Chocolate Ministry

I just returned from another writers conference, this one in my home state of Kentucky, and I was once again inspired in a special way.

Before I explain, I must say that the keynotes by the amazing Twila Belk were just what I needed, and the workshops from the various faculty members provided valuable instruction to help me along my writing journey. I have been going to this conference for years, and it is great to spend time with my “homies.”

That being said, I ended up getting a prophetic word from a chocolate wrapper.

Yes, you read that right. If you know me, you know I am a chocoholic. I love chocolate in all forms, any time of day, which you can probably tell by looking at me. I cannot pass it up.

This weekend, as I walked through the nearly-empty bookstore on my way to a class, I spied a lovely pile of Dove chocolates on Brandilyn Collins’ table. Brandilyn is an award-winning, bestselling author of Seatbelt Suspense books, of which I have only read one because it was free and I am a chicken and it is nice to be able to sleep at night without every light in the house on. It was a great, well-written book, but I spent the next two weeks looking over my shoulder. But I digress . . .

I grabbed a chocolate off the table, unwrapped it and popped it in my mouth. Then I read the wrapper, as Dove chocolates come with the added bonus of nifty little sayings, and almost did a spit-take.

The message: “What are you waiting for?” Cue the brick falling from heaven.

Nearly every keynote and workshop I had heard up until that point emphasized the same message. What am I waiting for? Now is the time to write, to spread God’s message of love and forgiveness to an increasingly dark world. Now is the time to do the work to pursue my writing dreams. Now is the time to eat good quality chocolate as an inspiration. I kept that crumpled wrapper and am going to look at it each time I feel like giving up.

My last post spotlighted Davis Bunn and this one featured Brandilyn Collins, so thanks for reading part two of my “Name-Drop Famous Authors” series. Stay tuned next month for part three: “Carlton Drinks a Dr. Pepper with Max Lucado.”