God's Faithfulness in Our Obedience

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12:
With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

After returning from youth camp last month, I shared with you what God laid on my heart regarding writing. In a nutshell, I apologized and asked forgiveness for squandering the talents he's given me and letting opportunities pass me by. I told him that if he gave me new opportunities, I'd actually do something with them.

He totally believed me and wasted no time in seeing if I was really going to do it.

Within days of returning from camp, I received an anthology opportunity. I receive these fairly frequently, as I've been published in one before, but this one was a little different. It had a very short deadline. Usually these opportunities come with submission deadlines that are months away. Those are very easy to file away and forget, but this one had to be dealt with immediately. Additionally, I didn't even have to think about the subject. I had a story in mind right away. That's highly unusual for me.

The day I set aside to work on it was a day in which Calvin (my sick cat) was extraordinarily needy. As I spent time playing around on the computer, he wouldn't leave me alone, moving from my lap to my desk, always blocking my access to my keyboard. Because I needed to actually work after a while, I prayed and asked God to do something about Calvin so that he would let me do so. As soon as I opened a Word document to get started, Calvin left the room. The moment I was finished, he was back on my desk.

Divine intervention with needy cat. Amazing.

(Of course, when I told my practical husband about it that evening, he said, "Why didn't you just kick Calvin out and shut the door?" Humph.)

Last week I started thinking that I needed to contact the girls' ministry that emailed me back in February or March with an invitation to write for them. When they'd contacted me earlier in the spring, they didn't seem terribly organized and didn't have much of the information I would need. Honestly, that's part of why I didn't get around to doing any writing for them. They just didn't seem terribly serious about it because the professionalism wasn't there. (Yeah, yeah. I'm still guilty of doing nothing. I know.)

A day or two after thinking last week that I needed to contact them, they contacted me. And you know what? Not only did they have themes for the next few months listed, but they had deadlines for submissions. Basically, all the info that was lacking in earlier contact was all there for me. No excuses. That has to be a God thing!

The icing on the cake was receiving a very sweet email that made me cry (in a good way) from a reader who was moved to let the Lord back into her life after reading here. (I don't know what exactly because I mostly write about Star Wars, cats, and crafts!) Now, I truly take no credit for that because when I write here, I really have no agenda. I'm just writing for fun. That was 100% God's doing. But I'm taking this experience as yet another gentle, yet not-so-subtle reminder that he has wants me to write.

I realize that none of these opportunities mean that I'm going to be published again. That may not be the point at all. Right now, it's about obedience and following through when I say I'll do something. It's a lesson in faith.