An Author's Purpose by Heidi Gray McGill

An Author’s Purpose

by Heidi Gray McGill

“Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.’ So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth”

(Ezekiel 3:3, NIV).

A writer friend once asked me to define my purpose as an author. I gave her an answer that sounded right, something about honoring God and reaching readers. It wasn’t wrong. It also wasn’t completely honest. Later that night, I sat at my desk with an outline, a deadline, and no clear reason why any of it mattered.

I did what I always do when I run out of answers. I opened my Bible looking for comfort, maybe a familiar verse about calling. Instead, I found a man being told to eat a scroll.

God didn’t ease Ezekiel into his calling. He handed the prophet a scroll filled with words of lament and woe. Ezekiel had to eat the whole thing before a single word reached the people of Israel. Consume first. Speak second. That order stopped me.

The scroll should have tasted bitter. Instead, Ezekiel said it was sweet as honey, not because the message was easy, but because it came from God. The sweetness lived in the source, not the content.

I keep confusing my worth as a writer with my reach. I want proof that the hours spent on characters, structure, and revision amounted to something. Ezekiel never got that proof either. God told him that the people might not listen and sent him anyway. His purpose never depended on the outcome. It rested on obedience to the God who handed him the scroll.

Some writing days the old question surfaces again. On those days, I have stopped trying to push through or produce more. I go back to the scroll. I open the word and sit in it before I ask anything to flow out of me.

I am not the only writer who forgets this. Maybe you have been sitting at your own desk with the same unanswered question. If so, here is what I keep relearning. Fill your heart and mind with God’s word. Then write.

Lord, thank you for meeting me at my desk when I run out of reasons. Teach me to consume your word before I try to speak it. Fill me until what I write comes from a full place, not an empty one. Amen.

Heidi Gray McGill is a Selah Award finalist and five-time NEST Award-winning author of Christian historical and contemporary fiction. Her Discerning God’s Best series has earned over 3,500 five-star reviews on Amazon. She began writing in March 2020, after retirement, and writes despite progressive vision loss. Connect with Heidi and receive a free prequel at HeidiGrayMcGill.com.