Wednesday, September 21, 2016

An Expectant Heart

Image courtesy of Tuomas_Lehtinen
FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Late last year a pastor spoke a word over me about the Lord wanting to give me a new book, a new optimism and referenced Habakkuk 2:2-3 which talks of waiting on a new vision. I stored it away and got on with life.

Over the last couple of years I’ve felt an increasing urge to start writing non-fiction material in addition to my fiction. A dear friend who has read some of the material encouraged me to give it serious consideration.

In May I determined I would head to Nashville in late August to attend this year’s ACFW Conference. I’d been to one in 2012 and have longed to return. Soon a bunch of things fell into place: Ted Dekker (an author hero of mine) was announced as keynote, my Angelguard publisher (Lion Fiction) would be present, an editor friend who I’ve never met was attending, and other friends from the US (some fellow ICFW members) and from down under were going. In addition, I submitted the manuscript to the sequel to Angelguard, Wrestling with Shadows (WWS), to Lion in early July.

There was a lot to be excited about. I left Sydney with an expectant heart. But with no expectations. I sensed the Lord would reveal something, what, I didn’t know and was excited to find out.

“There is an ocean of difference between expectations and expectancy.”1

Meeting old and new friends

My wife and I arrived a few days before the conference. We’d both wanted to visit Nashville. One of favourite TV shows in recent times is “Nashville” and so having the conference in the same city was a great reason to pay a visit. Fiona had to head off to Baltimore for work while I was conferencing so we got to be tourists for a few days before she had to fly out. It certainly is a fun place especially if you like country music.

As I waved Fiona goodbye at 4.30am (yes, she had a very early flight) my sense of expectancy grew. It was still 2 days before the conference started and I had set up a few meetings with various people. I had lunch with our very own David Rawlings (we’d never met before) and breakfast with friends Rel Mollet, Dotti Adamek and Ronie Kendig. It was a special treat to finally meet Rel after being buddies for a number of years.

Dotti Adamek and I getting ready
for Allen Arnold's workshop

Surprise, surprise

One of the wonderful aspects of conferences is running into people who’ve connected with virtually but have never met. I continued to have some delightful catchups.

The Lord kept on surprising me. I unexpectedly got to spend ninety minutes over coffee with Ted Dekker and his business partner. Talk about wow! Then another author hero of mine had a cancellation and we shared dinner together. My heart was buzzing and the conference hadn’t even started.

I set up a meeting with my publisher on the morning the conference started. I hoped he’d give me an update on WWS but hadn’t anything new to share as it was still doing the rounds within the publisher. Then he asked me whether I had any interest in writing non-fiction? You could have knocked me over with a feather.

I lifted my jaw off the table and realised I had an opportunity to give him a pitch. I wasn’t prepared (hey, it’s a fiction conference) and it showed. Tony was kind enough to chat over possibilities and we agreed I’d prepare a proposal and get it to him as soon as possible.

Heart overflowing

And then the conference began. Wow, so many great things happened. Not just for me but others. New friends (you know who you are) got asked to submit manuscripts, Iola and Jebraun won their Genesis Awards and golly gosh it was so good being present when their names were read out. I felt like a proud dad or older brother. And let’s not forget David Rawlings was a Genesis finalist. So great the Beyond the Borders clan is making inroads. Sharing breakfast with the BtB clan was fun. Two tables this year. There was only one when I attended in 2012.
David & Jebraun a few moments
before the Gala Event


The workshops, don’t get me started as I could write another entire post on those, the special worship time, witnessing God’s power and peace in the prayer room, new friends, and on it goes.

“Staying expectant is the opposite [of expectation]. It reflects anticipation for what’s to come. It is being open to what does happen regardless of what you think should happen. Life is not meant to be something we control but something we experience.”2

A few weeks have passed and as I was thinking about what to write for this post I read Allen Arnold’s words quoted above and the Lord reminded me of the word I received late last year.

Will I become a non-fiction author? Maybe. Maybe not. But I sure want to savour the experience writing with the Lord as we discover whether I will be or not. And that’s more than enough for me.

When have you approached a situation expectant and been surprised by the Lord’s goodness? I’d love for us all to be encouraged by each other’s experiences.

Notes: 1 and 2. Allen Arnold, “The Story of With” p103. Self-published.



Ian Acheson is an author and strategy consultant based in Northern Sydney. Ian's first novel of speculative fiction, Angelguard, is available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. You can find more about Angelguard at Ian's website, on his author Facebook page and Twitter

17 comments:

  1. Great post, Ian! And wow what an amazing conference for you!! So happy for you!! God has so many amazing surprises in store! Keep us updated!

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    1. Thanks, Morgan. Hope we might get to meet at a future one.

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  2. Thanks so much for sharing about your experience to this years conference. It so encouraging to see God at work and particularly in seeing how God is working in your writing life!

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    1. Lisa, I was hoping we'd get to meet in Nashville. Oh well, another time perhaps. Trust all has settled down in Mozambique and your writing is going well.

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  3. I love watching Nashville on TV - and I really enjoyed the pictures you and David posted on FB. It's great to hear you got to see some of the sights.

    And the conference ... wow. Great to hear. But funny that you met Rel for the first time in the States (isn't the ACFW conference how Rel and Dotti first met as well?)

    And your publisher - great. I think you'd do an excellent job with non-fiction, Ian. I always watch out for your posts because I know they will get me thinking.

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    1. Thanks, Iola for your encouragement. Yes, peculiar we need to travel across the world to meet each other and yes it was how Dotti and Rel first met. Looking forward to meeting you at end of October.

      Bless,

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  4. Thank you so much for sharing how God went before you at the conference, Ian. It also brought back great memories of my own experiences way back in the one at Denver in 2009. So exciting to be able to meet writer "friends" there and be so richly encouraged and blessed - not only at the workshops of course, but every different thing such as volunteering at the prayer room, the registration desk, etc, etc. We are so very thankful to have our fellow Christian writers in America welcome us so readily and bless us so much during these wonderful conferences.

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  5. I love that point, Mary, about being blessed by our fellow authors in America. I reflected on that as I watched Iola (well, Kara) and Jebraun accept their awards - they didn't need to invite us in but they have and the ACFW community is richer as a result. We are so blessed to be able to participate in such a wonderful event.

    Thanks for sharing, Mary.

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  6. Great post, Ian! It was fun meeting you, but so rushed! Happy to hear you had a great conference. And, yes on the proud-relative feeling about our three people in the Genesis :) To your question... You know from Allen's group that I have more to do than time to do it in with the fulltime day job, but this was a good writing week. I always pray before I write, but the feeling is often that of "if You will, make it Yours" vs. knowing/having true faith that "He wills" already - get the pen... Despite my timid prayers His words exploded out of me. Within 48 hours I came up with my debut's author note (a call to repentance that was freaking me out), acknowledgements, readers' guide, and my quarterly newsletter. The words came out so right and so fast! I know I had very little to do with it. This polished and right-on-target word explosion doesn't happen in an immediately obvious manner to me very often, and I'm very thankful and encouraged when it does :) Cheers!

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    1. Patricia, so good. I love those "aha" moments when it just gels; you walk away from your computer full and joyous because of the Lord's gentle guiding hand.

      Thanks for sharing, Patricia.

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  7. Ian, thanks for sharing your wonderful and amazing conference experiences with us. ACFW is a special conference, and it's so exciting that a non-fiction publishing opportunity is opening up for you :)

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    1. We missed you, Narelle but I know your new job is quite demanding at present. Looking forward to catching up in October.

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  8. Was great to meet you as well Ian (along with everyone else, obviously). One of my lasting memories is eating bleu cheeseburgers in Nashville, the heart of America, with bluegrass music in the background, talking about AFL football with a guy from Sydney ... there's a plot twist right there.

    Really pleased to hear about your discussion with Tony about non-fiction. Without giving away any spoilers, care to share in which topical direction your writing is heading?

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    1. Yep, one of my fond memories too, David. Pity both of our teams didn't make it past last weekend.

      Topic - men in the church. Our struggle with still chasing after the world rather than allowing Jesus to be the top dog in all we do. Something along those lines. It's been on my heart for a few years now.

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  9. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on anticipation versus expectation. It is a theme I embrace in my writing and in life, and sometimes it's scary! That's when we move forward with trust...

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    1. Lovely how you sum it up, Sara. Thanks for your encouragement.

      Bless,

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  10. I'm sure I read this when you first posted it, but I'm commenting now. It was so great meeting you in Nashville. Nice to catch up with another from down unda ☺️ Very exciting to hear about your opportunities and the reiteration of how God has so many divine appointments for us. Praying for this new project!

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