Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Making a Commitment

An agent has offered me a contract. I've signed it. \o/ Yes, Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
But I'm scared. Signing on with an agent means I'll HAVE to get my book polished ...no fooling around. Reading his note over and over again, and staring at that contract, I asked myself all kinds of questions:
Can I do it?
Do I really want to do it?
If I really want to do it, why haven't I done it?
You know... all that searching, second guessing stuff we deal with. Commitment scares me. Especially this kind of commitment where I have to produce and all of you out there actually watch and see what I produce.

I remind myself of the man in Matthew who was given one talent of money and he buried it. He was fearful. He didn't have faith in his own abilities or his Master. And because of his fear, because he didn't exercise that talent or the understanding he had, he lost it all.

I'll go out on the weakest limb to encourage others to pursue their dreams, hone their talents, but I seem to have no encouragement for myself. It's almost as if I want to shoot myself in the foot before someone does it for me. :-)
Not anymore.
I want to be that guy who was given five talents and gained five more. I can do it because according to Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And I believe it!

By offering me a contract the agent is saying, "Hey, you ain't half bad. Revise, clean it up, flesh it out and I think I can sell you." He's fanning into flame the gift God gave me (2 Tim. 1:6). And now I must be diligent in these matters; give myself wholly to them so that everyone may see my progress (1 Tim 4:15).

What about you? If you're anything like me, then go to Matthew 25:14 and read the Parable of the Talents. Make a new commitment to glorifying your Master. I did...and I will.

Praise God from whom all blessings flowwwwwwww!

7 comments:

Christa Allan said...

Doing the happy-happy dance for you!!! Can't wait to see your name on the cover...

Jessica Ferguson said...

This is a test to see if my pic posts. Didn't know who to practice on so thought I'd practice on myself. LOL

Christa Allan said...

well........oh, so clever now that you have an agent, huh missy?!

Jessica Burkhart said...

Oh, wow!! Major congrats! :)

Janelle said...

Great post, Jess. You opened your heart and voiced many of the same fears we all experience. But better yet, you showed the response we should have for those fears. Very nice. And once again, congratulations.

upwords said...

Congrats Jess. :) This is a long time coming. I want a book when it comes out.

Anita C. Lee said...

Jess, you are singing my song! Why is it so difficult to put words on paper--and then send them out for the world (or an agent or editor) to see? I finally put the finishing touches on my book proposal and it is off my desk and on to the agent and editor who asked for it.

Congratulations on your SIGNIFICANT achievement!!!