Captain Obvious, Part III

Before I go on to the third thing I learned, I'd like to ask if Part II made sense to you all. I'm not sure I made my point well, or if it was even clear what my point was. I guess my point was twofold: 1. Even if you're not incredibly skilled in an area, if you're strongly inclined in a particular direction, you'd do well to pursue it at least to a small degree, even it's not on a professional level. 2. I've come to believe that, at least in the case of writing, I do possess some skill, and that I'm not chasing a dream that can't -- or even shouldn't -- happen.

I don't know how you tell the difference between pursuing your dream in the face of doubters who are wrong and doubters who are right. I think that's where my next point comes in:

Lesson 3: God is in this. I've always had a notion of honoring God with my work, but it's a bit new to me to think that I honor Him most when I try to pursue work that aligns with the way He made me, and that that will be a source of joy for me. I think it can be tempting in our culture to believe that practical work is the most useful, the most helpful to society, and creative or entertaining work is diverting at best, self-indulgent and corrupting at worst. I have a fair bit to say about that, but my main point here is that God made you how He made you, and He intends to use that, whatever it is. For myself, I've come to believe in the value of entertainment and laughter, both as a spoonful of sugar for conveying serious thoughts, and also as ends in themselves. I see how much I turn to these things myself, and I'm not sorry that other people took the time to create them. I want to do the same for others. There's so much that weighs people down. Comedy may seem like a balloon, a bright, colorful bubble with no substance, but sometimes such balloons keep people from sinking. Not forever, of course, but they help.
I tend to be cynical about fridge-magnet sayings like "Believe in your dreams!" And as a Christian, I used to dismiss "Believe in yourself" as ungodly humanism. But I now see truth and value in both attitudes. I do God no favors by disregarding the dreams He's put in me, the skills He's allowed me to acquire, and the character He's built up in me. I choose to believe in my dreams and in myself because God created both of them.