Strike With the Whole Heart

My writing career was borne out of an interesting twist when I became a professional nomad in 2004. My family had relocated to West Africa and it was not until I read Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life that I fully comprehended that even though we moved for my husband’s tour of duty, I too had a specific mission being there. The thought that when a believer goes somewhere, God has a new pair of hands to do His work in that place – that is what opened my eyes to this insight that I had a mission to fulfill wherever I found myself, regardless of the circumstances of the move.

It started with journaling and then sharing my musings with friends and family via email, and I would always sign off as ‘yours truly.’ Blogging had not become mainstream, and I thought I was with it when I joined ‘Hi 5’ because Facebook had not become a thing either. With time, I enrolled in a writing course, learned a little bit more about writing and editing, and my confidence as a writer started growing. Sweet writing juice ran through my veins and oozed freely through my fingers onto the keyboard, translating into articles that my readers found inspiring.

In 2007, I published what I called my first book – Until the Fat Lady Sings, and bam! I now confidently identified as a published author – until 2009 when I met ‘real authors’ in the LittWorld Global Conference at Brackenhust in Limuru, Kenya. I was wading knee-deep in waters of knowledge and experiences shared by authors and editors of no mean repute, an experience I found exhilarating and intimidating at the same time. Let’s just say that by the time I left the conference, I saw myself as a wannabe author and my book as half a book. This just meant that I still had a lot to learn, and so I bought books on writing, read some of them, and found a sweet spot in the devotionals space where I got some of my devotionals published for a few years. Then followed a hiatus, until 2019 when I wrote my second book – How to Design Your Career Game Plan, and published it in 2020.

Recently, while reading Commitment – Didier Drogba’s autobiography (yes – the football legend), something pierced through me and I was jolted to a reality check. Each time I read the words ‘I am a striker,’ I was drawn to the whole implication of that word in Didier’s life. In each match he played, his role was to score goals for the team – period. So committed was he that in one match, he played with his arm in a cast! In good shape and in bad shape, he played and did whatever he could to better himself as a striker. His commitment to his role as a striker – on and off the pitch bore remarkable fruit. Does it then come as a surprise that in 2012, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) named Didier as the world’s top goal scorer of the 21st century? ( (Drogba, 2015). He was not playing for accolades – he was just doing his thing out of the depths of his heart because he believed he was born to play football.

Reading this book has awakened something inside of me. I have become acutely aware of a deep conviction – that I have a seed that I need to be doing more with, and that requires more commitment than I have given it.

If I can be brutally honest with myself, I have lacked consistency in my writing, and there is no sugar-coating that. My writing journey has been punctuated by hiatus and characterized by long seasons of ambivalence. Following this diagnosis, I got a prescription; four pills, which I swallowed whole, all at once. Here are the pills described below. Doctors do not recommend sharing medicine or borrowing another patient’s prescription – but I am not a doctor, so you are welcome to perform self-diagnosis, take the pills and augment the prescription to suit your condition.

1. Get clear on, and embrace who you are and what your role is. If your tool is the pen or the keyboard, strike with your whole heart. Whatever the tool in your hand, remember that you are a steward[i] of the gifts that God gave you, and there will come a time when the master comes to settle accounts[ii] with you. What will you give Him? God gives us different types of gifts[iii] so that we can use them to bear fruit for His glory.
2. Sowing and reaping is an undeniable life principle – you sow sparingly/generously, you reap sparingly/generously[iv], and what you sow is what you reap[v]. If you are not happy with the fruit you are reaping then you know you must up your sowing game.
3. A committed writer does not wait for a burst of inspiration, or for writing juice to start oozing so that she can write[vi]. Commitment is characterized by discipline, and talent is not a substitute for discipline. Fan that spark into a flame by creating a schedule and holding yourself accountable to a daily, weekly, and monthly writing goal specific to your writing project. Stay faithful – inspiration will follow. Just remember that people can’t read or be impacted by a book that has not been written.
4. You will face obstacles, challenges, and distractions and when you do, do not cast off your first confidence[vii]. Draw strength from Hebrews 12:1-3, which was written to encourage believers whose faith endured difficult circumstances. Press on. Be ruthless in throwing off everything that ensnares you.

The irony is not lost on me – that God used a book written by a striker to spur a writer to greater commitment. Perhaps the greater message here is wholeheartedness in whatever we do[viii]. With discipline and commitment, we can fan the gift that God deposited in us into a flame that lights up the dark crevices in our world, and in so doing, bring glory to our Father in heaven.

[i] 1 Cor 4:2

[ii] Matt 25:19

[iii] Exodus 31: 1-6

[iv] 2Cor 9:6

[v] Gal 6:7

[vi] Eccl 11:1,4,6

[vii] Heb 10:35-36

[viii] Col 3:23

[ix] 2 Tim 1:5