Small is Beautiful by Fiona Lloyd

At the beginning of November I was full of good intentions. In my last blog post I wrote about the benefits – and challenges – of NaNoWriMo. While I never expected to reach 50,000 words in a month, I had high hopes of equalling my 2014 score of 20,000.

I’m full of admiration for my NaNo buddies who are on course to hit 50,000 words by the end of the month, but it’s at this point that I need to make good choices about how I view my own likely total of around 17,000. In any other month, I’d be dancing for joy at having achieved so much … so why, when it’s November, am I tempted to berate myself for having done so little?

A couple of days ago, Helen Murray wrote about how often we can be oblivious to the things that pose the greatest threat. I think one of the ways the Enemy likes to trip us up is by telling us our achievements are too small to count in God’s eyes.

            Nobody’s going to read what you write, he whispers. You might as well give up now.

           
And if we’re not vigilant, we get sucked in by his twisted lies. We inwardly agree that we haven’t written / published much recently, and that therefore we are no good and should probably take up macramé instead. The words that we dreamed would reveal something of the mystery of God to others are left incomplete, while the stories in our heads wither and turn to dust.

            
Strangely enough, if we look at Scripture we find the opposite to be true. God delights in taking the small and insignificant, and transforming it into something glorious. He called childless Abraham to follow him and promised that his descendants would outnumber the grains of sand on the shore. Jesus – who would have gone down well at any church potluck supper – took one boy’s picnic and used it to feed a vast crowd. 

           

There is encouragement here for us as writers. We may not always be as productive as we would like, but as we surrender each and every word to God he works through them to bring his light to our world.

Fiona Lloyd works part-time as a music teacher, and serves on the worship-leading team at her local church. She enjoys writing short stories, and is working on her first novel. Fiona self-published a violin tutor book in 2013, and blogs at www.fjlloyd.wordpress.com. She is married with three grown-up children. Fiona is ACW's membership secretary.