Extra Portion

³⁵ And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. ³⁶ And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.

Genesis 41:35-36

We often say at work that it is either a feast or a famine. We either have more work than we can do, or we have nothing to do. The same is often true in the writing life. I either have so many ideas I don’t know what to do with them, or I am drawing a blank. The key is to follow Joseph’s suggestion to Pharaoh about storing up during the feast time for the famine.

There have been several times over the last 6 months that I have had almost an overwhelming number of ideas and concepts for books and articles rain down on me. I was blessed with having a chunk of time and opportunity for multiple Bible studies and for listening to podcasts and sermons. I was also blessed to take a writing seminar that jump started my writing practice. Suddenly I had all of these breakthroughs with projects that I had been stuck on for ages, plus ideas for even more. What was I going to do with all these ideas whirling around in my brain?

I decided to start an idea box, project notebooks, and a journal. When I have an idea for an article or blog post, I put it on an index card or sticky note and put it in a little decorative cardboard box. I also write down ideas for novels on sticky notes and keep all the related notes in a notebook for that project. The other things God shows me I write in a journal every night to clear my mind and get ready for rest. I store these revelations for times of famine.

And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. 24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. 25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field. 26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

Exodus 16:22-26

Right now I am under a couple of writing deadlines, and usually I spend most of Friday morning coming up with an idea for my blog posts and working it out for submission. I really don’t have that kind of time for the month of October because I need to work on other projects. Last week as I was listening to podcasts and reading God gave me enough rough ideas for five blog posts. He gave me enough ideas ahead of time that I could meet my deadlines and still get some much needed rest.

God knows what is coming, and He provides the extra portion that we need. Instead of eating until we are sick at the feast put some aside for times of famine. Then we can call upon the storehouse to maintain us. For the same reason we should study the Bible and memorize scripture when we have the opportunity so that we will have a supply to draw from during seasons of spiritual famine. So, when God gives you a double portion, store it in your heart (or idea box) so that you have a source of inspiration come the next dry spell.