Encouraging The Competition

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

“Are you here for the fiction brainstorming session? Here, come sit next to me.”

She’d caught me lingering in the doorway, quietly reconsidering whether to join this breakout session as I recognized the faces of several women well known in Christian fiction circles. But when a famous author tells you to sit next to her, you do it. And so I did.

If you have ever wondered whether fiction authors are as amazing as you think they might be, I’m here to tell you that they are—at least this particular group of them. The group brainstormed about plot holes and about characters that needed to be developed, and I got to listen in as the behind-the-scenes magic unfolded. It was marvelous . . . until it was my turn.

“So Julie, what would you like to discuss?” As eyes turned to me, I stammered my way through the secret idea for a cozy mystery I’d been carrying around for years. “And so I’m trying to think of a way to murder a few people.” I finished a bit lamely, wondering why I was asking for help with killing off characters instead of a million other questions I could ask about my novel.

The ensuing conversation in that beautiful Victorian drawing room at our retreat center was delightfully hilarious as my deadly question was pondered with creative seriousness. Everyone chimed in with clever ways for my villain to (temporarily) get away with murder.

Whether or not that villain ever has the opportunity to commit a crime on the written page, I often think of these women and their warm invitation and thank God for them. They fanned the flames of my tentative dream, even though I was a potential future competitor.

I want to be the woman who sees the new girl hovering in the doorway and invites her in. I want to be someone who sincerely encourages another’s gift, knowing there is zero scarcity in the Kingdom of God and that she is no threat to me. God’s math is not our math, and our generosity returns to us pressed down and overflowing into our lap.

Julie

Today’s Act of Gratitude

Thank God for someone who has encouraged your tentative dreams. Trust him as you, in turn, are generous with potential competitors.