A Whale, A Worm, and A Writer

What do a whale, a worm, and a writer have in common? Remember the story of Jonah in the Bible? When Jonah took off running for the hills after God called him, the Bible says God provided a whale to swallow him. Actually, it says “a great fish,” but that messes up my alliteration, so we are going with a whale for the time being.

Coming off conference season, it often feels like we writers have been swallowed by a whale of information. Yes, we know God provided it, but we still have trouble wading through it.

We plod along, trying to bring to the forefront what applies most to us and set our writing priorities based on our new wealth of knowledge. After, we pray our distress prayer from the belly of information. We come out, maybe with a few sprigs of seaweed in our hair, but we are out and ready to continue our writing journey.

The worm is from the story of Jonah, too. When Jonah got out of the whale of a situation, he was “all in” and did what God told him to do in the first place; he still had attitude problems. Imagine that—someone who doesn’t learn the lesson the first time.

God allowed the tree to grow for shade and then sent the worm to destroy it after Jonah pitched his temper fit because God was being God.

As writers, we may feel like an insignificant worm, but if we are appointed by God, we have a big job to do, a God-designed job.

Remember, the whale’s job was to swallow Jonah, and the worm’s job was to gnaw away little by little at the tree. So, the next time you feel like a worm instead of a whale in the world of writing, just start gnawing away at your appointed place. That tree will fall before you know it, and you will be doing what God designed you to do.

Sue Davis Potts is a freelance writer from Huntingdon, Tennessee. She is mother to her beautiful college-age daughter, Jessa.

Sue enjoys writing for both children and adults. She worked for years as a preschool teacher but feels most at home these days with other writers who speak her language. She has been published in local magazines, anthologies, Ideals, Southern Writer’s Magazine and Focus on the Family’s children’s magazines Clubhouse and Clubhouse, Jr.

She authored a children’s library book and her book of short motivations 101 Life Lessons From Uno (The One-Legged Duck) is available on Amazon. Her blog, Potts Pages, can be found on her website, www.suedavispotts.com.