“Without the assistance of the Divine
Being…I cannot succeed. With that
assistance, I cannot fail.”
–Abraham Lincoln
Just a few hours before reading that
quote, I had read a familiar story in the Bible. A man had brought his demon possessed son to
the disciples, hoping against hope that they might be able to cast out the evil
spirit. They tried, but could not. This was fairly strange, especially
considering that the disciples had done this kind of thing before. In fact, earlier in that same passage (Luke 9),
Jesus had bestowed upon them authority over the demons of hell. So what went wrong? After Jesus had healed the boy himself, his
disciples asked why they had been unable to do it. Jesus told them that this type of power comes
only through prayer.
In other words, for the disciples to
experience success, they needed God’s power.
I believe that they tried to cast out the devil in their own power, and
they failed. Jesus had to remind them
that unless they stay plugged into Him, they could not ultimately succeed.
Then I read Lincoln’s quote, and it
was the exclamation point that God put on the statement He was sending me. Let me explain what I mean by this. As many of you know, I have been working to
get a children’s book published. It is a
story about my niece, her death, and her first few days in heaven. You can find out more about it on
Facebook. The book is called Heavenly
Magic. Anyway, I have been working with
a self-publishing company for several months now, and the book will be on the
market in a few weeks.
My desire is that this book will be
picked up by a traditional publishing company, become a best seller, and open
the door for me to present other works. On Thursday of this past week, I spoke
with a marketing advisor, and he told me that a traditional publishing company
wants to know that an author can bring in customers, so he suggested that I promote
the book through social media, facebook, twitter, etc. I am not computer savvy at all, so this
overwhelmed me a little bit. Then this
old boy dropped the hammer. He said that
I needed an audience of about 50,000 people.
What? Are you kidding me? After speaking with this guy for an hour, I
was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. How in the world am I going to do this? One “like” at a time I guess.
So I go to work this past weekend,
building my audience. I get on Facebook
and practically beg people to like and share my Heavenly Magic page. I start a Twitter account and follow people,
hoping that they will follow me in return.
I determine to start posting a blog once or twice a week. I buy Michael Hyatt’s book, Platform, and
start reading it. I ask friends to help
me understand all the social network jargon.
I do everything I know to do, except one thing. I did not pray. I just went to work, because I have an
agenda, and there is no time to waste.
So Sunday evening comes, and my gracious
God allows me to read Luke 9 and a quote from Abraham Lincoln, and He says, “Do
you get my point?”
Now do not misunderstand, I know
that God has told me to write, has
commissioned me to write, and I believe God will use my writing to help people,
but He also wants me to know that I will not be successful if I do it in my own
power.
So if I pray and follow God’s
leading, then I am guaranteed that a major publishing company will want to
publish my book, right? Well, no. It could happen, but it might not.
So let me process this, I know that
God wants me to write, has called me to write.
I have this story that I am promoting and committing to Him, I am
seeking His wisdom and following His lead, and this book still might not get
picked up by a major publishing company?
Wouldn’t that make this whole thing
a failure? Well, it kind of depends on
how you measure success.
To be continued…
