He's God and I'm staff and that comforts me

Last New Year's Eve I said a bold prayer. It just got answered.

On December 31 I reflected on where God had taken me in 2005. Easter '05 marked the end of 10 years of dry ink, 10 years of not even being able to journal, let alone create poetry or stories. (The notable exception being my 125 page thesis on apocalyptic literature. But writing Hebrew transliterations doesn't require the creative powers of the soul; that was primarily a cerebral stretching exercise.)

From whence the creativity and courage sprang at that particular moment I cannot be certain (a miracle of new life perhaps), but the week after Easter I mailed 3 articles to the MB Herald and queried my first profile for Christian Current, a story about FLN. The Herald chose to print one, and I've been in every Christian Current since August '05.

I've always had a longing to belong. It's the reason I lived in the College dorm when my parents' free "B and B" was 15 minutes away, and the reason I joined our church within months of finding it, at a time when church membership is no longer fashionable. As a freelance writer, I have the sense that while editors like my work, they don't quite trust me enough to call me one of their own.

So, last New Year's Eve my prayer was that God would continue to bless my career so that by the time Gemma enters grade one (Fall '08), either the MB Herald, Christian Current, or FLN would ask me to be a permanent staff writer.

10 days later I had an email from FLN.

They liked the stories I had written about them in Christian Current and wondered if I would write press releases for them. On a contract basis, not as staff. "We want to keep you at arm's length for now." A three month contract turned into a year. Working from home turned into sharing an office and eating too many Mennonite honey cookies at coffeebreak.

Today I learned that I will need to shift my schedule a little to accomodate monthly Tuesday morning staff meetings. After all, that's the place permanent part-time staff people belong! (And Gemma's not anywhere close to entering grade one.) When the department director said, "We want to commit to you, invest in you, and think in terms of years, not months, of working together," I was so happy, I actually "tee hee hee hee-d" right in front of my supervisors.

Maybe it wasn't such a bold prayer after all. Maybe God knew where I belonged all along.

And FLN is just a small part of a beautiful plan.