Do You Believe in Yourself?

Do You Believe in Yourself?

As an aspiring writer, I read articles on how to build a platform and get my name in the public's eye where being known is important.

I wonder how John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, written in a prison cell, circulated through all time to all people without a platform?

Do I believe in what I write? Absolutely, or I would press the DELETE button before I waste your time with the PUBLISH button. But does believing in oneself constitute selling oneself to the public? According to the publishers and agents that is what must be done. I am learning not only that I must produce an image but also a following of that image.

I am an old-fashioned believer in the image of the Creator God Who has bestowed on me His image which gives me the worth of who I am. I do not have to DO anything to merit it, in fact, I am unable to do enough to deserve it. The gift is mine. The gift is all the more precious because it is unmerited, undeserved, unearned. The worth comes because of Whose I am, not what I do.

This gives settlement, a niche, a place of contentment that the world can not touch, regardless of whether my manuscript is accepted, my words are published, my books become known. I am His and He is mine.

But alas, the platform, that I must create to tell the reading world of that Creator God Who also wants them to know of His Image and the security He offers for their contentment, demands that I project myself out of my writing hole, to reach out to those who need to know. Do I believe in myself? It depends on the day. But am I worth believing in? The Creator God thinks so, and who am I to second-guess Him?