"Imaginations in the Basement"

When my daughter, Jessica, was just six-years-old, she would not go down into our unfinished basement alone.  She would say, “Mom, I don’t want to go downstairs.  My imagination is down there.”   She even had her four-year-old brother, Jonathan, saying, “I don’t want to go down there alone.  Jessica’s imagination is downstairs.”  They made this “imagination” into such a huge scary boogeyman that the two of them missed many fun filled hours that they could have spent playing in the basement.  Their missed opportunities have made me reflect upon my own life. How often have I missed an opportunity because I let my own imagination get the best of me?  

Martin Luther King, Jr. has said, "To take the first step in faith, you don't have to see the whole staircase: just take the first step." 

For dozens of years I've been writing, but always I've been afraid to put myself out there, to risk rejection and judgment.  Honestly, I've completed three novels and only sent out two query letters.  One for each of the first two novels.  I sent them both to the same top literary agency in New York and each rejection letter that came back was enough to send me cowering; even though both letters were complimentary and full of praise.  I admit it, I'm not incredibly courageous, at least not in opening myself up to the world, and yet here I am expressing myself on the World Wide Web. 

One of my favorite books is The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson.  He writes a lot about how our dreams always live outside our comfort zone.  He tells us, "Courage is not the absence of fear; rather it's choosing to act in spite of fear."

The Lord tells us, "Fear not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am the God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee..."  I believe this to be true.  God cares about even the simple things that matter to us, especially those things we are trying to overcome.

We all have “imaginations in the basement” that we need to be rid of in order to follow our dreams.  I have discovered many times that fear can dissipate when we face it squarely and put our hand in the hand of God.  We just need to take that first step down the stairs, so to speak. And so I'm choosing today to live outside my "imaginations in the basement" and act in spite of fear.  In the next few days I will be posting some excerpts from each of my novels.  I hope you will enjoy them.  Please let me know what you think!