Writing Life: NaNoWriMo Progress - 13562 Words

NaNoWriMO

The story is actually progressing quite well and I have managed to write 13562 words and am still in my character's first day. I have taken her from waking up at 6:30 in the morning to just about to eat dinner. Who knew I could be so verbose. LOL! I have gone back a couple times and expanded some scenes, but need to concentrate on turning off my internal editor and write instead. I can edit as much as I want when this is over. Here is another snippet of the story

Background: Samantha's dad is a baptist preacher and every Sunday he emails her with a copy of his sermon for the day.

EXCERPT:

“Hi honey, hope you are having a restful Sunday. This is the sermon I gave today and it seemed to make several people squirm. I have a habit of doing that – making people uncomfortable, getting under their skin and making them think.

Yesterday evening while I was sitting down on the dock by the lake fishing, I saw a bald eagle fly high overhead kiting on the wind currents. It descended gracefully and gradually, but seemed to be getting faster as it circled the lake. I sat quietly and very still watching as the eagle swooped down, caught a fish in its talons and flew off. Did you know that the eagle’s eye sight is so sharp, it can see a fish swimming in the water or a rabbit in a field, from 2 miles away? It was one of the largest eagles I had ever seen, so beautiful and majestic. The eagle has always been a symbol of power and majesty and there are many verses in the bible that reflect that.

I thought of a couple passages:

Deuteronomy 32:11-13

“11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:

12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. 13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock”

And Exodus 19:4 says “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and
how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.

I thought about how an eagle’s nest is usually set up very high in a rocky outcropping or a tree where no other animals may reach it. When the baby eagles are born they are basically helpless relying 100% on the mother for sustenance for the first fifty to one hundred days or so. They first learn to fly by hovering over their nest and then, the mother eagle encourages them to fly beyond the reach of the nest by dangling food just outside their reach. If the eaglets won’t leave the nest, the mother will actually push them out of the nest, but will fly below them and catch them should they falter.

“As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings”

Isn’t that powerful imagery? God cares for us much like the eagle: feeding, caring and leading us. He gives us the strength and wisdom to live our lives. Then he pushes us out of the nest, giving us the freedom to fly, yet we know he will be there to catch us. You. Me. Everyone. Allowing us to rest within his arms, his wings so to speak, bearing us up if we should fall. We only have to trust him, same as the eaglets trusting the mother eagle to take care of them and provide all their food, teach them to fly and catch them if they fall.

I’ll be honest with you. There have been times when I have walked away from God, knowingly or unknowingly, I am not sure. I just know that I didn’t feel his presence anymore and wondered why he left me. I realized how comfortable I had become in our relationship and started taking him for granted. I didn’t talk to him as often as I should or didn’t rely on his wisdom and strength in a moment of crisis. I took the yoke upon myself and thought I could fly on my own. Life seemed to get harder, difficult. I wasn’t as happy and found myself getting irritated with people and things that happened in everyday life. I was discontent.

I can see several of you nodding your heads in agreement and even a few of you squirming. You know what I am talking about. He never left me. I left him. And He quietly sat back and watched, waiting to see what would happen. Waiting, patiently. Like a mother or father who has to step back and let their children make their own mistakes. Why do we let our children make their own mistakes instead of preventing it? They have to learn. But, just like parents, He knows when to step in to provide guidance and correction. You may feel a prickle at the back of your mind of something you have forgotten and need to remember what it is. You may suddenly have an encounter with another person, who mentions a bible verse or song. You may have a dream that is so vivid, so real; it could only be telling you something. You may have an experience where you see something amazing. What I call God Moments! A moment in which God speaks to your heart and impresses upon you something he wants you to know. I had a God moment yesterday evening while watching the eagle. I had written a much different sermon a couple days ago but watching the eagle and the thoughts it provoked caused me to rewrite it.

It is in those moments, that you begin the journey back to him. Flying back to rest on his wings, his strength, his wisdom. I will leave you with this thought from Isaiah 40:31

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

After the service, I had several people come up to thank me for and let me know I had really spoke to their hearts. I reminded them that it was God speaking through me and he was talking to their hearts. I asked them to consider if this was a God Moment for them. The Morrisey’s came to me and acknowledged that they had heard my words and it gave them a kick in the seat of the pants. They asked what they should do to strengthen their bond with God. I thought of several passages from proverbs

3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. I reminded them to trust god and remember to let him be in charge and he will show you the way.

16:3 Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established. I assured them that if they let God be in charge of anything they did, then their plans would work out for good.

16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

I told them that according to that they could make all the plans they wanted, but God is the one who decides what we will do. They really took that to heart and thanked me. I offered to pray with them, but they felt uncomfortable with that and weren’t really ready to discuss what was bothering them.

I had one of those strong God moments this morning from the Holy Spirit and wouldn’t go away. It was about you. The thought was that you need to reread proverbs, plus read Psalm 1. Don’t know why and I have stopped questioning the holy spirits intent when He impresses such a strong need on me to tell someone something. So, study proverbs and you just may learn something new and see what Psalm 1 means to you now. It is time for me to sign off. Your mother is sending you an email about family happenings and you should be getting it sometime today. We are off to play Golf with the Jaspers. Love ya. Dad."