I'm Typing My Next Manuscript on an Etch-a-Sketch

I was working on a book in a wild fury. My fingers had been flying across the keyboard for the better part of an afternoon. I was in "the zone." The zone is a very happy place for a writer to be, especially when a deadline is inching nearer. Okay, to be perfectly honest, the deadline was barreling down on me like a locomotive.

Procrastination, however, just seems to be my way. I think it's because I work so much better with a good, panic-driven rush of adrenaline. I'm pretty sure that I do my best writing when I'm just this side of hyperventilation.

As the deadline loomed near and I was rounding the corner of Chapter 21, my computer did something very evil. Without so much as an "excuse me," the blasted machine swallowed my entire afternoon's work! All that adrenaline down the drain! I felt like I'd been run over by The Little Engine That Couldn't. I seriously considered typing my next manuscript on an Etch-a-Sketch.

There was no way to replace what I'd written. It seems to be a one-way trip for any creative thought that might crop up in my little brain. The words ooze out of the brain cells, down the arms and through the fingers, then spill out onto the monitor. Then they seem to leave that one-way track, never to travel it again. Just trying to remember little tidbits of the book parts I'd lost, I was working myself into a good cry and a whole new level of hyperventilation.

Those times of tears and hyperventilation have a distinctive way of snapping me around to the most basic reality: God is in control. He wasn't freaking out about those couple of chapters that I had lost. He didn't put a hand on each of His cheeks with an "Oh no! I had no idea that would happen! How in the world can I make this work now?"

He is in control, and He's the one I should run to first. I should run to Him when I'm in the midst of a train wreck, and I should run to Him when life is clicking along on the smoothest tracks. I should come to Him even while I'm in "the zone."

Psalm 146:14 reminds us, "God's in chargealways." (The Message) He's bigger than the biggest computer snafu, greater than the greatest victory, more sure than anything or anyone we'll ever trust. He is the only real super hero. Hey, He's more powerful than a locomotive!

He was powerful enough to redeem the chapters I lost. I think I even liked the new ones better. Trusting in His power is so much better than breathing into a brown paper bag. And I don't know about you, but I seem to get a lot more accomplished when I'm typing with fingernails that aren't blue.

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Rhonda Rhea writes for dozens of Christian publications and speaks at conferences and events across the country. You can find her newest books, Soup for the Soul--Tastes Just Like Chicken, and Amusing Grace, at your local Christian bookstore. Who Put the Cat in the Fridge--Serving Up Hope and Hilarity Family Style will be available in March. Rhonda's husband, Richie Rhea, is a pastor in Troy, Missouri. You can reach them through her Web site.