100 or 1000 or 0

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You may be surprised to know that at nearly 40 years old, I’m still figuring out my life. If you’re older than I am, you might chuckle and think, aren’t we all? And if you’re younger you might think there’s something wrong with me. Well, you and me both, friend!

As I’ve been exploring and discovering what God created me for, I decided to start carving out scheduled time for writing.

I have this goal to write a book one day. 

I already have a rough idea for what it’ll be about: God, and the Bible, and God’s faithfulness, and his character, and how it all unfolds in the grand narrative of the Bible. You know—all my favourite things. Are you surprised?I thought about writing a novel but Jane Austen and J.K. Rowling have already covered all there is to say about romance and wizards. So I’ll stick to my lane and write about Jesus things.

Well I’ve had this goal for a long time, and sometimes it feels like the years are slipping by with nothing to show for it.

If you know me, you know how greatly I admire the late pastor and theologian, Tim Keller. I was encouraged to discover that he was nearly 50 years old when he published his first book. He had spent most of his earlier years pastoring faithfully and quietly. Pouring into the people who made his church their home. Whether it was in a small town in Virginia where he started out, or in his church plant in Manhattan where he lived out the rest of his days.

That first book of his didn’t do much. I don’t even remember its title and I doubt many others do either. Well it’s a good thing his mild success didn’t deter him because his second book, The Reason for God, became a New York Times bestseller and remains wildly popular in Christian circles to this day. He waited 11 years after writing his first book to write that one—at nearly 60.

I share this partly for you, but mostly for me. It helps to ease the restlessness I feel when I consider my whopping zero books at age 39.

So, I scheduled the writing. I decided to start small: 100 words per day. Easy.

If you ask my students, they would probably find that to be impossibly ambitious. But would you believe we are already over 400 words into this little literary masterpiece?

That was the point. Bite-sized, small steps. Achievable. Foolproof. A-baby-could-do-it kind of goals.

Well a few days after setting that goal, I still had nothing to show for it. I wrote nothing. Not a dang word.

It’s okay, I told myself. I just need to settle into a rhythm.

I’m a creature of habit. I find success in something once I build it into my routine. It’s how I reach my reading goal every year. It’s like the spiritual rhythms or practices I’ve built into my daily routine to help keep me tethered to Jesus and abiding in him. So creating these writing habits will be just like that. I can do it! Or so I told myself.

But just as I was battling my own inconsistency with writing, I discovered that an influencer that I deeply respect in the faith space writes 1,000 words a day.

She had a whole post about it—it was about daily writing, habit-building, setting goals. And she made it sound easy. As if it was no big deal and anyone could do it. Suddenly, my 100-word goal felt “above and beyond” ridiculous! And my, so far, zero words brought heaps of shame.

I can’t even write 100 words a day! How do I expect to get published when people in the industry are writing at least 1,000?

I couldn’t even do the bare minimum. And turns out that bare minimum wasn’t good enough anyway.

Honestly, I really don’t like the phrase “above and beyond”. It implies that doing your best just doesn’t cut it unless you exceed expectations.

Just look at the awards we hand out at high school graduations, sports banquets, and corporate galas: “Best at This”, “Best at That”, “Most Likely to Succeed”.

Unless you go above and beyond, you’ll go unnoticed. You’re nobody. And whatever you’ve accomplished isn’t actually an accomplishment. It’s just a thing you did like brushing your teeth and filling your gas tank.

But what if we applaud something different?

What if we celebrated people for being a peaceful presence? For exercising wisdom in tricky situations? For kindness? Or for being a good listener? For displaying the Fruit of the Spirit? For being consistent and reliable and faithful! 

Can you imagine?

1 Thessalonians 4:11 says, “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands.” (NLT)

The NIV says, to make it your ambition.

What a delightful juxtaposition. We associate ambition with big goals, achievements accolades, and noteworthy accomplishments. Drive. Hustle. Significance.

A quiet life doesn’t sound like a goal. In fact if I’m being honest, it sounds like the absence of one. It sounds like what happens when you forget to live a little. Or possibly like what happens after you’ve already hustled, shown them what you could do, and then drive off into the sunset with nothing left to prove. 

But maybe a quiet life has nothing to do with what fills your days and everything to do with the posture of your heart.

Maybe quietness is a settled assurance that God isn’t behind schedule. That he doesn’t have your life on a back burner or in the backseat of those whose lives are really going places—like above and beyond.

Maybe it’s the peace of knowing your worth isn’t measured by word count or scoreboard wins.

Maybe it’s what allows you to keep writing, even when your goal isn’t flashy.

And there’s something about the phrasing in that verse, that when it encourages us to make it our goal or ambition to live a quiet life, it seems to recognize that we just don’t do it automatically.

We are bent towards the hustle. We lean towards hard work. We are wired with the need to prove ourselves and earn our stripes. Meanwhile God’s like, Mind your business and do the next right thing! (That’s just my paraphrase of the 1 Thessalonians verse)

Sometimes when I begin to feel overwhelmed, I just ask God, what’s the next right thing? And then I do that. When the verse says to work with your hands. That’s really all it’s saying. Do the work in front of you and mind your business. Make it your ambition to NOT hustle, to NOT overwork, to NOT strive. It requires conscious effort to step back, and breathe, and live a quiet life minding your own business and doing the next right thing.

Jesus actually modelled that quiet life for us. All through the Gospels, it says that Jesus would withdraw on his own to secluded or solitary places to pray. He loved people, he was always with people, people loved him, and wanted to be with him. But he valued and prioritized the quiet and the stillness. He wasn’t flashy or fame-hungry. He did the next right thing and he took time to refuel in the presence of the Father every chance he got. 

It’s countercultural, but friend, so is the Gospel! Culture and religion alike say, to get “this”—whatever this is for you (recognition, praise, security, acceptance)—you have to do this long list of things. But Jesus’ Gospel message is this, I’ve accomplished everything. I’m the one who went above and beyond and I give it all to you. Surrender to me and live out a flourishing life with grace that’s already yours through me. I have nothing to prove. And you don’t either. 

As it turns out, 100 or 1,000 words is attainable. In fact, I wrote all this in a sitting and you just read the 1,357th word.

All it took was finding God’s peace which passes all understanding and guards my heart and mind in Jesus before I could.

And you can, too.

So, what’s your 100-word goal? Or your 1,000-word dream?

Maybe it’s got nothing to do with writing. Maybe it’s walking 10 minutes a day, or drinking enough water. Maybe it’s texting one friend per week just to check in and say, “I’m thinking of you.” Maybe it’s setting a timer and praying for five minutes. Maybe it’s reading one verse a day. Maybe it’s opening your Bible again after a long time away.

Don’t let what someone else is doing keep you from starting small. Faithfulness rarely looks flashy. But it always builds into something eternal and flourishes into something more meaningful.

Whatever it is, start today. One quiet, deliberate step. One small choice to live with intention and trust.

Zechariah 4:10 says that God doesn’t despise small beginnings. He delights in them! And He’s working in your story, even in the unseen places, even when progress isn’t glitzy or note-worthy. Even if you don’t have the capacity to go above and beyond and can barely manage 100 words. So keep showing up.

Because the fruit of a quiet, faithful life is never quiet to God. It’s flourishing.

What’s in the Ears

This is the part of the blog where I share a song or podcast I’m currently into. This song is the low-key cover of Praise by Chandler Moore and Brandon Lake. It’s sung by Genavieve  Linkowski and it’s a vibe. Her whole album is lovely. Let me know if you check it out!

If this stirred something in you, share this post with a friend, or drop a comment below. I’d love to hear what small step you’re taking today! And don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.