Walk Worthy Press: Like Sheep Gone Astray by Leslie J. Sherrod

Author Testimony

On a quiet afternoon in January 2004, something happened that changed everything. I had reached a point of complete frustration trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with a half-written novel that I had started two months after quitting my full-time job to become a stay-at-home-mother. I quit my job, not because I saw that we could afford it, but because my heart was compelled to do so, and my husband agreed. It was a step of faith, and writing became the next step, as I’d been dabbling with poetry and short stories for most of my life.

I never thought that I would have the patience – or even a plot – to write a near 400-page story. But here it was, three years later, and halfway completed. However, after months of fruitless efforts researching the publishing industry, coming up with a hundred different plans to “become a writer,” and wrestling with going back to work and/or graduate school, I had moved no further along with this writing thing than the blinking cursor had moved on the computer screen for a story I did not even know how to end.

I simply did not know what to do anymore. Was this desire to be home full-time with my preschoolers and to write stories coming from Him, or was I just going off the deep end?

Feeling physically sick – anguished – I wanted to believe there was a purpose in this internal struggle, a purpose for me in His Kingdom. I am a firm believer that God has a purpose and a plan for everyone that will bring glory to Him and will help others.

That day in January, God proved Himself to me in a way that left no room for doubt.

In tears and in tiredness, I prayed, draped over the side of my bed, while the children were napping, a prayer of desperation. I asked Jesus to clearly give me direction on what He wanted out of my life, and that if writing was it, to lead me to someone who could answer specific questions about publishing Christian fiction.

An hour later, I ended up on the homepage of a website I had book-marked over two years before then, and had not checked in a while. Posted on the website was information about a conference that would share answers to – yes, you guessed it – the exact questions I had just asked God about. It was as if Jesus had literally penned down the specific topics I had poured out before Him in my tears and typed it up on the computer screen. In that moment, I saw another facet of how real God is, how much He loves us, and that He really does have a purpose, plan, and all the answers for us if we just seek Him.

Seeking Him has changed my life.

To make a long story short, I was invited to the conference, hosted and conducted by Denise Stinson of Walk Worthy Press. When she called to invite me, she asked me if I was still working on my novel. I heard God’s calling clearly through her words, and – by the grace and to the glory of God – I finished in three months the story that had taken three years just to get half-way done. Doors were opening in ways I had never imagined!

In meeting Ms. Stinson, she only confirmed lessons God had started teaching me along the way, lessons specifically about writing as ministry and the role the creative written word can have in His Kingdom.

See, for most of my life, writing had merely been a therapeutic hobby for me, a self-prized ability that made me want to add something fancy to the world of literature so I could feel like I had accomplished something. Now, I know and am convinced that writing, in God’s hand, is a tool and a talent that can be used to exhort, encourage, and draw people closer to Him. Jesus himself taught with parables, illustrating Kingdom principles through stories simple enough to read and hear, yet packed with Spirit-discerned mysteries. He used scenarios of everyday life with everyday people doing everyday things, and through those stories lives were and are being changed.

I praise God for doing this wonderful work; for taking someone like me who has struggled with issues of fear, doubt, confusion, insecurity, and everything else under that umbrella, and creating something that will bring Him glory! Now you know that’s only Jesus!

Like Sheep Gone Astray is a novel born partially out of my own struggle with defining success and tapping into purpose. It is my prayer that within the cast of characters who represent many walks of life, readers will find someone to identify with, or laugh alongside; or someone who offers a challenge, or simply inspires. I pray that ultimately each reader gains something good from the pages.

My encouragement to everyone is to stay true to the dreams and desires God has placed in your heart, even if your situation looks impossible. The worse it looks, the greater God can show Himself off. He has a work for each of us to reach all of us for Him. It is only by seeking Him – and then accepting His answers – that we move forward in Him. Peace and potential fulfilled became a regular part of my life only after I truly believed that what God had for me to do was what He had already put both in my heart and in front of me (being a wife, a mother, and a writer). When things looked shaky or questionable in my eyes, I had to trust Him.

And God has proved Himself faithful, loving, perfect at every turn.

This has not been – rather, is not – an easy road. As far as a testimony goes, there is so much more I could say. But for this moment, just know this: Writing to reach the world for Jesus has become my mission; people awakening to purpose through intimacy with Christ because of the written words He’s given me, has become my vision. Whatever else that’s accomplished – whatever else God has for me to do – all glory, all reason, all strength be His alone in the name of Jesus.

Leslie J. Sherrod

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