Fearfully Anticipating God’s Plan? Part II
A few days ago I wrote about anticipating what God had planned for me at the Mountainside Marketing Conference for Writers.
My trip started with a series of expectations and much anticipation and fear. What happened made both God and myself laugh. Laugh at how silly I was. Laugh at my ineptness. Laugh and feel embarrassed at my lack of faith. Laugh at how “off” I was.
Any fear I anticipated dissipated within the first few hours of the conference. The facilitators: DiAnn Mills, Edie Melson, Vincent Davis, and Jen dePaula took us step by step to share a myriad of information on how to navigate social media and use it to market our books. More importantly, they shared with us themselves, the human side of who they are and how they use their knowledge to help and encourage.
While they have fame and success in this industry, they showed they are no different than each and every one of us. They strive, they fear, they anticipate and then they trust God to lead them.
The men and women in attendance were all in various stages of their journey as wordsmiths; from those who had several books published to those who were in their exploratory phase. All were seeking answers to the overwhelming questions that fly around our brain like confetti released on New Years Eve.
And when the conference was over we came away with many tools for our writer’s toolbox to enhance the message that God has placed on our hearts. Friendships were formed, contact information exchanged and I found a person who lives within 15 minutes from my house! P.S. we are meeting weekly for coffee and accountability! This is such a blessing as I find myself feeling very much alone in this world of writing.
I spent an afternoon in Black Mountain decompressing after the conference was over and before heading back to Florida. I found two women who have a taxi service who brought me to and from Black Mountain and even took me to a grocery store to pick up my dinner for the night. Every store was inviting; from its showcase of goods to the people who work there.
The morning of my flight home found the roads to be icy and my driver alerted me that he might be a few minutes late. I found myself launching into “anticipation mode” and then quickly said a quick prayer for his safety and placed both of us and the day in its rightful place with God. “Peace mode” overcame “Fearful Anticipation mode” and I waited knowing that God was right in the midst of me, my suitcase, briefcase, coat and gloves. Ahhhhh.
I found myself in awe of the small and large blessings God landscaped for me through this trip. I go home ready to search through the tools and apply them to the marketing of my book, my blog, and to effectively share my mission to inspire, empower, equip, and educate my readers on how to survive medical adversity.
How can we possibly anticipate God’s Plan? In my almost 64 years I have never been able to foretell the future – although the Lord knows I have tried. However, I have seen how God has redeemed the bad and the ugly. And the good always far exceeded anything my mind could have conjured. Parking my thoughts on the positive, pushing away any vehicles of fear and anticipation and leaving the planning to Abba Father allows me to concentrate on being the best disciple I can be.
Do you fearfully anticipate God’s plan? What are your fears: health, job, finances? What do you do, think, say, to combat fear and who do you reach out to?
‘Do not fear [anything], for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, be assured I will help you; I will certainly take hold of you with My righteous right hand [a hand of justice, of power, of victory, of salvation].’ Isaiah 41:10 Amplified Bible