Some weeks ago, I attended a mid-week prayer meeting and a lovely woman approached afterward and murmured ‘I’m not sure what this means but I feel that God wants me to tell you that He is aligning things for you’.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I had to ponder the word ‘ alignment’. As a writer, words are tremendously significant to me, and I looked up anything I could find. My questions circled around ‘align what?‘.
Since I’m on a deadline for book four in my series, of course, my mind flew to writing first. Yes, I thought! Please supernaturally align my publishing journey, because it’s confusing and chaotic as heck! Like manna from heaven, author speaking engagements started dropping out of the sky. My summer has fled…all due to God’s apparent ‘alignment’ of the chaotic marketing process a writer must embrace. It was quite the relief to feel as if I didn’t have to chase after book signings or speaking events, that it had started exponentially expanding. I’m positive the woman’s nudge after the prayer meeting helped me understand I’m not alone in the writing process…I have a powerful Ally.
The alignment circle continued to grow as my oldest daughter’s family visited last week. Bonnie has four girls, and it’s quite the merry chase when they come to visit. As you grandparents out there know, when young children visit for a week, the noise and sleeping arrangements, food prep, etc. can be exhausting. Wonderful and delightful, but exhausting. About the halfway mark, I felt my stamina begin to wane. My generous and gentle tone turned snippy. After all, I was used to making my own hours and taking a little break in the afternoons! My patience disintegrated. To my surprise (credit: alignment) out of the blue, my son showed up and loaded the girls in his car and took them to the dog park for a couple of hours. Bonnie went to a hair appointment. Suddenly and mysteriously, my afternoon had ‘aligned’ to give me a few hours of quiet.
That word! ‘Alignment’ began to cement itself in the back of my mind. Could it be that I needed that lesson from God? That all my striving, reaching, grasping, running, climbing, negotiating, jostling others out of the way…is unnecessary? That sometimes, just showing up is enough? That my best-laid plans may not be the EXCELLENT-laid plans that my Ally has in mind? Could I be frustrating the ‘alignment’ in lieu of my hard-fought determination to do things my own way?
Hm.
All those times I’ve wanted to give up.
All those times I’ve battled with the rejection inherent in yes, the publishing industry; but also in every aspect of life.
All those times my heart pounded with frustration that I’m not doing enough, or going in the right direction.
Could it be I just should’ve paused to listen? Trusted that my ways are ‘aligned’ by the one I’ve put my trust in?
It’ll probably take me the rest of my life to learn the lesson of ‘alignment’. That’s okay, though…I think it’s a powerful one.
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