A Very Special Christmas Gift

This isn’t about any of the very nice gifts I got from my parents, my in-laws, my wife, or my brother, Joshua, though I truly appreciate them.

Its about an answer to prayer. Its an understanding I’ve been given about my life after long searching. I understand where the point and the focus of my life is, and what I was made for.

I was thinking about my job and I realized that I didn’t think of myself in term of my work in customer service. In fact if you ask me where I work, I won’t tell you online. But if you ask me offline, I’ll tell you, “I work in Customer Service at xxx.” not “I am a Customer Service Agent at xxx.” In fact, if I think about the things that interest me, most of them would fall under the category of “I have done” or if I ended up doing it again, “I do this” not “I am.” Thus, I had to ask myself what was it that I would say, “I am” about.

The answer became clear. I am a writer. Now, some of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while may say that’s self-evident. Indeed, if I’m not a writer, then where does this blog come from?

Well, let me clue you in, not everyone who writes a blog really thinks, “I am a writer.” There are people who can write and can write well, but they’re not writers. Take Al Gore, Tom Coburn, or most politicians who have written a book. They’re not writers. They’re political leaders who wrote a book. The published book is an extension of their own agendas, not an end and a goal of itself.

Clearly, there are a lot of people you can identify as writers and others you can identify as people who wrote for their profession. We can say of C.S. Lewis that he was a writer who taught, not a teacher who wrote. Most Associate College professors laboring under the burden of “publish or perish” requirements at major universities are clearly teachers who had to write something to get tenure. Rick Warren is a pastor who wrote, while Max Lucado is a writer who pastors a church.

Clearly, for some people its not so clear cut. Some have a combination of talents and abilities that leads them to multiple callings and ares of focus in their life. I only know where my focus is going to be and that is becoming a full time writer. Of course, I’ll work to gain advancement in my current position. A little more money for writer’s contests, conventions, and all that doesn’t hurt, now does it? But my focus and understanding of my life is that I’m going to be a writer. Now, that can take many forms, from writing non-fiction to novels, to blog networks, to this blog even as a vehicle to get there. Of course, at a times I may fulfill other roles as a writer who preaches or gives public speeches, or a writer whose involved in political activism, but still I understand my goal now and all that remains is for me to focus on it and achieve it.

Thank God for such a wonderful gift!