Don't despise your nothing season

Back in 2010, my second book was published. Truthfully, after my first book, I wasn’t sure I had another one in me.

That first book was born out of one of the most crushing seasons of my life. To my surprise, the second book would also be forged in another refining fire.

When our family weathered the 2008 recession, we lost everything—our home, our cars, our business. Walking through the painful and humiliating process of watching it all disappear, shame seemed to linger close by.

But as I humbled myself before the Lord, I began to discover the beauty of becoming nothing. I started to see the riches hidden in humility and emptiness—the place where we have absolutely nothing to offer except our surrendered flesh.

As I sat quietly with the Lord, writing down what He was showing me, I could feel another book beginning to grow in my spirit.

My second book was titled Life in Your Losses. It wasn’t the title I had hoped for. I wanted to call it The Power of Nothing, but the publishing company preferred a different direction.

I think every writer—whether you’re writing a book, a song, a blog, or simply journaling your journey—comes to seasons where you’re on your face before God, searching in the darkness for the value hidden within your pain.

Let me tell you something: the treasures that come from those dark places carry more weight and more oil than any mountaintop season you could imagine.

Scripture reminds us that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. It also promises that He will give us beauty for ashes and the oil of gladness instead of mourning.

When we take those sacred moments and turn them into written words, into lyrics, into chapters, we give other people a voice. We give language to their pain. We hand them a roadmap for their own journey. We place songs in their mouths for the night season. We put tools and weapons into their hands.

God never wastes a single thing in our lives.

Even in our season of nothingness—when all we have is a whisper of a song, a single sentence, one trembling word, one broken utterance—He can use it. In His hands, that small offering becomes the sharpest arrow in our quiver.

Don’t despise your “nothing” season.

It may be the very place where God is writing your greatest message.