53. Signing Off and Heading in a New Direction

It was two months ago today that I last posted an article. Here is what’s been happening:

It was in early January that God began to try to get my attention about some of the priorities in my life. I found Him putting His finger on my health writing, indicating that it was getting in the way of other things that were more important. Not that the health writing hasn’t been important, but that the season was changing, so to speak, and it was time for a shift.

At first, not willing to completely quit this research and writing that I have so enjoyed, I rationalized that I needn’t stop writing for the newspaper; I just needed to make it last on my priority list instead of first. Fact is, I have been working on another new project since last summer, and in January I could see that, imminently, I had to dedicate a lot more time to it. (More about that in a minute.) But I wasn’t willing to give anything else up; I thought that I could just work harder and faster and smarter. The point is, sometimes when God is trying to change something, we try to cut a deal with Him and tell Him how we can work it all out. Then He just keeps quiet and waits till we’re ready to listen.

For the next few weeks, I tried to keep Here’s to Your Health on the back burner and only sit down to read and write when I’d accomplished other things in other areas. It didn’t work very well: I typically have kept three or four potential articles simmering continually, always reading and digging a little more throughout the week until I sat down to write each Monday morning. I had trouble not thinking about it. So in early February I emailed the editor at the paper and said I’d like to pull back a bit and just send in an article once a month. He thought it over for a couple of weeks and then wrote back and said he’d decided to just discontinue the column.

I was so surprised—and disappointed. I wanted to renegotiate and get the column back. But I knew in my heart it was time to let it go, at least for now. It’s still difficult: there are a half a dozen topics I could rattle off in a moment that I would dearly desire to lay out and pass on to my readers. But God knows best, and I really am trying to listen, even though it took a while to be willing.

The new project I mentioned above is a musical. I wrote the stage play last summer; in February I began the arduous and painstaking and intensely pleasurable process of transcribing 27 songs into musical score. I’m pretty much done the first ten, at least the first phase of the first ten. But since I last came home from Vernon, over three weeks ago, I haven’t had time to touch it. Been so busy, I’m really glad not to have Here’s to Your Health on my plate anymore.

Here is something that you, my readers, could do for me: Please let me know of any large churches or Bible schools or the like that have a ministry in the area of musical theatre. (This is the kind of venue where the musical belongs.) I have been sending out the stage play to interested parties for them to read and consider. Bear in mind that this musical could be produced anywhere in the world that English is spoken: distance is no barrier.

Thank you, in advance, for sending me any helpful leads. Below is my last article—at least for the foreseeable future. I will miss writing for you all.

You can email me at nancy@ogdenfish.com.