My new magazine launches to a hundred subscribers tomorrow, and there is a mistake in it.
Yes, a mistake: Every lowercase, italicized letter "d" printed as a tiny, black diamond. Who knows why this happened? I edited the entire magazine in two different programs, and there was no flaw. You can go back and look at those files right now, and you would find that a d is a d. But when the files went into the final format, we got ... diamonds. I could have seen it in the final proof, but I didn't.
Can you imagine how it feels to have twelve years of experience as an English teacher and a masters in English education ... and be standing in a warehouse, looking at an error in 500 copies of your work? It isn't easy. I felt like a fraud, and the world was about to know.
But there is a verse in the Bible that really speaks to me in this situation.
"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin." Zechariah 4:10
When I thought of this verse, it stopped my negative thinking. Who ever said I was supposed to be an expert on my very first magazine publication? No one. This magazine came about because I had an idea that would bless and encourage people, and was brave enough to try it. By myself. Before I had a professional editing team, before I had professional designers, before I had anything but a keyboard and a dream.
This first issue of Keep Going Journal is the small beginning. And if the Lord rejoices over it, then so do I.
What about you? How is your beginning going? Please don't give up just because it feels too little. Even the biggest trees start with a very small seed. God delights to watch growth. We can make a choice to join Him.
But growth takes time. And that brings to mind another verse.
"God has made everything beautiful in its time." Ecclesiastes 3:11
In other words, there is beauty in our beginnings, but we have to be willing to wait a while. May the Lord strengthen our hearts for every minute of it.
