This week I spoke to someone who recently read my manuscript and he was very complimentary. I don’t always handle compliments well—but I was grateful for the feedback. I think I said “Thank you” fifteen times in course of our conversation (at least it seemed that way to me).

But I didn’t write that book for personal accolades or “ataboys.”  Just as God called me to preach in the summer prior to my seventh grade year, he called me to write while pastoring about 17 years ago. He didn’t call me to sell a bunch of copies or to make the New York Times best seller list. But he did call me to write.  So, when I sit in front of this keyboard and start pounding away, in many ways it is an act of obedience.

I knew I had to write.
It was a fire in my bones.

So writing for me was not about a book committee at the publishing house or even whatever readers might hopefully be helped by the book. It was a matter of trusting and obeying—  trusting that the God who called would help me accomplish what He called me to do. I didn’t know if anyone but Karla and I would read it. I didn’t know if I would have the courage to let someone else read (and critique) it. I just knew that I had to write.

My part is done (well, done except for working with the editors)— everything that follows after the writing is in God’s hands.

In many ways Isaiah 30:8 is my writing verse from the Lord:
Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
it may be an everlasting witness…

“An everlasting witness”— that’s what I want my book to be. I want it to be an everlasting witness not on my abilities to capture a thought with a pen and paper but an everlasting witness on the faithfulness to God.
What is God calling you to do? How are you trusting and obeying the Lord? Will you have an “everlasting witness?”