He-Said-She-Said | Selah

God is my literary agent. He’s my career coach and publishing counselor. I’ve tried the proven methods—one sheets, proposals, elevator pitches—and failed to land book contracts. I’ve flattered editors at conferences and passed out business cards, mailed agents hand-written thank you notes, and carried their luggage to the buses. None of it worked. Here’s what did work. Excellent writing, helping others, and prayer. Lots and lots of prayer.

Ruth knew a little about prayer and helping others. In verse eleven Boaz commends her, saying, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before.”

Writers are people I do not know; book publishing a foreign and hostile country. And yet, in 2005 I left a successful carrier and planted myself in this land of giants: a vast wilderness inhabited by award-winning writers, best-selling authors, and editors whose pens bleed red. Last week, for the seventh time, I attended the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers’ Conference: this time as faculty. Near the close of the ceremony they presented the “Selah” award. The Hebrew word “Selah” (found in the Book of Psalms) means, “stop and listen; pause, and think on that.” The award honors those who: “Pause from the busyness of life. Pause, even, from their writing…and reflect upon the giver of their gift, the One who led them to this call and moves others with their words.”

Click to read the rest of this devotion.