If you’ve seen my author Facebook page or my profile on Twitter, you might notice that the banner simply reads, “Grace. Hope. Everyday”.
One of the things I’ve learned from different author friends is the importance of a tag line. This is a few words that ‘sums up’ what you write or why you write. Besides giving readers a quick idea of what to expect from the author, it also serves to keep the author on track with his or her message.
Coming up with a tag line is more difficult than you’d think! I wrote dozens of ideas down and then filtered my current writing and stack of possible future stories through each option, looking for the perfect tag line to ‘brand’ my writing with.
Even though I write a variety of genres - I have contemporary novels, a devotional book, and a Christian living book all sitting on my hard drive - when I sat and thought about the main focus, they all came down to two words: Grace and Hope. Really, the more I thought about my writing, the more I realized the reason I write everything I do is because of grace and to give hope. And the more I looked at the world around me, I understood why these two words are so important to me.
Without God’s grace, I have nothing. And it’s this same grace that He has extended to everyone through the death of Christ on the cross. If the Creator of the universe can forgive and be gracious to me, how much more should I seek to show grace to others?
Without the hope of an eternity with God, everything I did on earth would be pointless. When life hurts, disappoints, and discourages me, I have hope for the future. Not a bland, pie in the sky hope but a promised hope from the All Knowing God Who knew me before I was born.
When people read anything I write - a post, a blog, a book (someday!) - I want them to walk away encouraged in the God we serve. I want them to see His grace can extend to the lowest of sinners. I want them to know hope for tomorrow is possible in Him. And since we are daily learning, growing, walking this Christian life, I wanted to remind readers, these aren’t one time words. We don’t get grace once. We don’t feel hope once. It’s a daily process of seeking Him, leaning on Him, and asking Him to help us. To give us Grace. Hope. Everyday.
Photo by michael baird on Unsplash