Don't Put Dirt in the Grave Just Yet

I'm writing a novel this upcoming year.
A month ago, I printed out my thesis proposal and I got giddy.

This thesis, warm from the printer, is the foundation

I could envision the final product from the blueprint and I knew, deep in the deepest part of me, that I could do this and it was going to be magnificent.

Then my mentor got a hold of it and I promise you, he beat my child in front of me as he gave me suggestions and advice.
And I could do nothing to prevent it.

It's not my mentor's fault. I SUCK at receiving criticism. And he didn't say anything bad about it. He likes the idea of it. He just burst my bubble and surrounded me with reality.

We've all had that moment: when you think you know something, the idea of it, you get the premise of it but once you're in the situation, you realize that you knew NOTHING, nothing at all.

When you realize this isn't what you signed up for

And you wished someone warned you. Well that's what my mentor did. He warned me and I, being me, started doubting.

Am I really capable of executing this?
Is the message going to get lost in the story?
Is this story even mine to tell?
Should I go with something easier?

So I, being me again, turned my back against my story. I gave up on it, without beginning it.

But it didn't leave me. It's haunting me. Its bones are calling out to me, demanding that I finish it, that I go head first into it, that I don't punk out, that I commit myself to something wholeheartedly for once in my life, even if I set myself on fire in the process, I need to do it.

I owe my words, my ideas, I owe myself that.

Then yesterday, Ezekiel 37:1-14 popped into my head and I wanted to share this with you because I cannot be the only one who has unrealized dreams or ghosts of unfinished works in my closet.

You have to stop.
Stop with the excuses. Stop with the procrastination. Stop it.
Stop telling God how impossible the situation is.

Don't you realize that you are a child of a God who specializes in impossibilities. What you cannot do, He is more than capable in doing. He is not you. God is not your image-bearer; stop coloring Him with your inabilities and insufficiency.

Instead, be quiet and listen to what God is saying to you. Don't you hear Him?

God speaks life over you. 

So if you have nothing nice to say, then only say what God says. Be in agreement with Him.
Speak His promises over your life.

Remember your words have power - the power of life and death. Speak life like your Father. Don't let defeat and discouragement fall from your lips.

It may look as if it's over but God has other plans.
That place where you thought was your grave-site, your end, is the place where God wants to bring your resurrection.

God is coming for you. 

He's gonna rejuvenate you, recharge you and bring about what you thought was long gone, long forgotten.

God is a dream-maker and a dream-fulfiller. What He starts in your heart, He will bring to fruition - He guarantees it.

But you have to be in agreement with God.
You have to continue speaking His promises over your life, even when life gets crazy, until it becomes exactly what He said.

Keep echoing His words and believing in them.

When you align yourself with God, who can stand against you, let alone win?

So conceive it, believe it, speak it and do it no matter what the circumstances look like.

Now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1