Expand My Territories

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request. 1 Chronicles 4:10 NIV

The verse above is commonly referred to as the Prayer of Jabez. I was impressed to find my copy of the book written by Bruce Wilkinson and read it again. Some recent happenings prompted me to reflect upon how my territories have been expanded. The Lord has been blessing me and I have really not deserved these blessings.

The past several years, I have been sharing my poetry with my friends on Facebook. I also share the poems with others by writing them on index cards. These are usually received with smiles and people telling me that I should write a book. For years, I have been under the belief that poets and composers achieve the greatest fame after they start decomposing. 

The last year or so, I have shared my poems with some best selling authors. I have been encouraged by these folks, and it has helped me to write more poems. I have been impressed to write poems based on some of their books. This, in itself, has been an expansion of my territory. 

A book I was impressed to write poems about was 48 Days to the Work You Love, by Dan Miller. Dan Miller is a career coach, who lives in Franklin, Tennessee. The book is a New York Times best seller that has helped scores of people escape the dreaded life of just making a living. I wrote 48 poems, 4 poems for each of the 12 chapters of his book. I emailed the poems to him and put in the subject line, "48 Poems to the Work You Love."  Three months after I sent the email,I was listening to Dan's podcast. During this time, I received a response from Dan, telling me that he thoroughly enjoyed my poems, made me member of his 48 Days Eagles group and asked me for my home address so he could send me some books. Dan also reads one of my poems each week  during his podcast. My territory continues to expand.

As I said before, I share my poems on Facebook, and the 48 Days Eagles group was another place to share them. The Eagles are a group of creative thinkers who are not content with having "just a job." They are all looking to expand their territories and in the process, encourage the other members. At this time, they are encouraging me in monetizing my poetry. 

I had asked the group to help monetize my work enough to purchase a new laptop. This has led to hooking up with William Parker, of Soft Press Publishing. William is giving me valuable assistance in the publishing of my upcoming book, Caricatures Of My Mind.  But wait, there's more...

On my way to a marching band show a few weeks ago, I was messaging another member,and earned some money by helping him with some advertising.

And the other day, I was alerted by email. That a 48 Days facilitator wanted to use my poetry to encourage members of her group. Lord grant me the wisdom to use my abilities.

I did not pray the prayer, but I feel it being answered.