Pay for published work

One of my "birthday presents" consisted of two envelopes. One contained a cheque for $32 and the other several copies of The Upper Room daily devotional guide for May and June. They contain a devotion that I wrote about 2 1/2 years ago.

This represents the first time I've been paid for writing something! Even more encouraging was the letter accompaning the cheque. To quote:

Over two million people in more than 100 countries will read or hear your witness (i.e. my devotion). To put that in perspective, if a preacher addressed a congregation of 2 000 new people each week for 20 years, that preachers would still not have addressed as many people as will read your contribution in The Upper Room...From the French radio broadcast of your meditation in Africa to its printing in the tri-lingual Japanese/Korean/English edition in the Far East, you will speak to God's people and encourage them in faithfulness.

I don't put this here to boast. For surely it was not I, but a gift from the Lord that enabled me to write this short devotion (under 250 words). It truly is a privilege to turn that back to Him and point people to Him and His Word. It is also amazing that it has been translated into languages that I cannot write in and especially into Japanese.

I am encouraged and spurred on to write more! I'm thinking about that dirt road incident, for example.