A writers group member dreamed that he would soon have a bestselling novel. He was admired by other group members because he had already written four novels. While writing his fifth novel, he quit the group. He quit writing. Why? Because he had never sold a manuscript and finally became convinced that he never would. This brought sadness to the group because they had lost a writing friend. More importantly, his quitting left no chance that his work would change just one person’s life, not even his own.
Lofty goals can be killers. The common success concept that we should “dream big and keep believing” is fatally flawed. A huge percentage of people invest their life savings and countless hours in the pursuit of their goals. Most of them quit as soon as they quit believing. Some of them are forced to quit when they file for bankruptcy. What was the problem? Analysts will say, “Obviously, they needed a better plan.” Their answer is right, but their reasoning is wrong. What we really need is God’s plan, if only we knew what that was. But if we knew, it would be our plan, not God’s, wouldn’t it?
Julia Cameron, author of the bestselling The Artist’s Way, says, “Setting impossible goals creates enormous fear, which creates procrastination, which we wrongly call laziness.”
Never in history have we had so many affordable means to reach the multitudes with the message of Jesus Christ. Yet the most difficult challenge remains the same: we must find God’s story in us and learn to tell it. And while that story has the potential to become a bestseller, the odds aren’t good that it ever will. Does that matter? For many, it does. But for us, it shouldn’t.
Retired Christian literary agent Terry Burns said, “A secular writer has to sell thousands of books to be a success. If a Christian writer sold only one copy, but it changed someone’s life, he would be a success.”
Jesus said, “With God, all things are possible.” That being true, we should “stir up our gift” and be excited about our writing, even if we don’t know what the outcome will be. What we can’t do is allow ourselves to quit telling our stories.
We do well to have a killer goal as long as we don’t let it kill us.
