“If you are willing to go where God leads, He will see you through the journey.” ~PASTOR JESSE DUPLANTIS

Writing is what I love. Sharing is what I love. Creating is what I love. However even in the face of things we love there can at times be a cloud of fog that blinds our direction.

We start off heading one way with excitement and hope, and somewhere down the road, we end up choking on the fog of fear.

For many years I battled with the foggy fear of failure.

I knew that I was capable as a writer and storyteller. I knew I had many great stories to tell, but I had stumbled on the stones that said, “What if you don’t tell the story right?” or “What if you mess up that really expensive piece of cotton rag artist paper you just purchased?”

The fear was paralyzing. It kept me still and inactive in my creativity for far too many years. I wished I had pushed through it sooner, but I am grateful that the Lord did and continues to intervene.

Being able to create a perfectly scaled form with charcoal in only a few minutes is not something you can do after a  several year hiatus. It is certainly not like riding a bike, a skill people say you never forget.

With art, it is all about muscle memory. Sometimes I feel that (even though I can sling a figure out of a paintbrush and oils with no problem) when it comes to figure drawing, my muscles have atrophied. But I am confident it will all work out.

I have to go through the process of relearning and that is okay. If you have or are experiencing this creative fog, I want you to know that it is indeed okay for you as well.

I believe that when the Word of God says ALL things work out for our good (ROMANS 8:28) that that is indeed the truth, even down to the delays that are caused by our unreasonable fears.

HOW I OVERCAME, OVERCOME, & HOW YOU CAN AS WELL

The thing that blessed me to come out of my fog of creative fear, was trusting and obeying the Lord when He called me out of my comfort zone. It was trusting Him and continuing to trust Him even when fear of the unknown tries to hold me back.

Like the Father of our Faith, Abraham, the Lord will often call us out of our comfort zones and away from the traps of familiarity. Familiarity guarantees that there will be no failure. Why? Because we are not required to do something new. But when we step out at the calling of our King Jesus, even if we don’t know exactly what each step will look like, we can be assured that great things are ahead (GENESIS 12:1-7).

When I came home from Europe, six years ago, still basking in the afterglow of creative reawakening, I wanted to share it. I didn’t know where to start. And then I felt the tug and heard a gentle voice say “Start a blog.” There was a cringing moment there because that fog began to grow up and around me again. But its presence was blessed short-lived by the grace of God.

Clearly, I took the plunge. I have evicted the fear and continue to do so daily. Not only did my step into the unknown birth the blog but it has transformed into this creative ministry that blesses others. And this is certainly more than I had planned when I obeyed and began to chronicle my creative faith journey.

Since that moment, I have been creating visual art again. I have been writing more freely, for this ministry site and others. I even published my first sci-fi, time-travel suspense novel called, NEXUS GATE 4037: THE ANIMAL!

When the Lord calls us, even in the midst of the fog, we can be assured that everything will work out as He planned when we take hold of His hand and go forward no matter how hard it is at times.

Our Heavenly Father is seeing us through every faith journey. He never asks us to do anything He has not given us the faith and provision to do. The journey continues and transforms, not just for me, but for all of us who trust His call and ‘go’ even in the midst of the fog.

For more encouragement on this topic, see The Blessing in the Fog by Candice Coates.

~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

 

–Candice Coates is an author, blogger, and contributor to Ambo TV. This article originally appeared on her website www.icameforthesoup.com.