Know Your “Why”
All I had to do was get on the Interstate.
The trouble is, I had no idea where the Interstate was.
Lost
I learned to drive in the family minivan, primarily by driving my parents and siblings to and from church on Sunday mornings. The route was so simple that even if GPS had been around at the time, I wouldn’t have needed it. When I graduated from the family minivan to my 1997 Pontiac Sunfire and earned the privilege of driving without a parent silently gripping the door handle in the passenger seat beside me, there really wasn’t anywhere I couldn’t navigate to in our small town of 14,000 people.
And then I graduated from high school in 2011 and moved to the “big city,” population 1570,000 (I’m from the Midwest, okay, this counts as a big city in our book!).
Now, I was already directionally challenged before this move. I may have been able to navigate through my small town but if anyone asked me for directions to the places I navigated to on a daily basis, I couldn’t do it. To this day if you ask me for directions—I’m talking real directions including the words north, south, east, or west—I will not be able to do this. I’m good at a lot of things but giving directions is not one of them, and I’m okay with this. I use my phone to get me to where I need to go, and everything works out.
However, in 2011, I didn’t have a smart phone.
And my 2001 Chevy Malibu didn’t have built in GPS.
So, when I attempted to navigate back to my small town for the first time through the “big city,” I wasn’t just in over my head.
I was drowning.
Found
After crisscrossing all over the city for much longer than I care to admit, too embarrassed to call and tell anyone I needed help, I eventually found the Interstate and made it back home. The purchase of a Garmen GPS helped my navigation crisis tremendously, eventually replaced by a shiny new iPhone equipped with Apple Maps my sophomore year.
A map—and a soothing voice narrating the exact steps needed to reach my destination—provided much needed direction in my life, at least as far as driving goes.
But what about when we feel lost in life? What can help us when we’re asking questions like, “Is this pursuit a waste of my time?” Siri may be able to get me to the chiropractor’s office I’m visiting for the first time, but she can’t direct me in how I spend my time.
We need something better than a map.
We need a “why.”
A Roadmap for Life
While not as hopelessly lost as I was that dark September evening in 2011, I’m feeling a little lost right now. I always do after launching a new book. As a self-published author with a small audience and limited marketing knowledge, my books make a much smaller splash than traditionally published authors, or even other self-published authors who have a better handle on how to market their books, do. I want to get my books into more hands, but I don’t know how.
I feel like I’m crisscrossing all over a large, unfamiliar city trying to make it back home without the aid of GPS. And it’s here, gripping the steering wheel while blinking back frustrated tears, that the questions being flooding my mind.
What’s the point?
Does this even matter?
Is this even worth it anymore?
Should I just quit?
I need a roadmap to not only silence the questions, but to provide me much needed direction.
I need my “why.”
Why do I do this?
The answers to this question always redirect me back to a path that I truly feel that God has led me to and is calling me to continue down—the path to write.
And I don’t write to make the New York Times Bestselling List.
I don’t write to win awards.
I don’t even write to make money (although I do always hope sales cover the publication cost!).
I do it because I love it and because I want to reach people with the Good News of the Gospel. To “illuminate the darkness one book at a time.”
Should I ever stop loving the process and the books’ storylines stray from Biblical truth, that’s when I’d know I can no longer devote my time and talents to this little side-gig passion of mine.
The good news is, though, I still love it.
And I never plan to stop weaving God’s truth into my stories.
So, on I’ll go, writing the stories God places in my heart, learning how to better market those stories, and trusting that He’ll place them into the hands—and hearts—that need to hear them most.
Create Your Own Roadmap
I can’t recommend putting into words your own “why” if you don’t already have one. You don’t have to be chasing after a big dream to have one, either. Whatever it is God has you doing in this season—raising kids, putting in your forty hours to keep food on the table, or even going to school—a personal vision/mission statement can provide much needed clarity to you. Just start by asking yourself the same question I’ve been asking myself in recent weeks: why do I do this? I would encourage you to ground your answer in Scripture, too, choosing a passage that you can memorize and repeat to yourself when the doubts inevitably come creeping in and Satan’s lies begin to whisper into your ear, encouraging you to call it quits.
Because let me tell you something, friend.
Satan doesn’t want you to be content in the work God has called you to do. He doesn’t want you to glorify Him as you joyfully follow His call in your life.
He wants you to believe the lie that God doesn’t have your best interest in mind and that there has to be more for you in this life than this.
Don’t believe that lie, friend. Tell yourself the truth. Repeat it to yourself over and over again until the enemy has no choice but to flee.
And then keep on walking faithfully down the path God has set you on, fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
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