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2024-12-11 16:38:31Historically I’ve hated writing. When I went to college, the two things I knew I didn’t want to study were medicine (I love reading health and medicine, but I don’t do blood or needles) and English (because I hated writing). I got my degree in electrical engineering with a minor in business. I’ve always loved learning. For most of my life, if I had a problem, I’d go buy a bunch of books on the subject and read until I know all I need to know on the subject and then I move on to the next subject. Because of this, I’ve learned more since graduating from college than I did throughout all of my years of formal schooling. For the past 10-15 years, the majority of my reading has generally been related to the Bible. Some may be generic Christian reading, a commentary on a book of the Bible, the sovereignty of God, or a Bible based world view. When I first became a Christian, I would read through the whole Bible and then just reread the New Testament. Then I would repeat. I looked at the New Testament as more important than the Old Testament, so read it twice as often. I later realized that we need a proper understanding of the Old Testament to fully understand the New Testament, so read through the Bible cover to cover repeatedly. I also started focusing on Genesis as the foundation for everything in the Bible. Because of my scientific background, I especially loved studying science and archaeology that supports the Bible and studied this subject intensely for 10+ years. Due to having a special needs son and having health problems of my own. I went through more than a decade where I was in survival mode. I took care of my family, my home, and my family business, and attended church, but that was about all. I didn’t have the time or energy for anything else. Sometimes I didn’t do a very good job at those “must do” tasks. As I finally started healing, so I could think clearly and do a few things beyond the “have to’s,” I started feeling called to share the knowledge I had gained over the past 30+ years. I immediately tried to go to what I was comfortable doing. I sought the opportunity to lead a women’s Bible study or disciple a young lady, but God closed the doors. I felt such a calling to share the Bible with others, but didn’t seem to get the opportunity. I felt called, but held back and wasn’t quite sure what to do with my calling. Finally I started writing. I started writing my book, “Why I Need Jesus.” When I first started writing the book, I didn’t even tell anyone I was writing. It was all on the sly. I wrote the book, but then wondered, “what now?” I’d never written a book before, much less published one. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, so I started researching online and talked to a friend of mine who is a published author. Do I seek a traditoinal publisher or do I self publish? I decided to self publish, so I would have full freedom to give away books as a ministry and not have limitations on what I could do. I asked some friends and family to read my manuscript and give me feedback and edits. My eldest son, in particular, was so helpful and supportive. I finally started making progress towards actually getting published. Since I was self publishing, I needed to figure some way to advertise my book, so people could find it. Although I got a minor in business, marketing was not my strength by any stretch. I thought, maybe I should have a website to promote my book and stay connected to my readers. I had recently started following several people on substack (mostly freedom doctors during covid). I decided to start a substack as an advertising base, but God had other plans. Creating a substack led to a calling to write articles which turned into a twice a week schedule. At first I did not submit willingly to my calling. (Remember, I hate writing) God would wake me in the night (kind of like tonight) and tell me to write. I’ve had sleep issues a ever since my youngest son with Down Syndrome was born 17 years ago. He had breathing issues for the first 3.5 years of his life, so my body got trained to listen. For 2-3 years, I basically never went into a deep sleep because I was listening for a hitch in his breath which would lead to me sprinting down the dark hallway to his room to check on him and frequently led to rushed trips to the ER. My body learned to be woken by any little thing and it took more than a decade to start to train it to sleep. One night early on when God woke me in the middle of the night to write, I prayed, “I don’t want to get up and write. If you really want me to get up and write, you have to give me an unmistakable sign.” Because of my keyed up sleep issues, I sleep with a sound app playing what my husband calls the hurricane. It is a mix of wind, rain, ocean waves, and babbling brook. Within 30 seconds of my prayer, it just shut off for seemingly no reason. “OK God. I’ll get up and write.” As I wrote more and more, I’d get urges to write at different times and on different subjects. My best writing times tended to be at night while the rest of my family was sleeping and the lights were all off. I think it is easier to hear God when all distractions are gone. God would give me confirmation that I was following His will by having a sermon or podcast I was listening to cover the same subject between when I wrote the article and when it was published. He filled me with such peace that I was doing what He wanted me to do. The more I obeyed God, the more I enjoyed writing and the less God needed to drag me kicking and screaming to the task. I finally feel like I am doing what God created me to do. This is why God led me through the difficulties I’ve experienced and why He gave me the unceasing desire to learn which turned into an unceasing desire to learn about Him. I wrote \~80% of my upcoming book in one day because it just seemed to flow out of me and I was unable to step away and stop until I got it typed up. It took me months to get it finalized and ready for edits, but the majority of the content just seemed to rush out of me like a flood. It feels so good to be finally fulfilling my purpose and serving my God and Creator the way He intended. This post is very different than my normal “scholarly” approach to sharing God and His word, but I hope this gives you a peak at me, the author. Trust Jesus.\ \ your sister in Christ, Christy #### FYI, to learn more about my books “*Why I Need Jesus*” (available in paperback and ebook) and “*Joy in the Storm*” (in editing and hopefully out in a month or two.) see my [books page](https://trustjesus.substack.com/p/books).