Just One

 

By Marilyn Nutter

How many subscribers do you have? How large is your audience? How big is your platform?  What’s your reach? How many are on your mailing list?

Have you asked or answered those questions? Sometimes our writer friends are curious. Or we want to pick their brain about strategies they used that could help us grow our audience. 

If we’re pitching an idea to an editor, hearing those questions is guaranteed. They're hard questions to answer, especially if our audience isn’t large. But they’re valid questions. Publishing houses invest thousands of dollars to see books come to print. If an author doesn’t have a following, it’s risky to offer a contract.  

So, do we stop writing or look at a bigger picture?

I choose the option of the bigger picture, which is not big, but small. Just one.

I’m encouraged and pleasantly surprised when I get an email from a reader who tells me, “Your blog really touched me today,” then proceeds to tell me why and how.  Or I read and respond to written blog comments such as, “I needed that Bible verse and reminders of what you shared.”

Our writing may be for just one person. Maybe it’s the woman who is experiencing heartache or a life interruption. Or one struggling to know her purpose, trying to see where God is in her mess and needs to be reminded that God loves her and is faithful. Or one who reads a story that entertains, and you offer a respite in a stressful week. Yes, just one.

• In the New Testament, we read about crowds, but we also read about one person Jesus reached out to—one bleeding woman in a crowd—and healed her.
• He reached out to one man  trying to get into a pool for healing, ministered to him, and healed his body.
• A crowd of thousands gathered on a hillside to hear Jesus teach, yet he paid attention to one boy willing to share his lunch to feed many. Surely there were others who had snacks with them. They hadn’t walked miles to hear a famous teacher without carrying  bread and water. Yet Jesus used the offering of one boy to feed thousands.

Next time we sit to write, let’s not focus on the hundreds or thousands and wish we had more followers or subscribers.

Before we hit the keyboard to write a blog, article, devotion, or manuscript, let’s pray and think about one person who needs our message,

There’s more than one way to grow an audience. Sometimes it's when an individual grows through something you've written. We do write for a crowd, but maybe there’s just one.

Photos by Lanty on Unsplash

Marilyn Nutter is co-author with April

 White of Destination Hope: A Travel

 Companion When Life Falls Apart, and a

 frequent contributor to online sites and

 compilations. Visit her website at

 http:/MarilynNutter.com.