Don’t give up!

It’s what I heard over and over this weekend at the American Christian Fiction Writers conference in Indiana. In my state of overwhelmed confusion, surrounded by almost 600 other writers that want to be authors, I frankly, in my short sighted frame of mind, was growing tired of hearing it.

Because the statement always came from PUBLISHED authors. I sat there wondering if any of the other unpublished writers were thinking the same thing…..”easy for YOU to say.” I’ll admit I became a bit cynical after a day or so. My bad.

But as I looked around the room at the final Gala Banquet Awards dinner, I saw all the faces of future successes and future never to be published writers. Know what? They all looked the same. You see, hopefulness is contagious. After hanging for 4 days with those who made it to publication, you will either slump into the mire of “I can’t do this”, or you will see a tiny, low light of hope in the distance. Just enough to keep you going in the direction of your dream.

Will some give up? Yes. Will I be one of them….I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to process everything that is stuck in my head from the last few days and choose the next step.

But that’s what we do with dreams. Sometimes the look of them changes and we have to redirect our attention, adjust our vision or pull up our grown up britches and plow on ahead. And any of those choices may be just the right thing to do, we can’t judge the choice others make. Their dream is their dream and it’s okay to lay it down to rest.

So I’ll be focusing on that distant tiny light to see where it leads and if it’s strong enough for me to see my way.

I’m not giving up. I’m not giving up on hoping God will give me what I need to keep going.

Have you ever given up on something? Were you sorry?