Estimated reading time: 4 minutes:-)
This year was the first time I’ve ever tackled a sale.
I know I didn’t do it perfectly. I planned it all out while I was sick on the couch last weekend. But it’s something. And boy, this week has wiped me out.
I think it can be really lonely, creating things. The things we make become the worlds we live in. No one else makes the same exact things we make.
But I never thought having a sale would weigh on my heart so heavily.
Okay, I don’t think I’m a very dramatic person. But the words I write are my heart. When I share or sell the things I write, I’m opening wide my insecurities and frustrations and passions to the world. Feeling the wind on my wide open heart is exhilarating, but sometimes it’s cold. I don’t know if that makes sense?
I pray over every blog I write in the hopes that God will speak through me, but sometimes God calls me to talk about things I definitely don’t want to talk about. Most Saturdays, I write my blog, post it, close my computer, and don’t touch any of my devices for the rest of the day because IT’S SCARY MAN. Hahaha.
All that’s to say, the words I write are a piece of me. They are not mass produced in a factory and shipped out by the dozen. Each word comes straight from heart through my fingers onto the page.
And I think ~ I know ~ other creatives know this feeling.
When you pour your heart out into a piece of art or a product or a design, it’s close to your heart. Somebody saying, “That’s not worth my money” hurts a lot more than it does for Walmart or Amazon. Especially if you’ve knocked the price down for Black Friday so you’re barely making a profit and people still won’t bite.
In bearing a heavy heart, though, my good friend said something last week that really encouraged me, and I wanted to share it with you.
I was feeling discouraged about book sales a few days ago, and she said to me:
“Whether or not your books sell the way the world encourages, it’s so evident that His love and devotion are inspired in each word you write. He’s given you an incredible passion and perspective of the gift He’s given you. God spoke the world into existence, He understands the love and devotion behind words and the value of good works shaped by them, and He’s shared that gift and appreciate of words with you ~ to speak life and the love of Jesus into all who hear your words.”
It’s easy to feel lonely as a creative, but that lonely feeling is a straight up lie from the devil.
If anyone knows the struggle of being a creative, it’s God.
“God spoke the world into existence, He understands the love and devotion behind words.”
He understands the violating feeling when someone mistreats a unique thing you made.
He understands how the things you make are close to your heart and bear your signature. How do you think God feels when one person says to another He created with time and intricacy, in His very own image: “You’re not worthy my time”? How do you think God feels when His creations is disrespected, spat on, destroyed, damaged, killed, and abused?
How do you think God feels when people graze by the Bible in the bookstore, knowing it’s the one thing they can buy that will truly change their lives forever?
How do you think God feels when our Bibles, the words He carefully inspired with time and devotion, sit on our bedside tables collecting dust?
God knows the struggle of the creative. He is the ultimate creative, the ultimate author. He created everything.
So take heart.
Take heart in knowing the God of the universe understands. He is a personal and faithful God.
Hebrews 14:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”
We do not have a God who is seated in the sky, reserved from mankind, hands folded and face glowing with a light we’ll never be able to embrace.
We have a God who came down into the world, stepped into our mess, was tempted in every way, lived the life of a man 100%, and yet did not sin. We have a God who knows our struggles and insecurities and frustrations and doesn’t shy away in detest, but draws us close.
He draws you close. He sees you. He knows you. He loves you.
Rest in that today, beloved.
Sharing the same song I did earlier this week because it’s that good;-)