Ramblings from ACFW

So I was out of town this last week. I would have written this sooner, but I was recovering from major jet lag (I was on central time instead of eastern for four days! Yeah!), and a baby in the middle of a sleep regression (Ah, the days when I didn't know the horror of those words. The days when I slept...). Anyways. I was at ACFW. The American Christian Fiction Writer's Conference.

A. Maz. Ing.




I love this conference so much. I wouldn't be published without this conference. I wouldn't have met such wonderful friends without this conference. I wouldn't be pushed a little bit more out of my shell each year without this conference.

As an introvert, I could maybe do without that last part.

I had goals for this conference. I WASN'T going to chase appointments this year. I wanted to focus on making new friendships, connections, and actually sitting through a class from start to finish.

But I had another goal, as well.

I wanted God to show up. I wanted to be refreshed. Transformed. Revived.

And if you ask for God to show up, you had better mean it. Because He did. And I ended up ugly crying all over two dear friends. Seriously. I resembled a sniveling two-year-old.

And I forgot to put stinking tissues in my purse.

But God showed up. He came for me. And that was just the start.

Maybe you're feeling sort of how I was feeling. In a ditch and everything is a fight. Difficult. Like all of the joy has been sucked out of you like you're one of those vacuum sealed storage bags.

God's waiting for you.

Get out. Get away. Go somewhere different (I'm a fan of the lake or the river.). Bring your Bible. Cry and don't give a flying fig about what the random strangers passing by you are thinking.

Or don't do any of that.

Just ask God to show up. And He will.

Hugs, friends.

 

V. Joy Palmer