My Social Media-less Life

Last weekend at the women’s conference in Colorado, the theme for the weekend was “Now Is Your Time.” Unbeknownst to me, it was exactly what I needed to hear.

Also unbeknownst to me, it wasn’t in regard to what I thought it was about. I didn’t find that out until tonight.

Remember how I mentioned that print I got of Pikes Peak, and I was waiting for it to come in? Well, it did.

I’m not saying this drawing gave me any kind of revelation or anything, but it was interesting that, exactly a week after I return from basically the base of the mountain, I come home to this drawing, and it brought the whole weekend back.

This entire weekend at my home church has also been about how “now is the time” for young adults (specifically) to stand up and speak out and finally take on the role they were born to take on.

If last weekend was a way to open my eyes to how I’ve been putting God in a box with what He can do through me, this weekend was about realizing I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing…

For now.

I haven’t talked about it much this month, but this year for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWrimo, or even NaNo), I have been trying my darndest to at least write a little bit every day. Some days, I’m lucky if I get 10 words written. Other days, I go to bed once it gets to about 11:15 or 11:30 at the latest. And there was one day I wrote about 1700 words.

So writing for NaNoWriMo has been a little difficult this time around, long story short. To be fair to myself, I do have about 6100 words written so far, and although that is nowhere near on par, it’s more than the zero words I had on October 31.

Tonight, while my mom and I were cleaning our usual weekly business, she asked if I would even make it to the 50,000-word mark that NaNo is all about. I told her I wasn’t sure since I haven’t really had the time to write and when I do… I only do until it’s about time for bed.

“There will be a time when writing is going to be more important,” I said to her, “but as it stands right now, my calling is to clean. Since I need energy to clean, that is my bigger focus. Do I need to keep working on the discipline of writing? Of course, and I think that’s what this month is all about.”

I gotta be honest, until about 3 hours ago, I would NOT have told someone that my calling is to clean ANYTHING. I was just as surprised as anybody to hear myself say that.

But it doesn’t feel like a cop-out answer. It really felt like one of those moments where the Holy Spirit used my speech to bring some revelation… and apparently that revelation was to myself.

Until I was typing that last paragraph out, I had forgotten that my pastor today was preaching about how you shouldn’t tell God what you’ll “never” do/say/be… because He will always bring it back around to that. For him (my pastor), it was leading worship. For me, it’s cleaning for a living.

Apparently.

Am I the best at it? Absolutely not. If it weren’t for my mom, I would have lost a lot more of my clients by now. But I have learned a lot about cleaning, my habits, and how to see the world differently… whether for better or worse.

Plus, I have all the flexibility I need. I can take off at any time to help someone in need. I may not be the most financially rich, but I AM rich in time, a listening ear, and a reliable vehicle.

To bring it back around to the title of this post, is now the time… to write?

The answer is, yes and no.

Yes, because it’s always good to have a habit of writing if that’s something you want to do with your life (as I do one day).

No, because that’s not where my life is at this point.

My roommate has now self-published two books… and that is a lot more work and lack of sleeping than I am currently willing to give. And apparently more than the Lord wants me to give.

There will come a time when the grace will be given to write, edit, and publish books in the middle of the night. And maybe it will be while I’m still cleaning houses as a day job.

But today is not that day… and now is not that time.

And I am okay with that.