When I was approached about writing a blog for Mercy Creates, my initial reaction was to run…
but then I got excited…
and began praying about it.
Just a week prior to my conversation with her, I had asked God “How do you want to use me with the skills and talents You’ve given me?”
I had come to a point of total surrender to allow Him to use me for His glory.
Wrestling with Writing
I grew up around the encouragement that I should pursue writing as my career.
My mom saw the talent in me before I even realized or understood what talent was. Looking back, I know I’ve had teachers tell me that my writing is good and that I really could make something of myself with it. But…
I ignored them until recently (spoiler: they were right).
Throughout my childhood and adolescence, I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing—especially since that was the best way, I found, for me to get things off my chest.
I never thought that my writing was good, that people would actually want to read it. I didn’t want to feel confident in it, even though writing came easy for me—I could finish a paper in no time and get a good grade on it in school. I never struggled with learning grammar and picking up the skills to be a good writer. With that in mind, I decided to do away with writing and wrote strictly for school.
Then, one day, I took a class in college where we had to write creatively and in poem form.
I used to hate poems, much less write them. But, it was actually a method God used to soften my heart towards His plans for me and embracing my skills and talents that He has given me.
Instead of feeling like people were making decisions for me, God brought me to a place where I was required to take writing seriously. I had to learn to accept who I was in Him, embrace my identity in how He created me, which led to my surrender and freedom to become the person I was meant to be because of Christ.
I am meant to be His child; I am meant to be a writer for Him, and Him alone.
Becoming God’s Writer
But, first, let me introduce myself. My name is Yuliana, and I’m a blogger. I started blogging in college as a way to connect with God and to write what I’ve learned in my walk with Him—this allowed me to process everything and realize the areas of growth that I’ve seen since becoming His child.
However, even in college, I ran away from the talent of writing that God gave me, and started in the Biology major. After failing a couple courses, I realized that Bio wasn’t for me, so I switched to Nursing. (As if that’s any better, but I clearly hadn’t learned my lesson at this point). When I was taking nursing classes, the information I was learning was really interesting, but, like biology, I failed a class and didn’t get into upper division, which is required to move ahead in the program.
At this point, I was close to giving up, because I had already been in college for 3 years… and I felt like it was a waste of time (I mean, do we really need those gen ed classes?)… and I was getting discouraged…
I grasped towards photography, since it’s a hobby of mine, thinking maybe I could make something of myself.
But, deep down inside, I knew that I didn’t want to have a career in photography—I wanted to keep that as a fun hobby.
So what now?
I didn’t have any choice but to look through the list of available majors, and as I prayed doing so, English just jumped out at me when I got to it.
I continued scrolling, just in case there was something else I could be interested in.
Then, I sensed God ask me, “Will you do it [English]?”
I paused. There was a moment of struggle—follow His bidding or be left with nothing; submit to His plan for my life, or walk away.
In that moment, I surrendered, repented, and in my heart, I agreed to do His will.
So, I chose English—and wrote poems.
God used the creative classes in college as a stepping stone to get me to embrace writing, and through it all, I realized that this really was something I was created to do. My mom was right; my teachers were right, but I know that God doesn’t give up on His children. As a result, this verse is what I held onto for the rest of my academic career:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” —Romans 8:28
Considering that it was already my last year of college at the point of my submission to God, I set up an appointment with my academic advisor and asked if I could take all the required classes in one year. He advised against it, but I persisted and said that I’d like to graduate on time. Eventually, he allowed me to take 24 credits both semesters of my senior year—I passed all classes with ease (for the most part) and got my degree in English, with a creative writing concentration, as well as a Russian minor.
Embracing His Authorship
And now I’m here.
Two years post-graduation.
Writing away…
I’ve been journaling more, especially when it comes to the Bible—things I’ve learned, and things I’ve had to let go of.
Since that first moment of surrender, it’s been so freeing to see how God uses my thoughts to touch the lives of others.
I’ll share a little bit more on that in the next post—and other things I realized that needed to be given up. My perspective on writing in general has changed, as well, over the last couple of years.
It’s incredible how God answered my prayer and how He orchestrated everything up to this moment.
I want to expand my skills for Him, and it’s all to His glory. God definitely works behind the scenes, in mysterious ways, in ways that don’t always make sense to us, because I would have never thought that I would get to this point. Ever. I’m still in awe of how good God is, and how marvelous His ways are. But, now that I’m here and I’m doing this, I will attempt to put all I can to make this blog worth your while—and hopefully, you’ll learn more about Jesus through my words.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” —Isaiah 55:8–9
Yuliana is a blogger, proofreader, and sometimes photographer (when the occasion calls for it). She graduated with a creative writing degree in English and has a Russian minor. She strives to use her talents for God’s glory and prays that He touches others through the work of her hands. Yuliana loves meeting new people, supporting small and local businesses, and spending her time outdoors (when the Carolina heat isn’t ridiculous!). Jesus overwhelms her heart, and iced coffee runs in her veins. She currently lives Waxhaw, a city outside of the greater Charlotte area.
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