I planned on writing a witty review of a writing craft book each time I contributed to the Weekly Spark. It made sense as I am now writing fiction in addition to Christian living. Also, my huddle group reads a craft book every other month and I read more in between.

But. There’s always a but.

But the last couple weeks, time – more precisely, time to overcome and write – has become a recurrent theme in my life. It’s not that I don’t have time to write, but rather that I don’t carve out that time. I write because I hear God best when I read His Word and write what He gives me. I know I’m not alone. Of the hundreds if not thousands of people I’ve met on the writing journey, the majority indicate their stories come from God.

In turn, I’ve always said I write when He gives me words. Unfortunately, I’ve also used this as an excuse not to write.

“I don’t have any words,” I say. Or maybe, “I write when I hear something and I’m not right now.”

It felt valid at the time. It felt like obedience to the gifts He’s given me. And, yet, somehow, as God has slowed down my life and given me a chance to examine how valuable each day is, I’ve started to realize that “I don’t have any words” isn’t God’s silence but my failure to write the stories, the truths, the love and grace and mercy He’s given me. I’ve always read the stories of Jesus’ ministry with the feeling that I would have followed him throughout Israel and beyond just to sit at His feet. Yet it’s easy for me to become Martha and busy myself with things that aren’t furthering the stories He’s already given me.

Or I refuse, if you will, to stretch out my hand or take up my mat to be healed – to overcome.

“… a man with a shriveled hand was there.…He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.” – Matthew 12:9-13 (NIV)

So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take up your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. –Matthew 9:6b-7 (NIV)

Jesus didn’t heal the man until he stretched out his hand. Of course, Jesus had to heal the paralytic for the man to be able to get up, but the man had to try. I think the same is true for writing.

We have to try – to make the time to write even when we aren’t sure what we are to say or where our stories are going. And, yes, we also have to make time for other things. God first. Our families and jobs. But we also have to write when that’s our gift – our ministry – our way of showing His glory in overcoming the world.

It’s time. Make time. Take up your mat, stretch out your hand and overcome. Write.

~*~

Nick Kording is a writer, ghostwriter and editor.  She was a finalist in the 2014 Rattler Contest and Splickety Love’s Inaugural edition, where her flash fiction, It Does Not Envy, was published. Nick writes Christian living, Bible studies and devotionals, as well as women’s contemporary and Biblical fiction.