Where's your year?

It's December 7th as I write this post. Last night my company had a masquerade ball themed Christmas party, which I avoided as the idea of lugging a party dress from my home outside London to work was not particularly appealing, or my idea of fun. Not to talk of the trouble of getting a train after midnight and making the 10 minute walk up a hilly road to my home. No, not my thing.

The Christmas lights went on for the first time this season as I left work giving the cold 'industrial park' an almost warm and inviting look. As the cliché goes I wondered, not for the first time, where the time went. It just didn’t seem conceivable that it’s less that 3 weeks away from Christmas. As people around the world are prone to do, I thought about my year, vaguely remembered some of the things that I’d hope for for 2013 and tried to take stock of where I am now. When I was a child Christmas was a magical time. I didn’t think much about the Lord except for Christmas plays and the Christmas service. We didn’t go much for the commercialism of present buying in Nigeria, it was mostly about going from house to house, eating and celebrating together. Sometimes the adults did gift the children with small sums of money. Another thing I remember is that we only ate chicken at festive occasions, beef was more the every day protein, unlike how it is in the West.

So, reminiscing about this time of year from years past made me consider the things I believe God for, that have yet to happen. Like most aspiring writers, I hoped to be further along in my writing journey. I hoped to have finished the re-write of my first completed manuscript, be signed on to an agency with the possibility of publication. In my day job I’d hoped to be move from contracting to being a permanent employee and others things I wont bore you with. I have made progress with my manuscript, I’m doing a novel writing course and stretching my creativity but I haven’t done as much I’d hoped for. I must confess that I sometimes feel inadequate and unqualified to write on this blog as it is full of accomplished and upcoming authors. I think, what could I possibly write that would interest these brilliant people or that could be on par with what they’ve previously posted. This is when I remind myself that God gave me a gift, and while it is up to me to develop that gift, I will not accomplish much or anything without Him. So I look to you, fellow writers as part of my inspiration and encouragement.

Everyone has to start somewhere and all the experiences, good and bad make us who we are and add grist to our stories along the way. I remember a popular author saying that her first manuscript didn’t get published first. She spent so much time polishing it, but had to make the difficult decision to put it down and work on other things for a while. That may be what I have to do, although it being my first manuscript I find myself going back to it time and again, it’s like my first offspring. ;-).

So 2014 is 24 days away, and I am expectant and excited. Not just for 2014, but for what’s left of 2013. After all God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days. He can do anything in 24. So what have you been hoping for this year? Are you still holding on? Or have you pushed your hopes to next year? As Ecclesiastes 3 says, there’s a time for every activity under heaven. God has a set time for everything He has purposed for each life.

I’ve got my eyes on the future and I’ll continue learning and writing and learning and writing. That can only make me better. Nothing wrong with that!