Nine Years Later - Wegner

Officially Easter is over but this week I can’t help reflecting on the first time I wrote a “resurrection” article. It happened in the spring of 1999 and it marked the beginning of a weekly syndicated column that continues to reach an unknown number of readers. Only a couple of hospital admissions have interrupted my perfect record.

On that nine-year-ago morning my husband and I had taken our customary walk to town. While he waited on the sidewalk outside, I opened the mailbox and discovered a new publication in our mail box. The paper, Estevan Lifestyles, had just been launched and, I noted, it was being distributed in neighbouring communities (that’s what we were). Even better, it was free.

As a newly minted writer, I’d been covering community and farm events for Carlyle Observer. I looked this new paper over and decided to submit an article - after all, if this opportunity would bring as much personal enjoyment and fulfillment as did the Observer assignments, it definitely was worth risking rejection. Drawing on the one writers’ conference I’d attended, I reviewed overlapping readership, one time rights, and simultaneous submission information. Then, I started writing.

It took days to complete that first piece. If memory serves me correctly, it consisted of about 300 words, 15 hours of intense perspiration and nearly a dozen discarded hard copies. My nervousness in submitting the piece was matched only by the jubilation I felt when it was accepted. I’m amazed that nine years later my readership has expanded to include other Saskatchewan weeklies, a few websites, and an ever growing email distribution list. Not in my wildest dreams could I have known that writing would become our primary source of income.

As writers, it’s not always easy to believe that those first, tentatively scribed, writings could lead to a vocation or a ministry. Sadly, it’s even harder many non-writers to value what we know to be our gift from God. One of the greatest motivators I’ve ever received was a remark made to me soon after my first articles were published: “Writers are a dime a dozen and you’ll never make it,” this person said and at that moment something exploded in my soul. “I’ll prove you wrong,” I whispered to myself, “the Lord and I will prove you wrong!”

When Zerubbabel and his co-workers began rebuilding the ancient Judean Temple, God had something to say to those who doubted the ability of His servants: “Who [with reason] despises the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10)

If God doesn’t, we shouldn’t...and that’s enough to make me sing!