Look! It's a flying Caterpillar!

We all know that Caterpillars can't really fly, but in this photo, this little guy is doing really well.

The truth is he is under-girded by an invisible force that makes it possible for him to do what he naturally can't. So just as my cars windscreen gives a flightless worm the appearance of having awesome super-powers, we too have an invisible force under-girding us. The best part is that what we have is so much more than just pretend. We have a supernatural God who possesses all the power in the universe.

So how about that thing that feels impossible to you now? Maybe it's getting a book published, finding a new job or getting over a heartbreak. Whatever it is, you can rest knowing that carrying you through the impossible is God's love and supernatural grace will carry you.

He is the invisible One who makes all things possible and He loves you more than you could ever imagine.

Dianne J. Wilson writes novels from her hometown in East London, South Africa, where she lives with her husband and three daughters. She is neck-deep in a three book contract for a YA series, Spirit Walker, with Pelican / Watershed.

Finding Mia is available from Amazon, Pelican / Harbourlight, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores.

Shackles is available as a free ebook from Amazon & Smashwords.

Find her on Facebook, Twitter and her sporadic blog Doodles.

Bubbles and Rock - a devotion for you, if you are finding life tough

When things get tough, do you ever eyeball yourself firmly in the mirror and give yourself a pep talk? I know I do. I try to make sure nobody is watching, but even that doesn't always work out.

I’ve come to realize though, that my motivational eyeballings – even the very best ones, are a little bit like wrapping myself in a bubble. For a while I can float along, feeling cushioned from the bite of an anorexic bank account, safely tucked away from bickering kids and in firm denial of my hungry petrol tank.

There’s just one problem with a self-motivated-pep-talk-bubble. It just takes one sharp object, one tiny prick and it pops. I can tell you from experience that when you’re floating in a bubble that bursts, there’s only one way to go and it ain’t up. You feel the teeth of your bank account when you can’t buy the bottle your kid needs for school to make your Mom’s day pressy, when you have to say no to your teenager’s social life because you can’t afford the petrol for the extra trip.

It doesn’t take a sledgehammer to pop a bubble.

Yet somehow, when God speaks, there are no bubbles involved. His Words come with a standard issue of solid rock under your feet and the guts to face life unflinching. No matter what. One word from Him, and I’m on solid ground, light years away from the quicksand of doubt.

From now on when I eyeball myself in the mirror, I'll be saying one thing and one thing only... 

Listen to Jesus, girl. He's got you!

Dianne J. Wilson writes novels from her hometown in East London, South Africa, where she lives with her husband and three daughters.

Finding Mia is available from Amazon, Pelican / Harbourlight, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores.

Shackles is available as a free ebook from Amazon& Smashwords.

Find her on Facebook, Twitter and her sporadic blog Doodles.

Not by Might, nor Power, but by His Spirit

Our home here in South Africa is a work in progress. At this stage we have no garage or driveway, so our cars park on the lawn outside. We have one big, super-powerful car for when we need to get our family of five somewhere far, and a small run around for me for when we need to, well... run around. In the pic above, you can see Ginger modelling my small car.

Over the weekend, it rained. Then it rained some more. When it was done raining, it raining again just for fun. The funny thing about rain is that it has a magical ability to turn lawn to muddy slush.

On Saturday evening we tried to take my eldest and her friend to go visit other friends in the big car. We discovered that what used to be lawn, was in fact now a mud pit somewhat like quicksand that sucked you deeper in the more you tried to get out. If the powerful one couldn't make it out, there was not way the little one would! We didn't even try.

On Sunday, my hubby did everything he could think of to get the big car out but all his efforts only made it worse. In a last ditch attempt to get to church, he suggested we try push mine out the yard without even switching the engine on. That's the beauty of small cars - you can bully them as much as you want.  Minutes later my car was out and we used it to help tow the other one. I never thought I'd see the day that my tiny car would be used to tow the enormous one! As we were driving to church in the rescued big car, I said to the Lord, "Well that was fun. What was it all about?"

I could almost sense the grin on his face as He rubbed his hands and leaned in close...

When we find ourselves in a sticky spot in life, if we put our trust in ourselves to get out of it, our wheels spin, mud flies and we dig ourselves deeper. But when we trust God for a solution, stop frantically scrambling to rescue ourselves - HE is able to come through in ways we could never imagine. It's not about doing nothing, but it's all about where we put our trust - in our own efforts, or in His mighty power working on our behalf. A person of tiny faith who trusts Jesus is more effective than a spiritual powerhouse who falls into the trap of trusting their own strength.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. 

Zechariah 4:6

Friends, I don't know about you, but I'm a little over getting splattered with mud from trying to dig myself out of my troubles! I'm putting my trust in His ability, His resources and His connections.

What are you trusting Him for today?

Dianne J. Wilson is a freelance writer and author from South Africa.

Her first official novel, Finding Mia, is now available from Pelican / Harbourlight, Amazon and in other places that you find good books.

Shackles is available as a free ebook.

The Stuff Inside

Seventeen years ago today, I was in a hospital bed holding my newborn baby girl. Drunk on hormones and lack of sleep, I held her in my arms and fell hard. Smitten, irrevocably besotted with this tiny person that would turn my world inside out. I cried when I had to cut her nails for the first time. Seriously? How could anyone trust me to do that right? Yet somehow we both survived without too much bloodshed. I bathed her without drowning her, I rocked her to sleep without breaking her and now seventeen years down the line, she is a beautiful young lady with the ability to turn my world the right way up on those days when it's too top-heavy for me.

I didn't always think I could do this mothering thing, but somehow we muddled through.

Eleven years ago, I started stringing words together. I sold some of them to magazines, but then Jesus pushed my button and I thought about writing a book. A whole book. All eighty thousand words of book. Seriously? Who could trust me to do that right? Yet eleven years later, I'm finishing up my third. Sure, sleep got short-changed, tears were cried and there may have been some bloodshed, but we muddled through.

When Jesus tells you to do something you're not entirely sure you can, it's best not to argue. Take a look at what He's planted in you. Dreams and hopes, desires... the things that make you come alive. You can be sure He didn't plant them there for nothing.

Breathe deep and step off the edge.
Watch the floodgates open.
See His Life and Love pour out of you.

Has Jesus been pushing your buttons? Tell us more...

Dianne J. Wilson is a South African author, who squeezes out words a few hundred at a time in between doing admin for a dance studio and mothering her three girls.

Her first novel, Shackles, is available as a free ebook.

Her second, Finding Mia, releases from Harbourlight on the 19th of June 2015.

Her third, Affinity, is a batch of flapjacks away from being  ready to go out to beta readers.

Feels Like Midnight

Running and I are not friends. There are reasons for this. Good reasons. For now, let’s just say I am anatomically incompatible with the sport. My hubby, however, loves running. So much so, that he will sacrifice sleep to be out pounding the tar. Some days he gets up so early, the birds and worms are all still tucked under their duvets, snoring.

It was one of those mornings about a week ago that I was up with him. The race he'd signed up for started on the road to Stutterheim and ended 42km’s away on the other side of town. I suggested that he run back to fetch his car afterwards but strangely he wasn’t too keen on that idea. (Odd, hey?)  

As we drove to the start, a profound realisation hit me. The clock told me that it was 5am, but if I looked out the window, it might as well have been midnight. The streetlights, the moon... the odd car driving around. It looked, felt and sounded exactly like midnight. Even my bed-missing body agreed. Yet within half an hour, everything changed. The sky drifted from pitch to dappled pastels, bird-noise filled in the silence and the temperature climbed a few degrees. 

I could almost hear Jesus clear his throat... 

When we live hoping for our dreams to be realized... waiting for the publishing contract to land in our inbox, the email from a reader who found transforming Truth in the folds of our words... it often feels like midnight. The darkness hangs thick around us - rejection letters, working a regular job each day when all we want to do is write. Some days one simply cannot see how things could ever change. I remember feeling like fool for hoping for something so far out of reach. 

Here's the thing: 

Today could be your 5am. You could be one email away from your book contract. One sentence away from changing someone's eternal destiny. One word away from throwing a line of hope to someone with nothing left to hold onto.

So don't give up just because it looks like you'll never come out of the dark. 

Don't stop because it feels as if He has forgotten you.

Everything He promised, He will do.

He is faithful and perfect in his faithfulness.  

Dianne J. Wilson is a freelance writer and novelist from East London, South Africa. She is mom to three girls and wife to Scott, who, being the only male other than the St Bernard, is horribly outnumbered and has learnt to dodge flying hormones.

Her first 'official' novel, Finding Mia, releases from Pelican / Harbourlight in June 2015.

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