Or maybe it's not just a voice in your head sent by the enemy to discourage you. Perhaps it's someone who thinks your talents would be better served elsewhere, or a well-meaning friend who doesn't quite understand why you want to spend your free time indoors writing about characters living it up in the outside world. Whatever the source, distraction is distraction. It makes you lose your focus, feel guilty about pursuing your passion, and in extreme cases, causes you to abandon your calling.
When I announced that I wanted to write Christian romance, I heard everything from, "This is just going to be your hobby, right?" to "Why would you throw away your background to write love stories?". I dug my heels in the ground because I knew this was Satan trying to keep me from advancing. Instead, I found encouragement in Hebrews 12:1: Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. (NKJV)
Paul, Peter, Luke, and other authors of the books of the New Testament had distractions of the deadly sort. Still, they kept writing, preaching, and spreading the Word of God because they knew that their perseverance would bring many to salvation in Jesus Christ. If they could press on in spite of persecution, rejection, beatings, and other heart-wrenching trials, then how can we stop pursuing what God has put in our hearts? We can't give up on account of temporary lack of confidence or the enemy trying to limit our vision.
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| Photo by graur codrin |
Love to hear your comments! What do you do when distraction rears its noisy head?