Here I am in the middle of my week on the media mutiny. Well, actually if you read my first post you know that I’m writing these ahead of time and scheduling them to post. I have no idea if that’s against the rules, but I’m feeling pretty creepy either way!
It feels as if Positively Alene is gorging herself before she has to enter a fast. Yep, that’s exactly what she’s doing. Gorging and stuffing herself full of media before she has to go without for a week. Somehow, I think she (I) have missed the point.
Why do I care if there’s a post up today?
Who cares?
Do you?
Obviously, I DO! Setting goals in the world of writing (or any adventure you love) is important. Following through daily steps to achieve those goals is even more important.
In this day and age everyone screams, if you want to succeed as a writer you need to be consistent and build your reader base, facebook friends, twitter numbers, reader stats, pageload numbers, unique visits and the list goes on and on and on. I get all of that, really I do! But just like food and clothing, we can become so obsessed with those numbers and stats that we miss . . . living . . . or even worse God!
This dilemma is one I’ve battled for awhile now. There’s bound to be a balance, which I’m working on finding. I know I need to care — I just don’t want to become obsessed.
Recently, I was reading from 2 Samuel 24. King David is in the midst of a battle and he senses he needs to go out and take a count of all his fighting men and population. He wanted to know his numbers! (the Lord snatched my attention at that thought!) One of David’s men didn’t see the importance of counting when God was the one who did all the multiplying. He knew David had better things to do and could be more effective than sitting around and wasting time counting. (I hate it when the Word steps on your toes!)
The story goes on and we find David taking a count of all the population and his men. And the story ends by saying, “when it was all done, David was overwhelmed with guilt because he had counted the people, replacing trust with statistics!”
Oh my, can you see yourself in this picture? What difference did the counting make? It didn’t make any, because God was the one who would multiply the people. God didn’t need him to gather statistics, but yet to fulfill his responsibilities.
Statistics replaced trust in God! When you and I are so fixed on our numbers that we lose sight of the real reason we write — because God has asked — we have taken our trust in God and put it in ourselves to build those numbers. Ouch!! When your daily mood is influenced by your stat counts, chances are you are wasting time counting. Counting doesn’t influence the outcome — trust and hard work do.
If God has called you to write, then He expects you to trust Him to carry those words where they need to go. While you trust, you must still be responsible and do the work it requires to become excellent.
Do you need to dismiss the wise words from mentors teaching you how to build readership? NO! Check out Goins Writer for great teachings on this by Jeff Goins.
So what do we do? We listen. We implement. We use our time wisely. We live life out-loud. We write. We TRUST!
Being so convicted of such a message I relinquish my plan to write tomorrow and TRUST. I’m trusting a God who can do far greater things than I can even ask or imagine. And I am asking for the wisdom to find the balance between the two! (I am on an experimental mutiny against media after all!)
Before I sign off, I just want to give a shout out and some bloggy love to my hubby. I know you’re reading and thanks for being my number one cheerleader! I’ll see you soon.
Well, I HAVE missed you this week! So I’m glad you scheduled posts… I agree it’s hard to make the counting NOT count. I am a horrible marketer, which helps keep my numbers–and maybe my ego–down :)
As a newer blog, I REALLY struggle with this :( I really need to get my head on right!