Irons in the Fire

Have you ever felt like nothing was going on? That you go through your normal routines and nothing seems to change? Then suddenly out of the blue everything seems to happen all at once and you have trouble keeping up. It feels like you have too many irons in the fire.

This happened to me recently. I’ve been blogging now for a majority of my Christian life. Although I started off with dollar signs in my eyes from the yet-to-be-written bestselling book, my focus has changed considerably. For some time now, I have been more interested in teaching than writing. Not that they are exclusive necessarily, but it’s rather the focus of what and why I write.

So to grow in this area I have been debating ministry programs- either degrees or certifications. I’ve wondered about changing my career, possibly to go into Christian counseling (although I admit, I am incredibly blessed by my job which I enjoy very much and have found success in). After about a year of prayer and internal debate, I enrolled in the online program at the Athens Institute of Ministry. No, I won’t be able to put MDiv or DMin next to my name, but I will get certification and quality instruction to grow deeper in my Bible study that hopefully I can pass on to others. I’m almost done with my first class, Old Testament Interpretation and I’ve been loving it so far.

Another prayer, related to my writing and this blog, is to change my book-writing focus from “Christian Living nonfiction” to specific small group study. Although I had a plan to pursue this intentionally, to actually have a completed project by the end of the year, God had other plans for me. I was recently approached (actually not that recently, but time flies) by my church to develop small group curriculum for our entire congregation. So God answered my prayer, just not in the way I thought. (And if you see the frequency of my posts drop, this will be the main reason why)

To add to all of that, in my time blogging I’ve picked up a thing or two about online ministry and social media. We’ve recently started a technology ministry at our church and I sat in on one of the meetings. Naturally, that volunteered myself to help in multiple areas, the latest of which is maintaining my church’s Twitter account and test-running our new Church Management Software.

So it’s funny. All this happened within a month of each other. Meanwhile at my job, other prayers have been answered. Projects I’ve been working on for a long time are picking up steam and I’m increasing in my responsibilities. As if I need more on my plate.

To say I have a lot going on would be an understatement. I have a lot of irons in the fire.

So all this to say, thank you for reading and following my blog. I pray that you find my content helpful in your walk with Christ. And I thank God that this platform as opened up the opportunities it has, although not in the way I ever could have envisioned.