Is it Cheating to Ask God to Help You?

I hit a wall today. My plot snarled into a wham-bam of a knot akin to the kinky mess only a three-year-old can create with their shoelaces. It will take a divine act to sort through the gnarly disaster I've made, which brings me to today's topic . . .

Is it okay to ask God to help figure out a plot?

In the grand scheme of things, God's busy with famines and wars and things on a much larger scale, way more important than the writing of a stupid made-up story.

Kids dying of starvation = important

Disease ravaged West Africa = important

Unemployment and cancer and suicide = important

Plot help = frivolous and a waste of time

Or is it?

I submit that relying on God to write a story isn't about the writing, it's about the trusting. It's a faith stretcher. Learning to depend on Him for little is a small pile of building blocks to erect for depending on Him in the big. The seemingly insignificant act of penning fiction has the potential to grow a relationship with the eternal God simply by virtue of bringing plot dilemmas and character conundrums to Him in prayer. Maybe, just maybe, that's what Paul was talking about in Philippians 4:6.

Writing down words isn't a supernatural act -- but creating is. God is the original Creator. Every time a writer envisions a story in his mind and captures it on paper, that's creation -- and that's a tangible picture of an intangible God.

Wow.

Noodle that one next time you wonder if it's okay to ask God to help you with your writing.