God rewards the Diligent

Ok, So I have been silent for almost a month, but I must say that I am proud of you guys, you've been coming back to the page and reading the previous bits of wisdom that God deposited in me months ago.

Today, this post is a little testimony and there's a lesson to be learnt here, I promise.

I've been extremely busy for the past six or so weeks. I've been trying to prepare for a pretty important exam and I wanted to get it done before November 1. See, this year I had two goals for myself.
1. Get qualified in my field
2. Develop myself as a writer

I've done a little of both all year, but that one important exam I really wanted to complete before the end of the year. However, every year from November 1- 30, about 300,000 crazy writers from around the globe come together for an event called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Us crazies come together and try to pen 50,000 words strung together in a half-decent draft of a novel. I participated last year and did pretty well for my first attempt. I reached the goal and eventually published the novel (Nightmare at Emerald High).

So this year, determined to get some writing done after ignoring it for several months (since I published Finding Romeo in August), I decided to write my exam by Oct 31, just so that I can do NaNoWriMo.

Well folks, I wrote the exam on Oct 31 and waited for 10 nail-biting seconds whilst the computer system tallied up my score and let me have its decision. I failed. Yup. Miserably. My own mother was shocked. The last time I failed an exam I was in Secondary School... that's about 12 years ago....sigh.

Now what? I need to repeat the exam before the end of the year, but I really, really want to do NaNoWriMo. Decisions, decisions, choices, choices.

On November first, depressed from my failure the day before, I put fingers to keyboard. I hit the word goal for the day, but only half-heartedly. I still didn't think I'd be able to do this and study at the same time. On November 2, I wrote nothing, deciding that the exam was more important. On November three, I woke up a couple hours earlier than usual feeling really guilty for abandoning a great story. So I wrote again, only, I was already behind on my word count and I really needed to study. On day four, I decided to give up. I didn't write at all. I was going to prepare for my exam and try for NaNoWriMo next year.

Friends are awesome people to have around right? Especially ones that understand your goals. One of them challenged me to keep going, so on day 8, I put fingers to keyboard again, hopelessly behind on the target word count, but determined. I wrote for about an hour and a half everyday and studied for two. It was hard, really, really hard. There were days when I gave writing most of my energy and studying got only what was left. There were days when I did the reverse. Sometimes, no matter how much I wrote, I felt like the goal was simply unattainable. Either I win this thing and fail my exam, or the exact opposite. But, failure is not an option. I'm an over achiever so failure depresses me. So everyday, I kept plodding along. Hitting the keys, then hitting the books. Still, the goal kept slipping further and further away from me.

So guess who I turned to. There's one man who cares about the things that you care about. So, I stopped one day and said God, I'd really like to accomplish these goals, will you help me? Then I put fingers to keyboard. In the space of about 6 hours (in three sittings), I had written 11,257 words and just like that, I was back on target and poised to reach my 50,000 word goal! Not only that, I'd been struggling with grasping some of the material for this exam, but in the days leading to the end of the month, things that made no sense before, suddenly became as clear as day.

See, that's the God that we serve. He's able to do ANYTHING! Seriously, anything. In His word, he says that we can be confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him (1 John 4:14). My biggest comfort since the day I became a Christian 15 years ago has always been that God is concerned about the things that bother me at night. He's concerned about the goals I set for myself and the things I desire for my life. He's concerned about whether I'm happy or depressed. I KNOW that I didn't do the last month by myself. I KNOW that all those ideas didn't just come flooding into my brain because I'm brilliant (I'm really not). I KNOW that God is able to open up thought patterns and processes and make things appear as plain as day. See, that's the God I serve.

He rewards the diligent. Even though I felt discouraged and my goals looked like they were unattainable, I kept writing anyway. Most days, I felt like I was writing pure nonsense but I wrote anyway. God rewards that kind of diligence, in any area of our lives but especially in service to Him.

My exam is still a few days away, but I'm a lot more confident now than in the days leading to the October 31 disaster. (I'll let you guys know how that goes.)

My encouragement today is to stay focused, remain diligent and always include God in the mix. Now that November is over and NaNoWriMo is done, I promise to post more often!

Be Blessed!

Joana James - Author of From Redemption to Maturity, Trusting God with your Future,   Nightmare at Emerald High & Alana and Alyssa's Secret & Finding Romeo