Letting Go of the Baby

Kathryn M. Weiland shared a quote that resonates with me at this stage of my writing journey.

‎When a book leaves your hands, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God’s business.
-Flannery O'Connor

Like every precious baby, Zinovy's Journey belonged to God from the beginning. But it’s hard not to hover over the cradle, watching to make sure the baby’s still breathing. About 175 ZJ books are now out there in the public somewhere. Many are with people I’ve been praying for off and on for years. It’s mind boggling, even when I sit down to pray for them. But I know I need to keep a forward-thinking attitude. I need to keep pressing on into where the Lord leads from here, without looking back or around to see what’s happening. It’s totally in His hands, His business.

So I need to quit fretting about distribution and marketing.

I haven’t been obsessive about it, but I have been trying a little too hard, conniving a little too much, to place the book into the market. All that effort has added up to a number of little contacts, often with people I don’t even know. I have no idea (nor control over) what will come of these small contacts. I don't know which tweet or post will take off or connect with a broader audience. But I do know that God can take the tiniest candle and light up the whole world. He can take a helpless, vulnerable, shivering little baby, born in a stable on a chilly night, and bring eternal salvation to a broken world.

So I'm making a decision. A commitment. Please hold me to it. I will leave the book that has left my hand, in God’s hands. I will keep doing the little things, under His wise direction, and just expect that He will use it to save, or to try, the souls He has intended all along to reach.

His network is huge. He has access to every social media source. He will bring this book to its target market audience, and He just might do it through some little contact that seems insignificant to me at the time.