law degree at 27. FIRST for Women magazine called Shadowed by Grace “captivating” and a “novel with ‘the works.’” Cara is active at her church and a full-time Clinical Associate Professor on business and ethics to undergraduate and graduate students at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management. Putman also practices law and was a second-generation homeschooling mom for twelve years. Putman obtained her Master’s in Business Administration from Krannert and her J.D. from George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law. She serves on the executive board of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), an organization she has served in various roles since 2007. She lives with her husband and four children in Indiana. You can connect with her online at: caraputman.com.

Thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, we’re able to offer an edited transcript of the podcast!

Erin: Welcome, listeners. We are so glad that you’re here with us today. We have a guest. Yay! We’re going to let Karen introduce our lovely guest.

Karen: I am delighted to welcome Cara Putman here to the podcast. I met Cara years and years and years ago at one of the writers’ retreats that we both attended. They were so much fun, and Cara was so much fun. She has, I kid you not guys, the most beautiful smile you’ve ever seen. She and I had an adventure on one of these writers’ retreats where we got these marvelous sundaes that were out of this world. I still have pictures of that. They were so good, and she’s this little skinny thing and I’m not, but it was okay because we shared a love of hot fudge.

She’s an award-winning, best-selling author of more than 30 books. You’d never believe it because you look at her and you think she’s 13, but she’s written 30 books. Since the time she could read Nancy Drew, she’s wanted to write mysteries. In 2005, she attended a book signing at her local Christian bookstore, and the rest they say is history. There she met Colleen Coble, who has mentored so many writers in this industry. With prompting from Cara’s husband, she shared her dream with Colleen and since those infamous words, she’s been writing books. And I tell you, she writes amazing books.

In addition to that, get this guys, she’s an attorney, a lecturer at a big 10 university, and she’s active in women’s ministry, and she’s an all-around crazy woman, which she has to be to take on all of that. She’s crazy about God, her husband and her kids. She graduated with honors from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Oh, and she says, “Go Huskers.” Which for me, that means go Huskies from Washington! She went to George Mason Law School and Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management. That’s her MBA. You can learn more about her books at caraputman.com. Cara, welcome.

Cara: Thank you so much for having me. Karen, one of the things I first remember about meeting you at one of those writing retreats is I had my two-month-old with me…

Karen: Oh yeah.

Cara: And you were the Baby Whisperer! I’m sitting between James Scott Bell and Randy Alcorn, feeling like such a fraud. I had like two books out at the time. It was 2008. You just, Rebecca could be a little fussy, and yet you would just take her and love on her. And I thought, this is a woman who has a heart of gold and loves Jesus.

Karen: The funny thing about that, she came to me and she called me the baby whisperer. And I said, “You know, I just did with Rebecca the same thing I do with puppies, when they’re fussy. It worked really well.”

Cara: It did! I was so overwhelmed and intimidated walking into this room of all of the Christian authors that I have so respected and admired. And you know how sometimes Satan will be like, “You’re a fraud. You don’t really belong here.” I so felt that, especially since I was showing up with this newborn baby. Yet you and everyone else just were so welcoming and that’s one of the things I love about Christian fiction authors. We’re just the best.

Erin: Let’s start off here with our question we love to ask everyone. Cara, what does the deep mean to you?

Cara: I love that question. Here’s what the deep means to me when I’m thinking particularly about faith. I think that there are two ways that people approach it. Some people get content with the shallow end, where, you know, they’re getting their toes wet and maybe they attend a Bible study or something, but it’s not one that has them like pulling it all apart. They’re what Paul would call content with milk.

Then there are those of us who are like, “I am so past that. I want steak. I want to cannonball off the diving board.” Although you’d have to drag me up to do like that two-story one. The Olympics are coming, so I’m imagining the platform. You would have to throw me off that thing.

But I want all that God has for me, and that’s what I think of when I think of the deep. It’s just going in where you can’t stand anymore. You know, Hillsong had that song that everybody was singing for forever about oceans. And just that idea that God’s crashing over us. Sometimes it’s painful. It’s not always fun, but we just want everything he has for us, so we are risking it all and going into the deep.

Karen: Oh, I love that. You know, we were talking before we started the recording about you being a type triple-A control freak and how God decided to put you in that personality into a career where we have no control. So I’m sure that there are many of our listeners out there who understand implicitly the idea that this is a tough thing to do, because there really isn’t a lot that we can control. Why don’t you talk about that a little and about your own journey into being able to let go and trust in God’s control?

Cara: I think one of the things that a lot of people can look at, like my bio that you were reading, and say, “Oh, she started writing in 2005. She got her contract in 2006. First book comes out in 2007. It wins a major award in 2008. It’s all been butterflies and rainbows. The occasional unicorn shows up.”

It’s easy for people to look at it and go, “That’s her journey. It’s been this piece of cake.” And yet, publishing is so far out of our control. I mean, I like being an attorney.  My other hat is I’m a university professor and there’s control. I control my classroom. I control what my students are learning. I control how fast we learn it and when we learn it. Then you look at publishing. It’s the complete opposite.

There are things that we control as writers. We control whether we’re going to sit down and do the work. We control whether we’re going to write the proposals that feel like slitting our wrist and bleeding all over the place and going, “Is anybody going to like this?”

I despise proposal writing. By now, haven’t earned the right for them to just be like, “Hey, we know she’s going to write a great book, go for it”?

Yet I’m not there. There has been so many times I’ve gone, “Okay, God, why am I in this industry?” And he’s like, “Because you can’t control it.”

I can do everything perfectly. And I am an Enneagram three perfectionist, first born, type A. I mean, hello? Is there any more of a person who’s like, “Just give me a job, I can do it and I’ll do it great, and it’ll be perfect”?

It doesn’t matter in publishing. You can do everything absolutely perfectly, and one of your books releases two weeks into the pandemic, and guess what? The libraries and bookstores are closed, so print sales are tanked. There’s nothing I can do about that. In that process my publisher said, “No, we’re not going to offer you another contract.”

I wanted to be like, “Excuse me, this is a pandemic. Really? You’re going to hold that against me?”

But then I’m thinking about all my friends who rely on their writing income, and who are releasing at the same time and going, “Oh, God, this is not good. Help us!”

Fortunately, that book has completely recovered since then. Those are the things that we can’t control. You can write the most beautiful book and nobody finds it. So I’ve learned it has to be about going, “Okay, God, just help me have a heart for whoever the readers are that you want to read it. Help me to focus on being obedient and doing what I can do.” Then holding it open-handed.

I had to do that with the dream since I was 14 and was like, “I can write books and Janette Oke isn’t writing fast enough. I can do that.”  Yet God didn’t say go until I was 32, and then it was really fast. But the dream actually started a lot earlier.

Karen: That’s amazing.

Erin: What steps do you think you took along the way with God to get from the point of, “But I can control it. I can control it”? I mean to get from there to where you’re like, “It’s cool. I’m laid back. God’s got it.” You know, that didn’t happen overnight, obviously. So what do you think were some keys that helped you move from one place to another on that journey?

Cara: I would say it’s still a journey. I mean, remember the type Enneagram three. It’s all about looking successful. So there are times… like one of the gals I kind of mentor, and now she’s almost a peer, which is so fun, but she was calling me last week, going, “What does this mean?”

I’m like, “Oh, it means you’re getting offered a contract from the publisher that just told me no.” And being able to celebrate with her when that publisher was my dream publisher from the beginning. And I got there and I got five books. And I’m like, “But I could name an author, and at five books… she wasn’t always the best-selling author that she is today.” But publishers don’t give you that kind of time.

I say that to say, it’s still a journey. I had to really watch my heart because publishing can feel very unfair.

Erin: And it is.

Karen: It is very unfair.

Cara: I can look at it and go, “Uh, wait a minute. Why are you pouring all of this into someone who’s brand new when I’m doing everything you asked and more?”

Those are the moments where I then have to go back to God and go, “Okay, I’m trying to have my heart in the right place, but I’m starting to see that it slipped out of alignment.”

So I don’t want anybody to think that I’ve got it dialed in and made. I think where there’s been progress is that now I can see that and I can go, “Okay, God, this isn’t where I want to be. I want this to be surrendered. I want this to be open-handed.”

Like when I got the answer from my current publisher, that there wasn’t going to be another contract, part of that journey was actually going, “God, does that mean I’m done?” Because I don’t want to keep pouring energy and emotion and effort into something where the grace has lifted or where it’s like, “You’ve written the books I had for you to write.”

What I think I’ve heard from him is that I’m not done. There’s been some really cool encouragement that’s happened, but I’m still waiting for the next contract. Where I’m taking encouragement is that I haven’t gotten nos. Nobody has said no. So then I’m like, okay, is it because we’re in the pandemic and they’re still waiting to see what’s going to happen?

But if it were a no, then it’s a closed door. Where it is, it’s still maybe an open door. I don’t know. So it’s that journey of just being able to, in some ways I guess, really trust God’s timing more.

One of the things that I have been able to see by looking back, and that’s one thing I’m really big on is don’t forget to stop and look back so you can see God’s hand and see the progress, because sometimes we get so focused on the future that we forget to see his provision in the past. And if we don’t see his provision in the past, it’s really hard to trust him for the future. By looking back, I could see if I had been under a deadline this spring, so spring of 2021, I don’t think I would have been able to meet the deadline—and I’ve met every deadline ever, and that’s 36 books—because I was teaching full time at a major university in COVID.

By the end of May, I was so fried. I didn’t have anything left to give anybody.  I don’t want to write under those conditions. I had to take like the rest of May and June to kind of get back to where I was like, excited to write. Then the novella I wrote that’s coming out October 1st, my editor was like, “This is the best thing you’ve written.”

It was fresh. It’s funny. It’s a new voice. I couldn’t have done that if I hadn’t been able to give myself May to just kind of decompress and go, “Okay, that was hard. It took a lot out of me.” But even being able to say that is huge for me, versus just plowing on to the next thing.

Karen: The beauty of that is God had you where you needed to be to minister to the kids who were in that school setting and to be able to help usher them through their own difficulties and what they were facing as they were studying.

Like you said when we were talking earlier, you were like the only actual physical face of a professor that they saw, and you were there for God’s purposes, and he knew how much energy you needed to put into that and how much energy you couldn’t afford to put into writing. We’re so focused on the immediate, and we’re so focused on saying, “Well, that makes no sense whatsoever.”

But God’s like, “My will, my wisdom are so far beyond anything you have.” So learning to say, “This doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t seem fair, but Lord, where else am I going to go?” And following down that path with him.

Cara: It’s so true. I tell people, I feel called into two spaces and I don’t want to go where there’s not a call.

Karen: Right.

Cara: I still feel called to writing. It’s good because I always, I keep checking with my husband. Because sometimes I get so focused on it, I can’t stop. I can’t give up. Whereas I know it’s not giving up. It’s a, “Is this where I’m supposed to be right now?”

So I definitely feel called to writing still, which is fun. But I also very much feel called to the students where I teach. I mean, we literally have the largest international student population at a US university, and a lot of those students come through my classrooms and, you know, being that face, being someone that they know genuinely cares about them and whether or not I’m shouting from the rooftop, “Hey, I’m a Christian,” I’m loving them.

I’ll pray or walk campus, and I’m like, “God, help me to love them like you love them.” Because there are days where some of them I want to knock upside the head and go, “Come on. Get it pulled together.”

But at the same time, I just want to love them like Jesus does because it’s tough for everybody. So making sure I’m showing up in that way.

Karen: I think all of us who’ve been through college and whether it’s just undergrad or on into graduate work, we all remember the emotional ups and downs and how unbelievably difficult those times were in our lives. To have somebody who can be an emotional, and even if we’re not aware of it, a spiritual anchor for us, that’s life-changing.

Cara: Absolutely.

Erin: You know, it’s interesting because you talk about this publishing industry being out of control and we all would agree, but one of the things that we can also control are our thoughts. That seems to be something that you’ve really taken hold of. You can control what you think about, and you can control how you frame what’s happening in your mind. And you can control that you’re going to trust in God for this, because that’s a choice. I love that that’s part of your journey.

Karen: Yes, absolutely.

Cara: I think that that’s one of the things that it can be so easy to lose track of. There’ve been so many great books coming out lately about that from Get Out of Your Head by Jenny Allen and just there’s a whole host of them that are focused on that idea of taking every thought captive.

That’s when I can actually tell, “Okay, my spirit’s not in the right place, because my thoughts are out of control.” That has really become a place where I then stop and go, “Okay, God, what’s your perspective on this? Because my perspective on this could be that everything is out of control and you’re not showing up. Why is this happening for that person when it’s not happening for me? And that’s not fair, and why aren’t you taking care of me?”

Just being honest and transparent. I can check the status of my heart and my relationship with God in my ability to celebrate with my friends, versus going, “Why not me?”

And there can still be an element of, “God, I would love that to happen for me, too,” but I always want my posture to be one where I’m celebrating the victories that other people get and able just to really be that safe place, whether it’s at the university or with my writing friends. You know, to be able to be that place where they can come and know that they’re going to be celebrated.

Karen: Right. It’s so important to know that we have people who are rooting for us. That regardless of what’s happening with them in their own careers, that they’re there for us and supporting us and celebrating with us and weeping with us. That is a ministry so far beyond just writing. That’s a ministry that speaks to the hearts of not just the writers, but of everyone around us.

We had a friend once who used to hold so hard to what she wanted that she would miss so many opportunities that God had for her. I told her, “Here’s the image I have: you’re in a lifeboat on the ocean, and you are in this boat with friends who love you, and you get frustrated because you’re in the sun, and there’s no water. So you jump into the water because you think that’s going to be better, that you’re going to get what you want there. But there are sharks all around. People are looking at you saying, ‘Come back into the boat. Come back where we can keep you safe.’ But if you hold so fast to where you think you should be and what you think you should get, you can’t reach out to the hand that’s seeking to draw you back into safety, seeking to draw you back into love.”

When we get so focused on ourselves, we miss what God wants to do in us and in those around us.

Erin: It’s interesting to me that clearly Colleen Coble was a mentor to you. Now it sounds like you’re mentoring others. What put that on your heart? How did that come about? I love that you’re doing that.

Cara: I think it’s just part of how God’s created me. In a lot of ways, I kind of have that shepherd personality where I’m always looking for people. There was a period of time, oh gosh, it must’ve been about… I’ve been writing a while now…yikes!

Karen: Never mind how long ago it was.

Cara: I was a baby when I started writing. A baby!

There was this group of writers who had gotten their first contracts, and they were starting to get second contracts.  I remember I was doing mentoring appointments at American Christian Fiction Writers, and Melissa Tagg sat down with me. I was like, “Why would you waste an appointment with me?”

She was like, “Because you’re a few steps farther down the road. And I don’t know how to do this. I watch what you’re doing.”

At that moment it was like God said, “I want you to be pouring into people and helping them.”

That was when Sarah Ladd and Kristy Cambron and Beth Vogt and all these people had like one or two books out, and I pulled us all together in what we called The Grove, and we became this really tight knit group, just cheerleading for each other.

Then I could answer questions when they had questions about the business side or the legal side. That was about three years. Then there was another group that got brought along at about that same level. It’s just part of my heart.

There have been a couple of times when I’ve been like, “Okay, God, why do you have me here? Why am I still in this?”

It’s a lot of work. I sell books, but I don’t think I’ve ever jumped quite out of mid-list, which is, in the writing world, that is the desert. It’s better to be debut or best-selling. But the fact that you write consistently and well, and like Flight Risk, the book that released during the pandemic, took second place in two very different awards. One was a mainstream thriller category and the other was the Faith Hope and Love Reader’s Choice for thriller. And it’s just two totally different types of words, but that’s what I do.

So, I mean, I write these great books, but God was like, he just kind of dropped in my heart: what if I’m here to be that encouragement and to be that mentor for others? Maybe it won’t be until heaven that I see all the people who stuck with it and their books might’ve been on the bestsellers list all the time, but I helped get them through that point that might’ve derailed them.

I was like, “I can be okay with that.” I may not ever be really like on fire excited about it, but I can be okay with it if that’s how God’s using me. Even as I continue to write books to the best of my ability. I hope that someday I might get to where I’m consistently on those bestseller lists. But it’s been incredible the people he’s connected me with and, you know, even being able to tell my friend who’s about to get the contract, and she’s in such a good place about it, but being able to tell her, “No, that means they’re…You’ve got a contract coming. That’s exactly what that means.”

It’s just fun to be able to walk people through that. Or they’re like, “What does this mean that my agent said this?” I’m like, “Oh, this is what that means.” And just being a translator. I think my calling is to translate whether it’s for students in the law or authors and contracts. I’m just here to help on the  journey.

Karen: I love that about God. He takes what he knows we have as abilities because he put them inside of us, and then he lets our experiences refine us and shine us up, or rough us up so that we can speak from wisdom, and then we’re there to help others on the path. Then they get roughed up and shined up and they can help others on the path.

Isn’t that what discipleship is about? Isn’t that what it is to just share our faith and our life with each other and be able to draw others into this amazing fellowship, not just of Christian writers, but this amazing fellowship of trusting in the Lord and being able to let go of control?

Cara, thank you so much. I can’t believe our time is up already, but it’s gone so fast. We have just loved having you here. Thank you for the wisdom that you’ve shared.

Cara: Thank you so much for having me. This is so fun and it’s always great to see you, ladies.

Erin: You, too. Thanks, Cara!

What has God been asking you to let go of lately?

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One of his recent episodes was about how to overcome the fear of book promotion. This is a relevant topic for you guys. The same episode also covers real questions such as: “How do I know if I’ve written what my readers want?” and “How do I decode beta reader feedback?” We encourage you to check this episode out and become a regular listener to Novel Marketing for more book promotion and platform help. Listen to Novel Marketing in your favorite podcast app or at NovelMarketing.com.

Flight Risk by Cara Putman

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The post 147 – Letting Go of Control with Guest Cara Putman appeared first on Write from the Deep.