Choosing True Life

May 20

Holly J. Compton

My Friend Writes Podcast: Season 1 ~ Episode 3
Choosing True Life: 30 Foundational Choices for a Life Transformed

“What did writing this book reveal about you that you didn’t expect?”

My story of the original writing of this book isn’t like most people who spend years trying to bring it all together. Instead, all the years brought it together through my fingers all at once. I received the title of this book in a dream more than 20 years ago. I did try to write a first chapter a couple of times, but there was never a plan or fervency behind the pen (yes, they were handwritten!).

At the end of 2021, we moved from Atlanta to Houston, where my husband grew up. A month later I stumbled upon a writing course on Facebook and knew it was something I needed to do, despite the $600-price tag. A month into it, I had a fully annotated outline that included each chapter’s topic, associated scriptures, and my specific stories—from all those years. I realized I couldn’t have written it any sooner. God first needed to give me all those stories to share.

I sat down with my outline in the middle of February 2022 and began to write. During the next six weeks, I poured out 70,000 words onto my laptop.

Part of me had always thought that I didn’t know enough about anything to write. It felt decreasingly possible as the years went on. Finally, I realized that the one thing I knew enough about—Jesus—was all I truly needed.

I felt the Holy Spirit speaking in a new, fresh, and powerful way as I wrote. I sat in my prayer chair in the corner of my bedroom, looking down at my laptop (ouch, my neck!), and amid all the possible distractions—three kids interrupting, music playing, TV blaring, dog barking—I could still hear Him loud and clear. Scripture after scripture kept coming to mind, and quotes from books I had read or was reading at that time just popped out, begging to be included.

I didn’t suddenly drop everything else in life, either. I found time in the cracks to do it, like during the car-rider line at my son’s elementary school. I didn’t watch as much TV. I wrote instead of napped. Those words found all sorts of opportunities to pour out. It was heavenly to experience the joy of it so fully in those six weeks.

Time is a lifelong preoccupation for most people. By nature, we are impatient, bratty even, thinking we deserve to get what we want right away. On the other hand, writing the book itself fully put God’s timing in perspective for me because I was walking in “the fulfillment of time,” from God’s purview. I felt His starry magic in the air—the refreshing breeze that carries God’s approval, His pride, His happy tears of joy witnessing our faithfulness—which comes right before His next words: “This is just the beginning.”

I never expected to write so much, so fast. I have undiagnosed ADHD and a waning memory that deletes an early year as quickly as it adds one. I also didn’t expect God’s mercy and grace to make it all possible. I realized I’m not alone in this writer/author life; He’s my constant companion that speaks so clearly, if I will just humble myself at His feet and listen. I didn’t expect my relationship with Him to grow out of my alignment with His heart and His peace. I didn’t write my book to make a lot of money or become a bestseller. I wrote it because He spoke over me, “I have a good plan for you and for the book.”

Having that experience and many experiences since, I know it’s possible at any time to have a direct line to heaven through the Holy Spirit. I just have to stop long enough to sit at His feet and tune my ears in to hear Him. Now that I know God can do it, so I can do it—I have no excuse to offer when He says, “Let’s do it again!”

‍Listen to Episode Three: Choosing True Life by Holly Compton | Writing Through Faith, Healing, and Life Experience