Wow, so I haven’t blogged since Valentine’s Day! The blog gurus are furiously shaking their arthritic fingers at me right now, I can feel it!
Please forgive my negligence, but praise God, my excuses are good ones, I assure you! I received a call the day before Valentine’s Day (just before my date to the zoo) that came at what I can only label “God’s ordained time” – I needed the encouragement and direction it gave me more than I have space and you have time to hear about! Basically, I was presented with a writing assignment – several, in fact – that will be keeping my creative juices flowing and fingers typing for a Very. Long. Time. And being occupied doing something you love (and even better, something you’re being compensated for) is indeed an enormous blessing; and, as far as I’m concerned, that phone call was my Valentine’s Day gift from my heavenly Abba – Daddy.
“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” – Matthew 7:11
And over the past weekend I was in Lalaland (aka, Los Angeles) helping out with the Movieguide Awards. My job basically consisted of escorting “celebrities” you’ve probably never heard of to and from backstage. Oh, and making sure the glam squads got paid. I was just happy to get to wear a fancy dress I found for 70 bucks and feel a little bit like Janet Jackson with my uppity headset.
No sooner had I returned from California than I turned around to meet with a few people regarding the aforementioned writing jobs in Dallas. I have a laundry basket full of research material waiting for me along with two books, hours of interview footage, and two documentaries to watch before I even pick up a metaphorical pen (“metaphorical” because I loathe writing utensils and three-dimensional notepads), and I’m over the moon about all of it!
Suffice it to say, my blogging has been pushed to the backburner…okay, maybe it’s been shoved out the kitchen window, but I plan to pull it back in and keep it cookin’…at least bi-monthly ;-).
I just want to share with all of you reading that I have been praying ceaselessly for over a year, since my dad passed away, for the right doors to be opened and the wrong ones to be slammed shut so that I will be in the perfect place at the perfect time for my passions and God’s purpose to collide.
Up until two weeks ago, I was about ready to throw in the towel and file away my dreams as if they were college papers or poems I was too proud of to discard, but would probably never glance at again. I was ready to settle for a “safer road,” a career path that would by no means be easy, but would definitely pose lesser risks than those faced by “starving artists” trying to hone their craft, pursue their passions, gain exposure, create a name for themselves, and oh yeah, keep their heads above water financially.
But God’s timing is perfect; He is neither too early nor is He ever late. We won’t know all the reasons why some things seem to take eons to come together or perhaps why one incredible opportunity knocks at your friend’s door in the winter and yours in the fall, but we can know that God is working everything out together for our good and that He provides all of our needs according to the riches of His glory (Romans 8:28, Philippians 4:19).
If you’re trudging through a valley or just feel stuck in the mud, don’t lose heart and don’t lose faith. The Lord is with you! Continue to approach God’s throne of grace in prayer with boldness. Your prayers are being heard despite what you can see and discern with your natural eyes and your fleshly feelings. Simply trust that if you think the wrong doors are slamming and you seem to be hitting wall after wall of “No’s,” “Not yet’s,” and “Nice try’s,” God has a better and even bigger breakthrough in store for you if you love and are serving Him. Often He has to wait on us to be spiritually and emotionally mature enough to take on the responsibility that comes with our strongest desires; remaining faithful and steadfast amid frustrating circumstances and endless obstacles is part of the maturation process ;-).
“’For I know the plans I have for you,’” declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord…” – Jeremiah 29:11-14
Stay fit, stay faithful ~<3 Di