Right Where You Are

I have always loved to write.

I scribbled stuff here and there when I was a teenager. I wrote scientific reports, speeches and presentations as a professional. I wrote notes of events happening in my life. I kept a journal. My friends encouraged me to write my story into a book. I started without a clear direction of how to present it.

Turning Point

In all of these, I did not see writing as a gift.  Until two years ago, in response to my desperate cry, God opened my eyes to see the gift He blessed me with and revealed to me how to use it creatively for His glory. I wrote about this in Sitting On a Gold Mine. Click to read.

That was when I became a full-time writer and I took definite steps to hone my craft. I started to write articles, essays, short stories and fiction novels to convey the truth of God's word—to enrich lives and inspire hope.

After three months of writing, in June 2011, I began to share a weekly Enriching Lives. Inspiring Hope. Newsletter by email with friends and family members. And in November of the same year, it evolved into this blog.

That mailing list has grown incredibly. The page views on the blog grew exponentially especially in the last three months. I could never travel to the 80+ countries from where visitors come to the blog. The reach of the message is gone beyond my wildest imagination like the silver branching of a lightning bolt flashing in the sky.

A couple of friends drew my attention to the chain of reaction which is taking the message to the uttermost parts of the world. Another writer led an appreciation of creative writing as a gift from God. I sat back and reflected on my small beginning. I marveled at God's faithfulness to do exceedingly more abundantly that I could ever ask, think or imagine.

My wildest imagination paled at God's ability to do limitless possibilities.

Home-bound, I write from the corner of my broken glass-styled dining table top, and right where I am, from my little corner, God is doing amazing things with the gift He blessed me with, in such a way that not even I could share in His glory

In that corner, I spent many hours writing, researching and studying. In between, I glance out through the window into the sky with a twiggy dry tree standing in my line of vision. I watched this tree changed with the  changing seasons, yet reflecting God's unchanging faithfulness in keeping me through my seasons.

It can be lonely alone at this little corner but it gives me utmost joy to know what God is doing with message He gives me the grace to write from here.

In your little way, in the little corner where you are, God can boast about you when you give back to Him to use for His own glory and honor what He has given to you. You can make a difference of eternal value right where you are.

Something in Your Hands

There is something in your hands that you can give to the world around you which will make the message of the cross come alive in their lives. You always have something to give. God has not left you empty handed.

I once read the story of a woman in a Chicken Soup Stories for the Soul^©. Unemployed, she was filled with self-pity, despite being jobless she searched for ways to give. Feeling worthless because she thought she had nothing to give, she glanced out of her window at her garden and found flowers blooming. She ran into the garden, picked, arranged and shared them with her neighbors  One of them turned out to be a desperate woman, with an alcoholic husband, a diabetic mother and two children she could hardly support. The flower delivery evolved into praying together for each other, until despair gave way to hope, until she found a job and the alcoholic husband quit drinking.

The boy with the five loads of bread and 2 pieces of fish was willing to share what he had. God multiplied it exponentially, it fed 5000 men, women and children not counted and there were leftovers (Luke 9:13-17). Talk about superabundant multiplication.

The widow at Zarephath gave all she had left - a handful of flour and a little oil to make bread for Elijah, and her jug of oil never failed until God gave rains back to the land (1Kings 17: 11-16).

What these witnesses and many others like them did, still stand as a memorial and a testimony today, encouraging us that we always have something in our hands to give, which God can multiply beyond our wildest imagination, and with rippling effect.

Who would have thought the gift of a bunch of flowers would have such a rippling effect? There is always something in your hands to give - your skills, talents, gifts, time, money, to name a few, and you can be creative with it.

Something You Can Do

There is something you can do right now, right where you are, which can impact lives for eternal significance, not by the magnitude of what you are doing but by the intensity of love, commitment and passion underlying it. There is something you can contribute that will advance the gospel of salvation.

Do the good you know to do. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. Whoever knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin (James 4:17). Cotton Mather noted "that the ability to do good in any case imposes an obligation to do it."

You can deliberately seek opportunities to do good to people around you if you pay attention to them and to their needs.

It may be the way you respond in time of great adversity and affliction that will speak volumes about your relationship with God, and show Him as the source of your hope and confidence. When you patiently endure persecution, you show forth a God-given inner strength and peace that many will long and ask for.

Be Persistent, Consistent and Diligent

We must be faithful and diligent to identify and passionately pursue the assignment God has for us. For most of us, the impact of our assignment may not be visible or quantifiable now, and it need not be.

My husband shared the story of someone who sowed some seeds in her garden, nurtured, watered and tended the plant. It grew over her fence but appeared not to be blossoming. All she seem to see was the green plant but she kept at it until her neighbor exclaimed at the beauty of the plant—it was blooming on the other side of the fence.

God is able to make the seed you sow into people's lives to blossom in a way you could never have imagine. Don’t give up even when you don’t see results.

A Gift And A Blessing

Creative writing is both a gift and a blessing to me. I am amazed at the way God is using this gift to open doors to me and to bless me. It does even much more:

• It holds me accountable —I am compelled to practice what I preach.
• I am motivated to stay connected to the source of power and inspiration. I frequently have to ask the Holy Spirit for inspiration when I share a message.
• Often, I go back to read again previous posts and I receive encouragement when most needed. I get a fresh revelation and insight at that moment that it is sometimes difficult to believe that I wrote the piece.

Everyone has a calling and a God-given assignment. It may be to your family, community or to the nations. Whatever your assignment may be—right where you are, in the workplace, marketplace, school, via internet or social media—you can impact the world.

What perfect example we have in Jesus. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friend. But while we were yet sinners, Jesus came and died for us. In the short time Jesus spent walking here on earth, He left an indelible mark on the lives of everyone who came in contact with Him!

Let this Easter be reminder of the precious gift of life Jesus died to purchase for us, let us be encouraged to reach out with this message of love from where we are. I pray that this will be a special time of celebrating God's miracle of life and amazing love for you and your loved ones. Happy Easter.