Impossible things

I woke up sick today. Went to bed sick last night. Fever, bodyaches, sore throat. My god daughter has strep. We had them to dinner last week, so two and two...

My son has gotten into a "situation". ("Situation" is mom-talk for big fat, I'd-knock-his-block-off-if-I-didn't-love-him-so-much-trouble), SO I'm having to drive him every day and pick him up from school. For those of you who do this as part of your daily routine, you're probably not impressed, but i hate not having one day at home where I don't have to leave my house. I don't, it's a Tracey thing. So along with the fuzzy, fever-glazed brain, I had to drive while semi-conscious. So all the way home (we live out of town), I was praying and singing songs to God to try to stay on his good side, should the brain fuzz get the better of me at the same time a big truck came barreling around any one of about a million curves on my road, marking the end of my charmed life. It never hurts to be prayed up and ready to face him.

I kept singing to God about ideas and following through and obeying him and trusting him. Ten minutes after I got home I got an impossible idea. Impossible because I can't possibly accomplish this thing. I'm not committed enough, not strong enough, not even 100% willing to try. Why do I know it's God's idea and not mine. Because it's impossible, I'm not committed enough, not srong enough and not 100% willing to try. That's the way it is with God. He plants these things in me...in us...and he makes the idea of succeeding very tasty. But success only comes with a lot of hard work, committment and trust. Oh and obedience. The pay off is oh-so-sweet. And he loves to give these goals to people like me. The typical Alice in Wonderland who has a lot of doubts and not a lot of follow-through. If the door is too tall, I cry and got gives me magic cake. If its too small, he gives me drink to make me smaller. He has everything I need in His hand. But I HAVE to reach out and take the hand.

What can God do with an Alice?

"There is no use trying." said ALice; "One can't believe impossible things."
"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." -Lewis Carroll

Master Yoda said it like this. "Do or do not. There is no try."

Jesus said it best. "With man this is impossible. But with God all things are possible."

What impossible thing can you believe today?

Natalie Grant!!

Okay, so all of you who know me are aware of my love for Natalie Grant. Just found out this week that she is coming to Lebanon for a concert next month. I'm so excited. I meet a lot of big name authors, but never ever a favorite singer. So I'm stoked! Who would have thought she'd come to Lebanon of all places! I think God did it for me, because I am highly blessed and favored. :) That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm going to try really hard to get a photograph taken with her and if it works out, I'll post it.

Yesterday I had the awesome opportunity to speak at a ladies group called Common Ground. Ladies from all denominations get together to worship Jesus.
I spoke about destiny and I think what popped out the most was discussing Saul and his disobedience. Samuel said to him, "If you had only obeyed God would have established your kingdom forever." His disobedience had eternal consequences that involved not only himself, but his entire line. Jonathon missed out on the throne and on and on. Whether or not we choose to obey God and live out our own destinies will have a huge affect on our kids.
Something to think about....

Peace...

A tagline

Hi all,
I've been reading a lot about mission statements. EVERYONE has a mission statement. I have always been a little envious of people who knew exactly what they wanted to write and what their writing was about. I guess I've always been one to learn by mistakes.
For the last few weeks, I've been pondering, praying, musing about what I truly want to write. And basically I realized that almost all of my books whether historical or comedy have things in common. My characters have real problems, my issues are current and relevant. Even my last historical had addiction in it. And the answer is always Jesus. I believe God gave me my tagline this week. Finally, after 40 books on the market, over 900K copies sold, I finally have a concrete mission statement or tagline...

To Mirror the Human Heart
To Reveal the Human Condition
To Offer the Only Answer

This will be my criteria from now on when I sit down to write.

A writing day

I've finally gotten a taste of what life is meant to be in terms of time. The last few days I've been working a set number of hours, spending time with my family, my time with God, cooking cleaning (some), and not being so worn out I can't think straight every second. I actually slept 8 hours without waking up last night. I don't think I've done that since I started writing.

WHEW. I like not being on a crunch all the time. Perpetually behind and exhausted to the point of tears. It's not worth it.
Church is a joy, the kids are a joy (except I won't tell you about my 16 yo son's report card. OY did he ever get it from me).

I am nearing the completion of a massive proposal effort for a genre I've never tackled--I let everyone in on it if it does sell. It's a scary project for me. There is a lot of potential to fail.
But if I succeed, it will be a HUGE success. Only God knows. And He's being mum, so I guess I just press on and wait.

Been listening a lot to podcasts by Erwin McMannus, pastor of Mosaic in California and the writer of one of my favorite books THe Barbarian Way. I'm focusing more on Chasing Daylight right now, another of his books. He talks about seizing every moment. Taking risks. And I have to say...I have fought this new book I'm writing since the day the project idea was presented to me by an editor I'd love to work with for the rest of my career. This editor really gets me. Gets who I am as a person and believes in me as a writer--much more than I believe in myself, but I'm starting to believe a little--which might be scary. But still, after my first few minutes of excitement over the possibilities, I fought this idea in my heart. Fought it hard because it is so outside of my element. But honestly? I don't have peace to stop on it. So I keep writing. And the thing really is, I know as a writer, it's probably some of the best actual craft writing I've ever done. So even if it's not the one for me to completely write (in other words if it doesn't sell!) I'm happy with the effort I've put in. And I truly feel like I've offered this to God in a way I've never done with my writing. It's not even that overtly Christian in content, but its themes and symbolism are so rife with God that I can feel His fingerprints all over it. Anyway, I guess it's not so great to talk about your own work this way. Sheesh. I've never done that before. But this time off has energized me.
Oh, and by the way, I consider working on proposals as time off. LOL No pressure. Working for pleasure and possibility.

Peace~

Love and Holiness

Rusty was on drill (National Guard) this weekend so I decided to visit a different church. I was planning to go to our church's first service and THEN go to the other one, but I sort of stayed up working until 3:30am (I get obsessed with new projects and this one is particularly challenging, so even though I KNEW I should go to bed, I didn't.)

So anyway, it is a great church. The pastor and his wife are Jamaican and just lovely, lovely folks. The first thing I noticed was the psalmist anointing of the praise and worship. You know how some worship is exciting and fun and makes you want to jump. This wasn't that. :) It was very Davidish. I wish the worship guy had been up there alone with his guitar, I think the anointing might have been even stronger but still, it was so very good and I felt all squishy in love with Jesus by the time the song service was over. Then the pastor preached on Holiness, which is always a great message to hear over and over since we fall so short of it. Me anyway. He said something that really struck a chord in me.

Don't focus on God's holiness so much that you mistreat His Love
and don't focus on God's Love so much that you mistreat his holiness.

It struck me again how quickly I can become legalistic and judgmental if I am not allowing the love of God to change me and make me holy. Only God can make those changes in us. It has nothing to do with striving.

Obedience to his voice, yes, striving in my own power: nope. :)
Good God day. He definitely had me in the right place.

Authority

I've had a week of correction, here. The issue of authority is hard for me. Not taking authority, but submitting to it. Especially in the church. Too much baggage.

Anyone else watching John Bevere on Joyce Meyer this week?
The neatest thing I learned (and should have already known) is the difference between obedience and submission.

Obedience--the willful action
Submission--attitude of the heart

It's the classic, "be willing and obedient" issue that we read about in the old testament.

How many times do our kids obey because they are forced to, but their crappy attitude while they obey says it all? How much better would we like it if they smiled and said, "Dear mother, of course I would love to do the dishes, because I love you so much and I know you're worn out from taking care of my needs every second of the day. It's my privledge and honor to obey you in this matter and here, let me also take out the garbage while I'm at it. And would you like a cup of tea?"

BACK TO REALITY. God is forever watching me be obedient with a frown and a heart of resentment. I'm praying today for peace and grace to be obedient and willing. And boy is this a hard prayer. I'm in servanthood 101. Last week I was scrubbing a bathtub for someone who is having trouble getting around due to injury. Honestly, I was ticked. Not at the lady, but at her son whom I felt should be doing this work for her. The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart, "Be a servant of ALL" OUCH. We don't get to choose how we serve God. We just get to choose if we do it or not.

So there's my lesson for the week.
Oh I wish I were more faithful to this Lord I love so much.