Adapted from Edward Grinnan’s Editor’s Note for the June 2018 issue of Guideposts. If you’d like to subscribe, click here.
Have you had inspiring mentors? Have you struggled with debilitating physical pain? Have you had a dream of doing something so improbable that only God could be behind it? Have you learned to forgive the people in your life who were supposed to love you but hurt you the most? Have you wondered how far you could travel if only you gave yourself the permission to start off? Do you know someone who has overcome addiction, or have you fought that battle yourself?
These are some of the inspiring stories you will read in your new issue of Guideposts. I identify with so many of our narrators this month.
Colleen Kelly Alexander was hit by a truck while riding her bike home from her job. She suffered horrible injuries and endured a long, agonizing recovery. I was hit by a car while on my bike when I was 12. I lay flat on my back for two months with a broken pelvis and a fractured skull. I didn’t have to face quite the ordeal Colleen did, but I know what she means when she says there were times she thought the pain was insurmountable. Today Colleen competes in triathlons.
Like sisters Lindsey and Lee Ellen Fulmer, I traveled far and wide in my twenties with no itinerary, only to learn that my destination was actually myself. With faith I have achieved dreams that I could once scarcely allow myself to dream, like cop-cum-Broadway-playwright Christopher G. Smith. Like Linda Maher, I have faced addiction only to experience the miracle of recovery, a day at a time.
I love Guideposts stories for the same reason you readers tell us you do: I can identify with true stories of faith in action told by real people like me. Do you have such a story? Send it in to the Guideposts Writers Workshop contest by June 10 and you could join us for a weeklong workshop in Rye, New York, all expenses paid. You don’t have long, so get started. But read your new issue first. It will show you what kind of great story we’re looking for.
Find out how to enter our writing contest at guideposts.org/wwcontest.