Preparing the Sacrifice

It’s all In the Packaging

If at first you don’t succeed, don’t give up. Take a bubble bath…Linda Wood Rondeau

I couldn’t understand it. I had mimicked her stance to perfection. Yet, when I swung at the golf ball, it sailed far to the right or far to the left, never the fairway where her drives landed nearly every time.

I contemplated quitting golf until I realized I’d been standing wrong. Kathryn stood five-foot two. I was five-foot eight. Her swing worked best for her short stature but was wrong for a taller person like me. With the help of a golf pro, I adjusted by stance and began to see more successful drives. What was gold for one became lead for me.  

Paul had a message to give the world. “Jesus saves.” Yet, he changed his stance depending on where he was and to whom he delivered the message. For the jailer, he’d forego the opportunity of escape. For the tempest tossed seaman, he endured shipwreck. For the Greeks, he appealed to their belief in an unknown God.  For the Hebrews, he reminded them of their heritage.

He will use whatever method he can to reach us with his Truth. Sometimes he whispers gently in our ear. Sometimes he takes the hardline approach, slapping our rigid behinds with a proverbial two by four. He will be all things to us.

Photo by Maja Il on Unsplash

As writers, we have a message to drive home. Some of us write romance. Some of us write humor, while others use imagination as a platform to dispel myths and bring home truth. Whatever genre we choose, the next step to sending our message is in marketing. As in all other areas of our lives, the technique we use depends on the person we want to reach. Some authors are speakers, some send out postcards, some advertise online, and some spread the word through the voices of others. In most cases, the writer will choose a variety of marketing avenues to get the message of his/her product to as many people as possible.

These varied avenues will be different for all of us as God teaches us His way, His method to present our finished products to His glory, and for His purpose. This will not look like everyone else’s, especially not as the world views. God is not a cookie-cutter God as He deals with us. Neither will our approach to publishing be cookie-cutter. His way is always the best.

To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings (1 Corinthians 9:21-23 NIV).

THE PRINT VERSION OF LESSONS ALONG THE WAY IS STILL ON SALE UNTIL DEC 29.

ALSO AVAILABLE IN EBOOK