by Maggie Wallem Rowe

How do you know when your calling as a writer is complete?

In the academic arena, exams are announced ahead of time and research papers have due dates. In the corporate world, projects have deadlines and annual reviews arrive as scheduled.

But is a writer’s work ever truly finished?

This is my final post for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. While I’ve been warmly welcomed to pop back to contribute a guest post on occasion, I won’t be the “First Monday” writer after this post. The reason is simple: When it comes to life’s mathematics, subtraction is just as vital a function as addition.

I’ve always been a Doer. a Joiner, a Never-Want-to-Miss-An-Opportunity writer. If I see even a tiny margin of white space on my calendar, I eagerly fill it with purpose.

Teach at writers conferences? Happy to! Five alone last year.

Speak at outreach events and women’s retreats? Yes, please! Researching, writing, and delivering inspirational messages to live audiences remains a great passion.

Blogging weekly from my website to a large (for me, at least) subscriber list, and responding to dozens of comments each week? How can I not when my readers have become my treasured community, and we’ve been together for nearly 20 years?

I’ve always been far better about adding new commitments to my schedule than I am at subtracting them. You, too?

The reason has nothing-ok, little-to do with age. At 71, I feel an urgency to speed up, not slow down. My closest friend of 35 years, acclaimed writer Lucinda Secrest McDowell, passed away last year only weeks after a diagnosis of metastatic cancer. Her final book just released this fall¾one she felt compelled to write though completely unaware that she was ill.

Like Cindy, “My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24 NLT

My BFF often reminded me that to say yes to every good thing that comes along might mean saying no to the best. We cannot continue to do all the things we’ve always done for everyone while remaining open to new opportunities for service that God has for us.

Even as I pen this final post for this site, I’m looking forward to discovering God’s purposes for me as a writer in 2024. While I usually look forward to attending BRMCWC each May, I’ll be taking a ministry trip to Cuba that same week instead, bringing back the vision of what God is doing there to share with others.

It’s been a privilege serving the conference as a monthly blogger, but it’s time to release this space to others who have fresh ideas to share.

“What matters most to me is to finish what God started.” (Acts 20: 24 MSG).

It’s your turn!  Are there commitments you’ve kept for months or years that it’s time to release? Please share with us in the comment section below.

Maggie Wallem Rowe is a national speaker, dramatist, and author whose first book, This Life We Share, was a finalist for the 2021 ECPA Christian Book Award in the New Author category. Maggie has also been a TEDx presenter. Her second book, Life is Sweet, Y’all: Wit and Wisdom with A Side of Sass, released from Tyndale House Publishers in 2022. Maggie writes weekly from Peace Ridge, her home in the mountains of North Carolina. MaggieRowe.com.