Ghosts of Rejections Past: Guest Post by Patricia Beal

**Please welcome back Patricia Beal to the Alley. I had the pleasure of meeting her in person at this year's conference! She is an amazing person and shares some powerful encouragement with us today!-- Angie**

It’s been a month since the ACFW 2015 conference. I spent the first week post conference editing, and by the end of September my agent and I had submitted all we were asked to submit.

Now we wait.

And wait.

I’m horrible at waiting. I can manage to stay positive for about two weeks, but after that the ghosts or rejections past tend to take over, and I start expecting the worst. I take my eyes off Jesus, look at the waves, and sink fast.

Victim of Grace by Robin Jones Gunn

In her book Victim of Grace, author Robin Jones Gunn writes about her journey to publication and her life as an author. She says that the consistent rejection from publishers was demoralizing—an exercise in defeat. She almost quit. Psalm 102:18 kept her going: “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.” She was pregnant with her second child when that verse spoke to her heart.  

Here’s the bottom line: Rejection is painful, but God will get you through it if you’ll let Him.

Put your writing out there.

Submit even if rejection hurts.

In the movie “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” famous photographer and womanizer Connor Mead is a Scrooge-like character in dire need of transformation. After ruining his little brother’s wedding weekend, he tries to keep the bride-to-be from running away: “It doesn't mean that you're never going to get hurt, but the pain you feel will never compare to the regret that comes from walking away from love. And from someone who's felt a lot of both, trust me, pain beats regret every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Don't run away. Don't do it.”

Don’t walk away from love. Don’t walk away from writing. Don’t walk away from trusting God’s calling. Pain beats regret. Submit.

And I’ll suggest something even better…

Have a healthier relationship with the pain of rejection.

Remember the story of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32?

What does God do before blessing Jacob (self-reliant, self-seeking) and naming him Israel (prince, powerful with God)? God touches the hollow of Jacob’s thigh. The hollow of Jacob’s thigh was now out of joint. Jacob would be forever weakened by that injury. God saps strength out of Jacob. He breaks Jacob of Jacob.

God grew him by making him weak. He grew Peter by making him weak (let the devil sift him as wheat). He grew Paul by making him weak (didn’t remove the thorn in the flesh).

What does God tell Paul about the thorn in the flesh? “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” How does Paul respond? “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Our trials are making us weak and loosening us from the shackles of self-reliance that are holding us back.

We don’t have to despair. Cast yourself at His feet and acknowledge that you can’t do this on your own. He already knows. He wants you to know.

Let’s look at rejections in the proper light.

In light of Jacob’s story (and Peter’s and Paul’s), we can conclude that being weakened is good, so the next time we receive an email from an agent or editor, no matter what it says, it's good news. Either our dream is about to come true, or God is about to make us weaker, thereby freeing us from self-reliance more and taking us closer to a yes through His power.

One is more Facebookable than the other (sigh), but it’s all good news.

Here’s what I’m going to do. Before opening the next agent or editor email, I’ll walk away from the computer and get my mind wrapped around God’s truths and methods first. Then I’ll open the email.

Do you want to do the same thing? If yes, commit to it right now.

If you would like to worship with Sara Evans and “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW3yMJhhkTI

Do you have a different healthy way of dealing with rejection? What is it? Did you quit at some point? Are you there now? Let us encourage you today.

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Patricia Beal is a Christian author, Army wife, and ballerina. She writes contemporary fiction and is represented by Leslie Stobbe of the Leslie H. Stobbe Literary Agency. She’s a 2015 Genesis semi-finalist. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 1998 with a B.A. in English Literature and then worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army for seven years. She and her husband live in El Paso, Texas, with their two children.

Patricia is very active online and would love to connect with readers.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/patricia.beal.author

Twitter - https://twitter.com/bealpat

Web - www.patriciabeal.com

I'll Be Your Mississippi: Guest Post, Patricia Beal

Hi All! This is Angie. I am pleased to introduce my new writer friend, Patricia Beal. We found each other on Twitter...my newest social media! Wahoo for trying new things, and finding new authors! Enjoy Patricia's guest post.

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Hundreds of writers are preparing for the 2015 American Christian Fiction Writers Conference next month. This will be my second ACFW and the highlight of my writing year.

But already things are not going as planned. 

I want to share a story with you that I hope you’ll tuck away and use in case of emergency. I want you to know that it doesn’t matter how badly your plan falls apart, God’s plan will still stand.

Did you guys watch “Annapolis”? It’s an underdog-makes-good movie about a young man from the wrong side of the tracks, Jake Huard, who gets into the U.S. Naval Academy but soon begins to wonder if he can measure up. 

His classmates sense his weakness and before long he’s down to one roommate, a sweet kid from Arkansas who’s addicted to Twinkies and can’t complete the obstacle course. His nickname is Twins.

Twins: You want to know why I stay in this room? 

Jake Huard: Yeah. 

Twins: Cause Jake, you're my Mississippi. 

Jake Huard: I'm your what? 

Twins: People who live in Arkansas, you know what their favorite state is? 

Jake Huard: No. 

Twins: Mississippi. Cause Mississippi's the only thing that keeps Arkansas from being the worst state in the whole country. 

Jake Huard: I'm Mississippi? 

Twins: Well you sure as hell ain't California. Listen, Cole and Whitaker are so busy tryin' to run you out they forgot about me. As a matter of fact, they've forgotten about every other plebe in this whole company. That's why I stay in this room Jake. Cause if Mississippi quits, then all of a sudden Arkansas is the worst state in the whole country. 

Disclaimer: I don’t have anything against Arkansas or Mississippi. If you’re from one of these states, please feel free to share something lovely about it.

But you get the gist.

Come along and let me encourage you. I’m your Mississippi, and here’s why.

Last year while I attended my second Spotlight On session on the very first day of my first ACFW, my grandmother, all the way in Brazil, took her final breath.

Back home people get buried fast, so a trip there wasn’t an option. The following day, I watched the funeral and cremation ceremony from my room.

I can safely say my plan for the conference I’d prayed about for more than 1 year went out the window.

But God orchestrated meetings that comforted me and that moved me closer to His will, and His plan stood. 

On Saturday I met Les Stobbe, and two weeks later he became my agent.

So if your plan for ACFW 2015 falls apart, don’t be discouraged. God’s plan will stand.

My ACFW 2015 plan already fell apart. It fell apart last month when I realized my new manuscript wouldn’t be polished in time. I’ll have to pitch my first manuscript in Dallas.

Some editors have already seen that first manuscript and either don’t need it or don’t like it. My options are limited, the enemy says. 

But are they? How about living by faith, not by sight?

The truth is that there are editors who haven’t seen it, and it takes only one “yes.” A lot has changed since the last rejection: opening, word count, comp titles, bio, endorsement, contest nod, and platform numbers.

I feel like God is already taking over ACFW 2015 and that’s really, really exciting.

It reminds me of a devotion I read last month. I ripped it out of the book and stuck it to my kitchen wall, where all the important stuff goes. 

Pastor Barry Farnsworth wrote that fathers teach kids how to shoot a bow by kneeling next to them and placing their left hand on the kid’s left hand and placing the right hand on the kid’s right hand. 

From a distance it looks like the child is shooting the bow, but in reality, the father is doing all the work.

By DIVIDSHUB on Flickr

Jacob, while blessing Joseph in Genesis 49:22-26, uses this very image: “But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.”

God’s hands on the bow prospered Joseph, Noah, Abraham, Moses and every servant of the Lord since time began. Why would it be any different for us? And how cool and comforting is that?

I want to show up in Dallas representing well the gift that God gave me, but without the stress—just humble, teachable, ready to be a blessing to others, and expectant. What’s God got up His sleeve this time? How’s He going to work the bow?

In addition to knowing that God’s plan will prevail, there’s one more thing you should do to de-stress and be strong out there. Ask yourself the question we all loathe: What if I never get published?

How big of a deal is it to you and why? We’ve all at some point desired publication to feel special. I know I have. You probably have, too.

If you’re still feeling that way, please read The Search for Significance by Robert McGee. It freed me from dry wells and got me walking toward publication for the right reason: to be in the will of my accepting audience of One.

Once you have your motivations in check, dream big, pray big, and pursue publication with wild abandon. 

If your strategy falls apart mid-conference, don’t sweat it. Pray and worship. God’s plan will stand. 

And remember I’m your Mississippi, and Mississippi isn’t quitting. I’ll be out there with the manuscript that was once rejected on the West Coast, East Coast, and London on the same week.

How about you? Are you attending any conferences this year? Have you found success in the middle of chaos? 

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Patricia Beal is a Christian author, Army wife, and ballerina. She writes contemporary fiction and is represented by Leslie Stobbe of the Leslie H. Stobbe Literary Agency. She’s a 2015 Genesis semi-finalist.

Patricia is from Brazil and immigrated to America in 1992. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 1998 with a B.A. in English Literature.

After an internship at the Pentagon, she worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army for 7 years. The stories she filed from Guantanamo Bay during the early days of the detention operation there gained national attention. Two years later she received a Keith L. Ware award in print journalism for a feature on a day in the life of “Bad Luck Squad” in Iraq.

She and her husband live in El Paso, Texas, with their two children.

Patricia is very active online and would love to connect with readers.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/patricia.beal.author

Twitter - https://twitter.com/bealpat

Web – www.patriciabeal.com