“Crown Him with Many Crowns!” is one of our most joyous hymns, shouting out triumphant recognition of Jesus as monarch of the Kingdom of Heaven and ruler of our hearts.
But this Advent,
the crowns I’m pondering are the ones we ourselves seek, the earthly crowns of
worldly acclaim. Another beloved hymn sings of the saints, overcome with awe
before Christ’s holy majesty, “casting down their golden crowns around the
glassy sea.” But I’ve become too consumed of late with clinging to pursuit of
my own puny little crowns.
During this past
year, in my career as an author I’ve sat trembling as I awaited reviews on my
most recent book, checking my email every few minutes (sad but true) to see if
another trade review had come in, haunting Goodreads and Amazon to see if rave
reviews from friends had swelled my total, cringing at ho-hum reviews from
strangers who didn’t seem to understand that this was the book of my heart, the
book that should be laden with accolades, that should be crowned with many
crowns!
But as popular
preacher Rick Warren wrote in the opening line of his best-selling book The
Purpose-Driven Life, “It’s not about you.” Which is to say, it’s not about
me. It’s only natural for me as a writer to crave connection with readers, but
it should be enough if even one reader finds some joy or wisdom or moment of
loneliness-lessening connection in my story, something that reveals
— Claudia Mills
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