Somehow, mainly, I think because I had a bit going on, I lost track of my Sunday-Monday posts I had planned. So, here, they are, without much further ado, except, well, more at the end.
The third Sunday and week of Advent is dedicated to joy. Joy as in a deep kind of happiness. Joy as in “Joy to the World, the Lord Has Come.” But also joy as in the joyful anticipation of reconciliation, healing, and God’s kingdom come, and Christ’s return.
It’s a deeper joyful anticipation than the kind we experience when we have tickets to the newest blockbuster for opening night, deeper than the joyful anticipation of actors backstage before the curtain opens, but it’s still more like those than a “complete” sort of joy. It’s a longing sort of joy, with the assurance that the longing will be answered in God’s timing.
I gave a message at my church on Sunday about some of the many ways the birth and life of Moses foreshadowed the birth and life of Christ, specifically in the sense of longing for a redeemer, and having that longing answered, not necessarily in the way we expect or in the timing we crave, but answered by God in a way that shows we can trust his faithfulness, his sovereignty, his provision, his love, and his plan.
Are you longing for a way to move “forward” with your writing business and to “progress” your financial goals with your writing?
Business for Authors: How to Be an Author Entrepreneur by Joanna Penn addresses specific strategies and details to help authors who want to improve their business practices.
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This book has so much detail and so many specific pieces of information, I started tabbing pages (the bad way), and then I discovered a bit more about tabbing pages with actual tabs that don’t cause tears, stains, or problems. I will be returning to this book again and again to find specific details and motivational quotes.
“There’s the conventional reward – money, applause, attention – which may or may not come. Then there’s the psychological reward – the practice of writing and creativity that sustains us even if the conventional reward is practically nonexistent. We need to work for the latter, not the former.”
Joanna Penn
As you can see from this quote I pulled out from near the back of the book, Penn isn’t discussing a soulless sort of business writing, but she is discussing what it can take to prioritize time, money, and energy for the goal of becoming an author with a sustainable financial income, and she does get specific with details about marketing, business plans, and the practice of treating ourselves like professionals. I highly recommend this book to all authors who aspire to have financial success with their writing.
And it’s Tuesday.
This means, Sunday afternoon and all of Monday swept by in a bustle of busy, and some pain. Yep, I said that word – pain.
I feel on some ice in a parking lot a little over a month ago. Contusions, bruised bones, and now three visits to various doctors later, I have an upcoming MRI, and the prognosis of “maybe it is _______ or _______ (worse than contusions). The MRI will tell us more.”
So, today, I am sitting down, icing my leg, hiding under a super soft blanket, and trying to accomplish at least one fourth of my to-do list. I’ll turn on my Christmas lights and give thanks for being able to work from home. I’ll long for healing and anticipate it as joyfully as possible, in whatever way it comes.
Tuesdays are like that.
What are you longing for these days? What are you joyfully anticipating?
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