Glimpsing the Forest - M. Laycock

I remember a day when I stood on a high mountain top in the middle of the Yukon Territory. I looked out over range after range of mountains and forests and knew there were very few people out there looking back. It made me feel small but it overwhelmed me with a sense of being part of something huge - a creation so vast and beautiful that it made me weep.

I came to Christ in a tiny mission church in a far northern corner of the Yukon. For about three years I attended Sunday services in a small run-down building that held almost the entire Christian population of that town, somewhere around 30 people. For those three years that was my entire exposure to the Christian world.

Then my husband and I began to feel that God had something planned for us and within a short time we found ourselves selling our home on the banks of the Klondike river, loading up all of our worldly belongings, including two little girls and a full-gown Husky dog, and making the long journey south to attend Canada's largest Bible College located in the middle of the Canadian prairies.

I didn't expect the culture shock that hit as we settled into life in a place that was not only very different geographically, but also culturally. Coming from a small town where there were very few Christians, it was astounding to realize we now lived in a community where everyone was a believer, from the postmaster to the mechanic, from the hairdresser to the doctor.

I remember standing on a street corner on that first Sunday, watching more than 2,000 people walk toward the large building where Sunday services were held. I remember standing in the congregation, in absolute awe at the sound of those 2,000 voices singing praises to God. And I remember weeping. I was once again standing on a mountain top and realized that the Christian world was not small and insignificant, it was many and mighty. Suddenly I glimpsed the whole forest.

It made me feel small, but it also overwhelmed me with the knowledge that I was part of something huge, a part of God's kingdom, a part of the wider family of God.

There have been times, as a Christian writer, that I have felt small, alone and isolated. I have wondered if there really was any significance to what I did. But then I would hear reports of how God moved at a large writers' conference or hear about a response to a friend's work or get an email about my own work from someone in a foreign country, or be overwhelmed with well-wishes from every corner of the continent and beyond, when I posted news of signing a writing contract. And once again I would be on a mountain top, glimpsing the forest, the vast congregation of God's people, writing and ministering for and with Him.

And I weep with the knowledge that I am privileged to be part of it.

"Praise God in the great congregation; praise the Lord in the assembly of Israel."  Psalm 68:26

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Abundant Rain, Marcia's devotional ebook for authors of faith is now available on Amazon. For more information on Marcia's writing and speaking ministries visit her website.

 

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Under the Umbrella

Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone and also has two devotional books in print. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. The sequel to her novel, (working title, A Tumbled Stone), will be released in 2011Visit her website at www.vinemarc.com

I opened my email program this morning to find a few Google Alerts. These are messages telling me when my name or the title of one of my books has appeared somewhere on the web. It’s a good way to track where my name pops up and helps me connect to others on the web who are reading my work. Every now and then something pops up that I don’t expect, telling me that some website, blog or e-zine has used something I’ve written without asking me first. Most of the time my byline is attached to the piece. Sometimes it’s not.

This used to irritate me. A lot. Then someone said something to me in the foyer of our church one Sunday that gave me pause. He said, “You know you’re not working for the kingdom of God when someone else steps into your place and you react with anger or jealousy. That kind of reaction tells you it’s your kingdom you’re building, not His.”

My work as a writer is under the umbrella of God’s kingdom. I want it to be there. I want it to function as a tool that draws people closer to Him and encourages them in their faith. I pray that it does so each time I sit down at the computer. So why should I be upset if someone I don’t know posts something I wrote on a site or in an e-zine I’ve never heard of?

I get upset because I want to be in control. It’s my work. No one else has the right to copy it and use it as they will. Right? Well, yes and no. Take for example the story about the poem, Footprints. That poem was circulated anonymously all over the world. The woman who wrote it had to fight to prove it was her work and get the credit for it, finally being awarded copyright 48 years after it was written. That seems unjust.
Often God’s plans do. It’s hard to accept that his plans sometimes violate our sense of justice. We want things to go according to our way of thinking; we want to be in control. But God’s sovereignty sometimes intervenes. The Apostle Paul explained it this way – “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (Romans 9:14-16).

Let’s go back to Ms. Stevenson’s poem. For many years she had no idea the poem was out there blessing people and bringing God glory, until someone told her. Did God make a mistake in allowing that to happen? I don’t think so. He used something one of His creations created to glorify Himself. He’s allowed. He is God, after all, the One who gives us the ability to create, the One who gives us the words.

Long ago He spoke through the prophet Isaiah – “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Is.9-11).

God has purpose for our words as well. And He will use them as He will.

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What are We Missing?

Marcia Lee Laycock is the winner of the Best New Canadian Christian Author Award, for her novel One Smooth Stone. Visit her at www.vinemarc.com

There is a story in the Bible that has always somewhat intrigued me – the story of the “most excellent Felix.” (Acts 24:3) He was the governor who tried the apostle Paul, the governor who kept Paul under house arrest for over two years, because “he was hoping Paul would offer him a bribe.” (Acts 24:26). Felix kept sending for the apostle, talking with him many times over the course of those two years, waiting for the bribe.

That makes me chuckle just a little. Felix was waiting for a bribe but getting something much more valuable – the wisdom of one of the best minds in the country and no doubt much to think about in terms of his spiritual condition. We don’t know how those talks affected the governor. We only know when he left his office he left the apostle in prison.

It would appear that Felix was so focused on what he wanted he missed what he really needed.

I think we are all a little like that. We want many things – financial security, promotions at work, a big house and a good neighborhood to live in, a new car every other year, a big screen TV to watch all our favourite shows, good health and fitness.

But what are we missing?

Are we so focused on financial security that we work too many hours to the neglect of our families? Are we so driven to get that promotion that we miss having a genuine and caring relationship with fellow workers? Are we so proud of the house and car that we alienate our neighbors? Are we so addicted to the TV that we never have a meaningful conversation with our spouses and children? Are we so obsessed with the fitness of our physical bodies that we neglect our spiritual souls?

As writers, are we too focused on how to market our books, too drawn to the thought of selling millions and the big purse that would mean? Do we dream too much about that huge platform we’re developing? Perhaps we’ve forgotten to be thankful for what God is doing in us and through us as we write. Perhaps we’re too quick to brush aside that single reader who was given the courage to make one small step closer to God.

Perhaps we should ask ourselves, “As a writer, what do I need?”

I can think of a few things to put on that list. I need patience to wait for God’s timing. I need trust to know that God is in control; humility to leave it all in His hands, no matter what the outcome. I need to value the people I meet as I ‘market,’ and seek to meet their needs. I need grace to see my readers as potentially part of God’s family. I need passion for God and His word. Most of all, I need to draw closer to the Lord as I move through the whole process.

Jesus has told us what we need, told us to be careful to seek it. He said – “But seek his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well…”

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