Blogger: Rachel Kent
Below is a blog from 2013, but I think it is so relevant for what we are all going through right now. It applies to the publishing journeys of many writers, but also is helpful as we face the coronavirus scare.
I sold my house yesterday [In 2013, remember?]. As long as everything goes as planned, we are going to need to move out by the 31st, and we don’t have a place to go yet. My husband and I are hoping that we’ll find a place to buy in the next couple of weeks, and we’re actively looking, but it could be that we have to wait awhile before we find the right one. This wasn’t my plan, but now we’ve been dropped into the great “Unknown.”
I couldn’t help but notice the connection between my house search and what many of you are experiencing in the publishing world. You have a dream to get a book published, and you are trusting that something good will happen, but there’s really no date in sight for the end of your waiting. Some of you have an agent out searching for a publishing home for you, like I have my Real Estate agent working for me. She’s in my corner, but she can’t force the right fit to come on the market immediately just like a literary agent can’t force a book sale to happen for you. We all work hard toward a goal, but the endings are unknown.
I have a great support team behind me in my search for a house. My husband, parents, agent, and friends aren’t going to let me handle the stress of this on my own. And you shouldn’t forget that you have people in your corner as well. Your family, agent, friends, and critique partners play a huge role in your publishing journey. Keeping them by your side will help to keep you on the path to success.
I have a little card on my bulletin board in my office that has the quote, ” I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.” For those of you who, like me, are in the “Unknown” right now, this is something we need to remember. God has a plan for us, and it’s a plan to prosper us and to give us a hope and a future (Jer. 29:11). We all should wait patiently to see the wonderful works of God. (Often easier said than done!)
I’m praying for those of you who are waiting right now. And for all of us as we are in the unknown. I know how you feel! May you find peace in the knowledge that God has everything under control.
Back to 2020: The rest of this story is that we lived with my parents for slightly less than a month while we were in escrow on the perfect house for us. We got it at the right price and God had it all set for us. We are still in the great home. In 2013, when I wrote this blog, I had no idea how all of that would turn out. Now looking back I can see God’s fingerprints. 🙂
I have to trust that God’s fingerprints will be visible when we look back at this crazy time, too. He doesn’t want us to suffer and promises he will be with us always. So we can know he is here with us as we face the coronavirus and many unknowns.
 What Bible verses or quotes encourage you when life has you waiting?
What Bible verses help when you fear the unknown?
The Value of Watching Bad Movies
Things could never really be
as they had been once, before
the harsh and Pyhrric victory
before Mars’ furnace door.
The very ground itself was burned,
trees lost beyond the ken of man,
a planet’s axis, battered, turned
but then came God’s forgotten plan;
from soft sky fell healing rain,
washed away the bones’ complaint,
washed away the sad earth’s pain;
trace of trench and shell grew faint
and it was not so very long
that grass grew back upon the Somme.
Thank you for sharing your 2013 post. Your experience was/is a much-needed reminder to trust, not despair or panic in the pandemic of 2020.
Great post Rachel! I believe the ‘Unknown’ is a test of our faith. A time to shore up the fissures and cracks in our foundation, and get ready for what’s to come.
I heard this scripture preached twice yesterday and I see truth in it with this virus.
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
II Chronicles 7:13
For believers, I think He’s asking us to turn away from distraction/sin and ‘seek his face’ through relationship. I feel something wonderful coming when this is over.
Rachel, this is so needed today. I was thinking about your perfect home … how it was under threat of fire at one time. Every so often, those fires come (like the virus), but God saves. Even in death, we know God is still saving, if we belong to Him. For me, my goal throughout this time and in my writing is to beg God to make me better than I am, make me smarter than I am … God, make me what you want me to be in order to encourage others or to make my household run smoothly. A verse I adore is: “I said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing’ ” (Psalm 16:2).
Thank you. We all needed this reminder today.
The fingerprints of God…such a great visual reminder. Thank you.
Thanks Rachel. This certainly is a great post for a time like this.
My favorite verse is “You keep him in perfect peace who mind is stayed on you, becuse he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3
Just as you had to trust God with your house, we also need to be trusting him during this COVID-19.