Welcome back to Edition 3 of {Beauty in the Chaos of a Writer’s Life}, in connection with #Ladder2Rooftop Academy.

Today I thought we’d play a little game of Red Light, Green Light.

Because sometimes you stick your neck out in this writing journey, and the Powers That Be answer with a painful no. Red Light.

Other times, a door opens wide when you least expect it, and you push on the gas and move forward. Green Light.

Sometimes, you send off a submission, and the answer never comes. Obviously, it’s a no, but you spent a long time waiting. Red Light.

Then some day when you’re discouraged, a reader tells you, “Your words made me feel less alone.” Which is what you always hoped to offer. Green Light.

There’s another Red Light I’ve allowed to stop me too many times. It’s looks like shrinking back behind the desk, afraid to say what you’re working on, afraid of rejection, afraid of what it might mean about you.

Fear becomes a persistent red light, keeping us at a standstill. Fear prevents us from ever moving forward. It prevents us from submitting at all sometimes.

I’m sad to say that I know too well the red light of fear in the writing journey. It’s probably half the chaos of the writer’s life for me. But by now, I hope you know where I’m going with this.

There’s So Much Beauty in All This Chaos, and I’m fixing to point us back to the beauty.

What is helping me move past the red light of fear these days? Three things: Readers, Gold, and a Different Fear. Let me explain, because maybe they’ll help you, too.

Readers

A few months ago, I read through reader comments from my blog, facebook posts, and twitter messages. I printed out a bulleted list of many of these, and hung it above my desk. What I found was this theme: “You helped me see things a different way,” and “I needed that reminder.”

In this season, I write about things I need to be reminded of, and my readers do also. I believe I’m called to remind people to see  the beauty in the chaos, the beauty we easily lose sight of when life swirls fast around us. When I remember and care for the people who might read my words, rather than writing from a place of self-preservation, the light turns green and I move past the fear.

Gold

My Bible calls it the Parable of the Bags of Gold. Because don’t you know we’ve all been given bags of gold? It’s a lovely way to say gifts or talents. We’ve been entrusted with some of the Lord’s gold, so to speak. (See Matthew 25.)

It doesn’t really matter what’s in our bags of gold.

It doesn’t matter how many bags of gold we have, or if the bags are heavy or light. What matters is what we do with the gold we’ve been given.

What are your bags of gold?

Writing is one of mine. I’ve been told this since grade school, and I don’t mean only by my own Mom and Dad. 🙂 There are a crowd of dear faces in my head right now, who took a moment along the way, to tell me they saw this bag of gold in my hands. (Thank you each!)

With this bag of gold, and the others I’ve been entrusted, I want to be faithful. I don’t want to dig a hole and bury them in the ground. I want to invest them widely and see what might grow. I have a feeling you want the same.

A Different Fear

I’m afraid of something more, and it’s pushing me past my fear of rejection. I’m afraid of wasting my life, of wasting what I’ve been given. I think this is a healthy fear.

We are all given only so much time here, and so much talent. There are many ways to take what’s in our own hands and make it count. But we all have to decide where we’ll invest and what we’ll do with the time and talents we have.

As in any journey, there will be red lights. Just make sure you’re not creating your own.

And writers–don’t wait for all the lights to turn green.

~Angela

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