The lists, the gifts, the chorus, the critics, and the daring

One of my church kids asked me last week regardingmy writing, “Mrs. Bev, are you famous?”

The answer I gave of course was aresounding, “No.”

But the question begs a bit of further explanation.One of the people who has helped me see my place in publishing with moreclarity was an author at a writer’s conference who likened those of us who are noton big bestseller lists as being members of a chorus. Since I sing in a symphonychorus, this example resonates with me. As chorus members, our job is to showup and do our part contributing to the whole. We do not stand out as a soloistwould. As Christian writers, all our efforts contribute to the larger goal ofspreading God’s good news around the world.

Madeleine L’Engle wrote, “The amount ofthe artist’s talent is not what it is about.” She was on big bestseller lists,but still said, “ . . . my little trickle adds hardly a drop of water to thelake, and yet it doesn’t matter; there is no trickle too small.”

L’Engle is famous for saying, “Serve thegift.” She elaborates, “If we’re given a gift—and the size of the gift, smallor great, does not matter—then we are required to serve it, like it or not,ready or not. I have seen people of great talent who have done nothing withtheir talent who mutter about ‘When there’s time . . . ’  or who bury their talent because it’s toorisky to use.”

This instruction applies to so many other areas besides writing. If we have a gift, we use it to the best of our abilityas long as possible. All of us want to be successful, but what’s most importantis being good stewards of what God has given us.

I’ve written here before that one of myfavorite quotes comes from Teddy Roosevelt,  “It’s not the critic who counts; not the manwho points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds couldhave done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in thearena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; whoerrs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without errorand shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows thegreat enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who atthe worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly . . . “

To dare greatly is a good mantra to live by.

So, let’s get out there in the arena usingthe gifts we have for God’s glory, and no, we may not be the most talented, themost popular, or win our culture’s top awards, but the gaze of the One whoreally counts is always on us.

“I can do all this through him who givesme strength” (Philippians 4:13).

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24260977-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();Beverly Varnado's most recent book is In Search of the Painted Bunting, a middle grade historical from Elk Lake Publishing, #1 in new releases in its category. She is also the author of several small town romances from Anaiah Press including her latest, A Season for Everything. All are available at Amazon. To explore the web version of One Ringing Bell, please visit bev-oneringingbell.blogspot.comTo sign up for her newsletter, go to http://eepurl.com/dHNdsX Beverly Varnado copyright 2023