There Are So Many Books…
Today, I went to a used bookstore and a library.
There were so many books.
I picked up a children’s book, written with care and published 80 years ago, that is now just sitting in a used bookstore, gathering dust. I would bet very few people know about this book, let alone remember its story and its author.
It’s enough to make me wonder why—why do I write? Why am I adding books to this plethora of stories that already exists? What do I have to add?
I closed my eyes and sighed, but then I felt a sense of peace fill my heart.
God has called me to write. He gave me a gift, and it’s meant to be used. He puts the stories in my mind and knows they will reach who they need to reach.
There have been many times in the past few years that I have felt a small desire to get a job. It would let me get out of the house, interact with other adults, and have a sense that I’m accomplishing something. However, every time I tried to picture myself at a job, God would give me a vision of myself sitting at our home office desk, writing. That vision would give me peace with where my life was at that moment and where it is now.
Writing is something I can do while I stay home to homeschool my children. In fact, writing is something I can do just about anywhere, and I have. Home, coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, cars, libraries, park benches—the list of locations where I have worked on my books is long.
I was listening to a podcast on creativity and the guest being interviewed mentioned that creativity is important whether it is seen or unseen because it is seen by God.
God sees the first, second, and third drafts. He sees the sections I wrote that never get printed. He sees the time I spend daydreaming scenes and characters. He sees the piles of ideas scratched out. I need to remember that.
God knows about that children’s book author. He knows what it took to write that story and get that book published. He knows who read it and how it affected him or her. He remembers. He knows about every one of the thousands books I saw today and the work that went into each one. He also knows about every book that hasn’t been published. The sentences still in laptops, in notebooks, or lost forever to us through fires and decay. He knows about the ideas the come and then flit away.
We always have an audience and, because of that, even if it never gets printed, our work is worthwhile.
God sees it.
Copyright © 2022 Sarah Anne Carter
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Such a beautiful reflection! Thank you!
Beautiful post. There’s so much peace to be found when we try to see things through God’s perspective. Not a word is lost.
Thank you so much for your post. I think it was meant for me to come across today if tears in my eyes is any gauge. Two years ago I knew in my heart that I was gifted by God to be a spiritual writer. The only writing I had submitted for publication was bought for and published in Priest Magazine. It was a shot of spiritual vitamins giving me energy to keep going until my husband questioned the small amount of pay given. My job working with the area’s homeless and poor had been discontinued after ten years and this just wasn’t going to put milk on the table. Doubt set in. I did try to keep going, though, until my personal “dark night of the soul” set in over the course of this past year. I began having trouble walking only to find both of my hips needed replacing. In the course of preparing for surgery I was told that I had Congestive Heart Failure. Then illness set in hospitalizing me with intestinal abcesses and sepsis. I am home using walker and wheelchair as well as walking sticks while being surrounded by my theological books boughten in the past while gaining two Masters Degrees. I have been brought to visions of my death and funeral and sleepless nights of wondering what has it all been for? If I can’t sit and read very well, if I can’t write for any length of time, if I struggle to stand and walk, what is the call to writing all about? I know there needs to be much more conversation regarding spiritual “callings” so that people can enter into safe spaces to share what they know God is telling them during their contemplative prayer times so they can work to clarify and unpack the doubts that set in. Blessings on all of you who remain steadfast to your own call and to supporting those you come across no matter what format.