I grew up watching Mission Impossible (the tv show!). Have you seen the show Dinner Impossible? Robert Irvine is an English chef who used to be chef for the royal family? My family has fallen in love with this show. Basically, Robert gets an assignment to cook for something like a trail drive or Elvis’ most adoring fans (and Priscilla Presley!), then he has only a few hours to pull off the meal for often thousands of people. It’s fun to see him barrel through a grocery store filling up cart after cart of plain ordinary groceries (boxes and boxes of Nilla Wavers for banana pudding at Graceland). Often the work place he’s provided is less than ideal — using dutch ovens and open fires or a frat house that hadn’t been cleaned in a while. This season, we’ve seen Robert cook for a crowd at a Renaissance festival, a circus, an army (literally or maybe it was the Air Force).
Now, I will admit, I’m not much of a cook. I like to watch cooking shows, but I don’t think, “Hey, I’ll just go whip that up too.” The other day I saw Paula Dean making this scrumptious chocolate dessert but I just wanted to buy it ready made, not mess up twelve pans and bowls in my kitchen to create it. But I can definitely relate to Robert Irvine’s impossible missions as a writer. Sometimes my circumstances are not exactly ideal for concentrating on my writing. Sometimes my characters won’t behave. Sometimes the words just won’t stir properly. Or I overcook them by reworking and revising too much.
It’s then I have to hit my knees and really pray for guidance and a supernatural ability to get the job done. For example, with Elvis Takes a Back Seat, my experience was limited because I’m frankly not a widow. But my main character was. God really guided me through the writing of that book, giving me insights I never would have imagined on my own. Yesterday, I received a wonderful email from a young widow who had read my book. She said she’s read other widow books that she calls ‘bulemic’ because she wants to throw them up. They don’t resonate. But mine did. I was blown away by that. I was humbled by her losses and her pain. And I was so grateful I’d hit my knees with that book and listened to God guiding me through that book. Because it wasn’t me. It was God at work through me. So being down on my knees, or prostrate before the Father is right where he wants me to be. No matter the circumstance.
So do you have some mission, dinner, writing assignment that seems overwhelming … maybe even impossible?