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Jeremiah 36:27-28 (11/11/21)

Finding Joy in the Journey

November 17, 2021

* Peace comes when you find joy in the process, not the end product. * EX: Trae - can’t relax until 9pm at night. * EX: My book writing process - first book was awful cuz I couldn’t relax until I had the finished product. * The only way I was able to experience peace was to focus on the PROCESS, not the PRODUCT. * KEY - What we call the process, God calls the product. * Peace in the midst of the storm (Jesus asleep in the boat). * YOU are the product! God is working on you, shaping you into what He wants. * BACKSTORY - Israel had sinned and Jeremiah was the prophet to rebuke them. * He wrote out exactly what God told him to write, but the king tore it up. * Vs 27-28 - Jeremiah wrote it again out of obedience! * In 1970, Jilly Cooper took the only copy of the manuscript of her novel Riders with her when she went out to lunch and left it on a London bus. She never found it, and did not finish rewriting it until 1984. * Bestselling author James Michener claimed that he dreamed one night in 1960 of writing an epic novel about Mexico. He researched and wrote most of the novel, before he misplaced the manuscript. It turned up 30 years later and Michener completed and published the saga. * Dylan Thomas lost the manuscript of Under Milk Wood three times: first in London, then in America, and then again in London. The third time it was discovered, by his friend Doug Cleverdon, in a pub. Thomas had promised Cleverdon that if he could find the manuscript, he could keep it. Cleverdon died a few days later, prompting a court case over its ownership. * Ernest Hemingway - early in his life, his wife, Hadley, wanted to come visit him as he was away on a writing assignment. She grabbed all of his manuscripts and carbon copies and put into a suitcase. On her way, the suitcase was stolen at the train station. She cried the entire 8 hour trip to see him. When Hemingway was faced by Hadley, who was nervously about to admit having lost his manuscripts, seeing her unease, he leapt to a Hemingway-like inference. “You’ve slept with another man?” * Ultimately, Hemingway re-wrote most of them but in effort to save time he started writing more punchy short sentences, which became the secret to his success! * The influential American literary icon became known for his straightforward prose and use of understatement. * How do we focus on the process over the product? * 1) Keep the vision out front - it’s good to see where you want to be. * 2) Die to it in your heart - give God the result. * 3) Move toward it with your feet - practically do things you need to do. * 4) Define & celebrate little wins - (today I’ll write 100 words).