Guest Blogger: Kathi Lipp
When I first started writing, I took advantage of every opportunity to find time to write and to learn the craft. I spent some of my lunch breaks with my writing journal, jotting down ideas for future projects. While waiting at the doctor’s or dentist’s office, I read writers magazines instead of People magazine. While driving to and from work, I listened to CDs about the writing process instead of the Top 40 station. While my kids swam at the community pool, I outlined articles and researched magazines I would like to write for someday.
When my kids were asleep, I wrote. It may have been only two sentences or an idea for something that I wanted to do someday, but I wrote. I knew that I may not finish an actual article, but I also knew it was important to lay the groundwork for the career I was dreaming of.
Was it selfish to yearn for writing time when I had so many other things going on in my life? Many people may think so. I saw it as honoring the dreams God laid on my heart.
One of the biggest challenges we have is assigning importance to our dreams. We figure, why spend the time now when the things we want to accomplish are so far off?
Invest
We need to make the commitment to invest in ourselves. If we have a passion to do something, whether it’s open a business, write a book, or learn to dance, what is one little thing that can get us closer to accomplishing that goal?
It’s time to invest, time to lay down the groundwork, so that when the season comes to live your dream, you are ready.
In one of my favorite movies, Under the Tuscan Sun, there’s a scene where the lead character, Francis, is kicking herself for buying a villa in Tuscany. It’s a big, beautiful house—perhaps too big for a woman who is single and has no children. She cries to her friend and real estate agent, Martini, “I bought a house for a life I don’t even have.”
I will never forget the words Martini encourages her with: “Signora, between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.”
That is the kind of faith we need for our dreams. To know that someday, the train will come. To know that someday, we will have time to live out our dreams. To put down visible, tangible signs saying, “This is the life I’m going to lead. I am preparing the way for what is going to happen. I know that God is faithful to finish what He starts, and He is faithful to complete this in me.”
Laying down track looks different for each of us. It may mean signing up for a class or subscribing to a magazine related to your passion. For some people, it is just admitting to a friend (or even to themselves) that they do have a dream, and that they want to see it become a reality.
What is the next length of track you need to lay down?
Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent
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