Home » Is it Time for Me to Quit Writing?

Is it Time for Me to Quit Writing?

December 17, 2012 by 5 Comments

quit writing

Every writer asks this question at some time, maybe many times. Christian writers ask it right along with all the others. Every Christian knows that it is not God’s plan for us to be scared or confused or unproductive. When we feel this way, we have wandered off God’s path into Satan’s wilderness.

This isn’t the vicious abrasive Satan that scares us when we think of spiritual warfare. This is the indolent Satan who is enjoying the shade of a big tree on a warm day when the rest of us are trying to accomplish something. Out of the corner of one eye we see the wastrel lying there in the cool grass. Playing with bugs. Figuring out cloud images. Looking for the bird with the special song up there in that tree somewhere. Swilling Kool-Aid or Coke while we are sweating. It all looks a lot better than a computer screen. We envy the hours of guilt-free purposelessness as Satan whispers:

“You are wasting your time. Shut up. Quit. Nobody cares what you think.”

There is only one answer. Prayer.

This is the time to remember just one sentence of the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer Jesus gave us to teach us how to pray. As Satan lolls back with a smirk on his face and a sneer in his eye, pray, “Your will be done, Lord, on earth as it is in heaven.” Satan’s smirk be wiped away, but that is not all. As you pray, you will remember your call from Christ. “Stop focusing on you and look at me. Follow me. Go where I go. Do what I do. This isn’t about you. It is about me.”

At this point you can begin praying and talking with God about your work. Go ahead and be frustrated.

Tell him how you have started and deleted at least five versions of chapter 8 since breakfast because they were garbage.

Ask him why you haven’t increased your blog following since last June.

Rant at the prices stupid editors charge for the right to read your great book.

Cry because you can’t afford a premium theme and your own domain and a web artist to create a great logo.

But after you have finally laid on him all your fears and failures and fulminations, then be quiet. Be still. Let God speak. Listen for the voice of sheer silence. Wait.

The psalmist had days just like yours, and he had to deal with them. God had work for him to do, and Satan threw roadblocks in his path, too.

 

To you, O Lord, I lift up my writing project. I trusted you! Those reader comments are so insulting! Those editors have no taste, and they keep rejecting me! Did you mean for me to fail? Do not let me be put to shame! Make me to know your ways, O Lord; Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation; For you I wait all day long.

Psalm 25: 1-3 (my free paraphrase) 4-5 NRSV

QUESTION: What do you do to combat the feeling for the need to quit writing? Click here to leave a comment.

* Image credit: Greaterumbrage (Creative Commons)

Filed Under: Advice, Blogging, Habits, Miscellaneous, Productivity, Rejection, Resources, Writing Tips Tagged With: , , ,
About Charles Specht

Charles Specht is a bi-vocational pastor, an author, an entrepreneur, and a father to 5 children (2 adopted from China with "special needs").

  

He blogs and speaks frequently on the topics of Faith, Leadership, Men's Health, Personal Growth, Productivity, and building better Tribes. He is the community facilitator for GodlyWriters.com, exercising a healthy passion for reading and writing, serving Christ, and for figuring out how the worlds of traditional- and self-publishing are evolving before our eyes.

 

He lives in central California with his wife, Kathy, their five children, and too many pets to mention. You can visit his personal website at CharlesSpecht.com, his "Church" blog at CrazyAboutChurch.com, and his Christian writer's blog at GodlyWriters.com.

 

Be sure to connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

  • http://aparchedsoul.com/ Grayson Pope (A Parched Soul)

    Amen to that. I’ve certainly been there. It’s tough to stay motivated sometimes in the face of pageviews, themes and building subscriber lists.

  • http://www.CharlesSpecht.com/ Charles Specht

    Every day we need to look ourselves in the mirror and ask, “Why am I doing this?” Lord willing, we can always answer that with, “Because God is honored when I do this and people are encouraged by it, even if I don’t see it.”

    • http://www.katherineharms.com Katherine Harms

      So true. We commit to serve God, and we get discouraged when our egos are not fed by admiring readers. Our service must not be dependent on human feedback. We must work for God’s “well done.”

  • Jlfullermuse

    I do nothing, I’m searching for the answer to that one, and I hope to find it soon. I started writing about 12 years ago, have had a few successes, but my failures far outweigh those. I’ve just recently, like a few weeks ago, committed my writing efforts toward doing God’s work. As much as I really love to write, I’m assuming my past writing struggles could be a way that the Lord is telling I should focus my passion toward something useful, like spreading God’s word

    • http://www.katherineharms.com Katherine Harms

      Just a thought or two. I have tried to give up writing for something “more useful” more than once, but God always reminds me that he gave me this gift to use for his purposes. Among those purposes is a second thought for you, because writing is a wonderful way to spread God’s word.
      You remind me of myself, so what I say to you, I say to myself often. Decisions like this are not about self-gratification, which is where we go with thoughts such as “I really love to write.” We are often lured away from prayerful consideration of God’s purposes by the secular notion of self-fulfillment.
      I have been writing seriously for more than ten years, and my understanding of my God-given purpose has been reshaped by God’s guidance more than once. God keeps meeting me where I am and showing me a fork in the road or a single stepping stone in a new direction. Following his guidance always results in a discovery of rich fulfillment, and it is usually in a form I would never have imagined on my own. I have never found fulfillment by seeking fulfillment. I only find fulfillment by seeking God’s way.