Writers – Page 33 – Write 2 Be

Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It’s simply taking God at his word and taking the next step.

~Joni Erickson Tada

There comes a point when you decide to make the decision that you want to be an artists full time, but you don’t entirely have the means and resources to make that work, in which you realize that there are going to be an insurmountable amount of stumbles and falls along the way. You might have even romanticized the whole starving artists’ concept and thought it might be cool to rise up from the ashes of despair and make it big proving all of the naysayers wrong. You have probably had more than your fair share of tiny miracles along the way that you didn’t expect but were lifesavers when they presented themselves. Well lately I’ve been feeling defeated and like I might actually be all out of my share of miracles.

In the creative world, we rely a lot on the favor of others and more importantly on the miracles that God provides us with. It’s not like other fields and industries where things are more certain and definitive. For us creative types it is more of a, go where the wind blows, kind of thing. I have went for quite some time now, not really knowing how things were going to work themselves out, just knowing that they would. I have had many moments where I didn’t know what was on the other side but I could see the bright, or sometimes dim, light at the end of a very long tunnel. So what do you do when you can’t see that light anymore and the length of the tunnel has become indefinite?

There are moments when I’ve looked at those bills that come in the mail, and the activities my child can’t do, or the clothes that she needs but I sometimes can’t buy, and I’ve wondered, is God going to leave me hanging this time? Of course I already know that the answer to that question is no but every now and then I feel like maybe I have asked for one too many miracles and one of these days God’s going to get tired of me burdening him. I feel like I should have all of this stuff figured out by now and I should be able to go a long period of time without begging him for his favor.

Logically I do know that through God all things are possible and I realize that God’s love and his favor is limitless and that the miracles that he provides us with are endless. . If people are going to make anything happen in this life the best thing that they could do is to have faith. Faith that things are going to be okay and that God is not going to put you through anything more than what you can handle. Faith in yourself and in the talents and gifts that God has given you and the purpose that he has given your life. Faith that you are not going to really ever run out of miracles so long as you keep reaching out your hands to receive them. From one starving artists’ to all the others, treasure all of your miracles and even when you are doubtful of yourself and your talent, step out on faith and let God do all the rest.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://jayceedurant.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://freemynd.wordpress.com/

http://spokenlikeaqueen.blogspot.com/

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

www.authorsden.com/jimmettacarpenter

Okay this post is completely off the topic of my normal style of discussion here but I truly feel that something has to be said about the way technology is significantly becoming the destruction of the publishing and book industry as we have known it to be in the past. It seems more and more we hear about book companies like Borders and Barnes N’ Nobles closing down stores and filing bankruptcy. People seem to be genuinely concerned and some even outraged at the thought of there being no more book stores.

We can sit and blame the decline in the economy all we want for this drastic shift in the publishing and book store industry all that we want but that is not what believe is at the heart of the problem. It is Kindles and Nooks and any other e-reader device that allows for people to download books electronically instead them going to a book store and purchasing a book and reading it the good old fashioned way. Yes they may in fact be convenient and easy to have the ability to tote all your books around without having to actually physically have to carry all of your books around but look what and who it is hurting. I for one think that it is just lazy to read books that way because that is not how books were originally intended to be read, but that’s just my opinion.

People who buy into the whole Kindle and Nook propaganda are not thinking about the fact that if everyone is buying their books this way, what need is there for a book store. If the book stores begin rapidly closing down, if no publishing company is going to publish writer’s books anymore due to the lack of need for the physical books, then hundreds and thousands of people are left without jobs, and people (like me) who actually love book stores and don’t buy into the electronic way of reading won’t have an outlet to go to. In an economy that is already suffering, what would this destruction of the publishing world and book industry do to those people that will end up jobless? For those who are Kindle and Nook lovers, have you thought about the industry that you are helping to destroy.

In the area I live in, there aren’t really a lot of book stores within range that I can go to except the Borders and now I hear rumors that due to the lack of people who actually buy books these days they might be closing their doors soon. With gas prices being what they are I can’t afford to drive a lot of miles away just to be able to get my books and to be able to go sit and work on my writing. I am a writer who hopes to have many novels published in the course of her lifetime and with the way people are taking book for granted I just may not get to do what I have dreamed of doing since I was six years old all because people want to be lazy and can’t appreciate the value of reading a book the way they were meant to be read. What is the need to carry around hundreds of books at a time for when you can only read one at a time anyway (or 2 if you’re one of those speed readers)? All I ask is that people who buy into all of that unnecessary technology start to think about the people they are really hurting with it. Okay I’m done now. I needed to get that out there.