Are You Ready for What God Wants to Do?

Sometimes God requires us to step out of our comfort zones. This is not an easy thing to do when we become so comfortable with certain aspects of our lives.

As I've shared in previous posts, after 30 years in music ministry God decided that it was time for a change. I don't like change. I would suspect not many of us do. I like my routines. They are as I've said - comfortable. I know my limits and where I excel. But God decided quite unceremoniously to take me out of my comfort zone and plop me into a new one. 

I was like a fish out of water, flopping around for air until someone rescued me. The great thing about God is that when He does make changes in your life, He's there to show you what to do and how to do it - if you listen to Him.

Unfortunately, when I get an idea in my head that I think "sounds good", is directly from God, or is the easiest way, sometimes I run with it - believing with all my heart that "God wants it this way." So, when I realized that God wanted me to publish Come to Me, I looked at my options and thought self-publishing was the way to go. I thought this because it seemed to be the least painful, easiest way to get my book out there. I also convinced myself that God wanted me to get about 30 copies printed for friends and family only. So that's what I did and everything seemed to fall neatly into place once I started down that path. I saw each and every success as confirmation from God that I was doing the right thing. 

For example - I "happened" to run across an incredible photographer on the internet who just "happened" to be a Christian. When I told him what I was looking for as a cover for my book, he sent me these gorgeous photos (with my vision perfectly captured) - for free! My daughter then designed the cover, front and back. This is what the first edition of Come to Me looked like. 

If you can't tell, there is a crown of thorns on the top of the manger. I thought the cover was beautiful and I gave most of my copies away as Christmas gifts to my family and friends, the others I sold. The self-publishing company I went with had put my book up on Amazon, so if anyone else was interested in it, I reasoned, they could buy it there. I then washed my hands of the whole thing, patted myself on the back and said, "There you go God, I did what you wanted. Book published."

That didn't go over too well.

God had other plans - harder plans, which I unsuspectingly set in motion. You see, when I realized I could no longer sing I contacted Moira Brown of 100 Huntley St.. I did this because I had sung on the show a few times and I thought they might be interested in knowing what had happened to me. They were. 

I received a call from the producer, who interviewed me over the phone and then invited me to come on the show. I explained that my book was self-published (thinking that would put them off). It didn't. Within a couple of weeks I was on TV being interviewed by Moira Brown and I realized half-way through the interview as they kept showing the cover of my book, that I was going to need to get some more books printed. I thought maybe 30 more should be enough.

It wasn't.

After that show I realized God had bigger plans for me than I did. Emails started coming from various people, asking where they could buy my book. I even had a phonecall from a young lady in New York, who wanted to contact me so badly she phoned 100 Huntley St., who contacted me to get permission to give her my phone number. After that conversation I realized I had made a huge mistake. I needed to get my book properly published. It needed reviews, it needed promotion - it needed to be in bookstores! So I began the painstaking process of finding a publisher and all that entails.

Until next time!

Visit me at www.laurajdavis.com