“It hurts so good!” This common expression highlights the contrast between pain and pleasure. Most people are hard-wired to avoid pain at any cost. But sometimes that which causes pain is also productive.

A pastor I know left behind a little black binder with notes he made during more than 50 years of ministry. At a denominational conference in 1959 (the Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends, a.k.a. Quakers) he wrote this quote from Paul Rees, the speaker: “There is no pain so severe as the pain of a new idea.”

This thought resonated with me as I consider my current life situation. I’ve embarked on a full-time writing career, and the blitz of thoughts, strategies, advice, and imperatives is endless. I’m bombarded on every side, and my to-do list fills three pages.

Each new idea begs to be converted into a workable something: a book, an article, or a screenplay. When I don’t have time to develop those ideas, a dull throb begins in the base of my skull and my fingernails are in dire danger of being chewed.

Relief came with yesterday’s Verse of the Day on my Bible app: Isaiah 43:19. It reads, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” The tumult of ideas can be tamed when I remember my writing career is God’s thing. It is not my thing. When God is in charge, all I need to do is be obedient and watch as the trickle turns into a stream. The burden is on God, not on me.

I’m beginning a new daily habit. Before I write anything, I plan to ask God what he wants to write today through me.

I hope there’s some pain.