At the beginning of the year, Jim made another writing resolution. This would be the year he would finish his novel. A month later, he hadn’t made much progress. Not to be defeated, he encouraged himself and worked even harder. After another two months, he read what he had written thus far and decided none of it was good enough.
Jim considered the often-quoted truism: “without a vision, the people per perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Just any vision wasn’t good enough. Because of vision, ten men saw the giants and knew they couldn’t enter the Promised Land. Because of vision, millions of individuals and businesses declare bankruptcy each year. He needed God’s vision, which said, if he kept putting his God-given talents to use, positive results had to follow. The only way he could fail was to quit.
He made a new resolution: “Keep writing and rewriting with a relentless desire to improve, no matter how long it takes.” He had to be careful with that “vision” part, because God might use his effort in ways he couldn’t foresee. He needed faith to believe the results, whether great or small by the world’s standards, would be great in God’s eyes.
Success is guaranteed only when we put our God-given talents to use. Then God will one day look at our writing and say, “Well done.”
