I’ve had several jobs during my life time – dish washer, waitress, data entry clerk, surgical technician, and a career as a registered nurse. With each of these positions, there was always something lacking. I felt a yearning for something more, a feeling that I was meant to be doing something else. Deep down inside I knew what it was. I knew because I had been doing it since the age of ten. The something else I was meant to do was write.
It began with poetry, and then progressed to short stories – just a page or two. I remember walking into bookstores and seeing the selection of books displayed on the tables. I told myself that one day my book would be displayed on one of those tables as well.
By the time I was in my early twenties, I was a data entry clerk by day and an aspiring freelance writer by night. I submitted short stories to various magazine publications on a regular basis – and was rejected by them just as often. I also freelanced for a local newspaper for a brief period of time.
I tried to remain faithful to my purpose. I enrolled in the university and majored in mass communications. But life has a way of distracting you. At the time, I was a divorced mother of three with a full-time job (that had nothing to do with writing by the way). I became exhausted trying to juggle school, family and work so I chose to discontinue my education.
After working for eight years as a data entry clerk, I returned to college and became a surgical/ob technician, later graduating with a degree as a registered nurse (again…nothing to do with writing).
In 2008, my youngest child graduated from high school. I continued working as a nurse until the restlessness began two years later. I realized that my dream of becoming a published author remained unfulfilled. Sure, I had freelanced for a local newspaper briefly, but I wanted to write a book. My unfulfilled prediction of seeing my own book sitting on a table in a bookstore began to nag at my soul.
I had worked as a nurse for sixteen years, and maintained an on again/off again relationship with writing that had lasted for more than forty-one years. I began to ponder why I had pursued a career as a registered nurse instead of pursuing my dream of becoming a writer.
I looked to God for the answer and for His guidance, and I found it in Revelations Chapter 4, Verse 11: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Through these words of wisdom, I came to understand why my purpose had remained unfulfilled.
Although God had instilled the gift of writing in me, it had not been my time to use it. I had strayed away from Him, and had abused the gift He’d given me by using it to write about ungodly things. Once I rededicated myself to Jesus Christ, the new me began to infuse itself into my writing.
After eight months of prayer, I ended my nursing career and fully embraced my God- given purpose. I began writing for the glory of God. My affirmation that I was on the right track came when my debut novel Yesterday’s Eyes was published in 2012.
Today, as I journey through the second half of my life, I continue to fulfill my purpose. I have a part time job that involves writing ninety percent of the time, I am a freelance content writer, and I have recently expanded my purpose to include the world of content editing which I discovered I enjoy a great deal.
Trusting in the Lord has become a lesson in faith and a victory for me. With God’s help, I am able to identify and remove anything that threatens to distract me from my true purpose. I now reject the toxicity of phrases like ‘later’, ‘one day’, and ‘when I retire’.
Today is the day!
Through my writing, I can be used by God for His glory over and over. Fulfilling my purpose has not made me financially rich, but I am rich in spirit and I am doing what I was meant to do. Even though it took forty-one years for me to embrace my true purpose, I can say quite happily, “Better late than never”.
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