The Next Chapter

If you study the anatomy of a book, you’ll find its chapters consists largely of suspense, as in, what’s going to happen next? Writers craft words in such a way as to keep that book in your hand so you cannot put it down until the very last word.

 I have always viewed my life as a book with each season being a chapter. However, I’ve spent most of my adult life bemoaning the fact that the past chapters of my life contained mainly horror, fear, and tragedy. It never occurred to me that such negatives build hope in the reader. After all, which of us does not have a built-in cheerleader that starts cheering whenever they encounter an underdog?

 It’s true. We all rally around those who have suffered injustice. We have a natural desire to right the wrong, to reverse the outcome or aid the victim. Many who have been ‘reading’ my life ‘chapters’ have rallied around me – even those of you who regularly read this column. I have been so blessed by many of you as I’ve written my stories on this page, month after month, year after year – can you believe I’ve been writing for the Community Word since 1998?

 Here I am at the fourth paragraph and am still toying with my point. You must know by now that I plan to build suspense and then hit you with it all at the end! Ok, where was I?  Oh yes, chapters. If you’ve followed this column, you know that I acquired it on the heels of a court battle. I was a victim of domestic violence one cold February night when my teenage son rescued me and drove me away from a near strangulation – an act that closed the door on my radio career. But God opened a window.

 An essay contest sponsored by Children & Family Services offered me an opportunity to nominate a local family who was instrumental in my rescue from that night of horror, and I won! A wonderful woman, Suzette Boulais, was captured by my essay and referred me to her friend Bob Renner, then owner of CW. Bob offered me this column and a new chapter in my media career was born.

 Many chapters have come and gone since. I had always liked writing, but it was more of a hobby. I certainly did not qualify for a career in television, having only a ‘face for radio’ (the camera and I are not speaking), so my print media career was born. I embraced it here in this column and have since become a co-author and soon-to-be author. I now ghostwrite books for a living and I could not be happier.

 But, last month a page turned and I found myself at a much unexpected new chapter. Are you ready for the BIG NEWS? I’m leaving Peoria. After 11 years in Central Illinois, I’m moving back to live near my family by my home town. Now, when I bought this house – my House of Grace – I thought I was home. I thought this is where I will live out the rest of my days. But God had another chapter to write in my life. It seems Peoria was a healing ground, a place of preparation. I thought it was the last chapter, when actually it was a pivot point in the plot of my life.

 I leave here as a full-time freelance writer, healed, cleansed, stable and content with whatever God has planned for the climax of the book he is writing titled, Cheryl Courtney Semick. Who knows what glorious things he has planned for me! I used to fret about my future. I used to wallow in pity over my past chapters. Now I anxiously await the turning of each page, anticipating the Author’s point and purpose for creating a story with me as its protagonist.

 I’ve learned much here in my Peoria home, the most clear lesson being that life boils down to two choices: live by fear or live by faith. Everything we encounter, every path we follow, every place we end up is based in either faith or fear. I chose faith when I stepped into print media and stayed in the town where my life nearly ended. I couldn’t run any more.

 I faced my greatest fears in Peoria. I realized that fear isn’t a place or a person – it’s a choice. Jesus faced the ugliest of all fear when, at a wicked cross he put his faith in God, his father, trusting that his story would not end in a cruel death – that there was a happy ending.

 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 NIV)

 I am eagerly anticipating the events that are written in the end of God’s book, the Holy Bible. If you’ve not read it, you’re in for a big blessing! I don’t want to ‘ruin it for you’ but let’s just say that the ‘underdog’ becomes the Prince and justice is served!

Author’s Note: Though I am moving away from Peoria, I am not leaving this column – I have many more stories to tell you!  Visit me on my website to see what’s new: www.ccsemick.com