Even as a child, I held dreams of becoming a writer. Somehow, I got sidetracked into the more lucrative (😊), yet satisfying, career of social work. In the midst of my career, I felt prompted to take a leap of faith so I quit my job and tried to focus for a year on writing. I started out at a sprint but didn’t save enough energy for the marathon. Life’s trials and stresses distracted me to the point I took a new full-time job to cope with my meandering. Retirement provided another burst of excitement that maybe now was finally the time I could concentrate on writing. However, although I had plenty of ideas, everything I wrote sounded tired and stale. I finally told my husband that perhaps it was time I put the dream to rest…that what I once thought as God’s calling, percolating as a desire within my heart, was just an unrealistic dream.
The next day as I was clearing my desk, a letter fell out of a reference book. The handwriting was difficult to read, and I could not decipher the signature. However, the message clearly jumped out from the page: Do not stop your writing. I often joke that I wish God would send me an email of instructions. Now, my first wild thought was God sent me a letter instead!
This encouragement provided what I needed to hit the ground running to finish a devotional book. I felt the Spirit’s empowerment filling me with ideas, enthusiasm, passion, and courage. The book, Upside Down: Shifting to Jesus’s Perspective, was finished in two months from the time I found the letter.
Now back to the letter. My husband identified the writer as Joan, an elderly woman who had sent him encouraging letters when he was a new Christian serving in some difficult ministry roles. Joan loved to talk, ask questions, and offer advice. Unable to serve in visible roles now, Joan still used her gift of encouragement and responded to the Spirit’s prompt to write letters. In sending me a letter, Joan’s small act of faithfulness came to fruition at least 15 years after she wrote it and 12 years after her death.
Joan’s letter not only motivated me to complete the devotional book, it also encouraged me to follow through with the small, seemingly inconsequential, nudges from the Spirit—make that phone call, text that encouraging thought to a friend, invite a neighbor to our backyard, give that person a hug, smile at the harried store clerk. We can be a part of God’s daily plan by simply following these prompts. We may never know where our acts of faithfulness will lead, but God knows and will bring His work to completion.
