Creative work has its pressures.

My wife can take one look at my face and tell if I’m working on a hymn. She says I look constipated. Such writing requires tremendous amounts of concentration and sustained focus. You have to hold in mind every aspect of the overall character and flow, all the while carefully choosing every word.

Your experience with your creative work is probably like mine. No matter how many times you’ve done it, with each new project, each new day, each new problem, you wrestle with the question, “Can I really do this again?”

I find tremendous inspiration from the example of Jesus. His responsibilities dwarf mine, yet He didn’t take them on Himself. He depended completely on His Father. He only said what His Father gave Him to say and did what His Father showed Him to do. The only thing on His “to do” list was to trust and obey.

That is my only responsibility as well: to trust and obey. I only need to keep listening and stay available.

• When I awake in the morning, before I get out of bed, I simply make myself available to Him.

• When I start a new writing task, I simply make myself available to Him.

• When I get stuck and the words stubbornly resist my best efforts to shape them, I set the task aside, do something else for awhile, and simply make myself available to Him. He always calls me back in His time.

Throughout my day, I have to resist the temptation to reserve all my energies and attention for my specialized work, my “calling”. My true calling is to stay available to Him, always, in every situation. Some of my most satisfying and fruitful work has come in response to God’s interruptions.

You can trust your time and responsibilities to Him. He knows what needs to be done. Just stay available.