Your One Thing

 Guest post by Hosanna Emily

Do you have historical heroes?

I do! I grew up devouring stories of the past featuring courage, heroism, and times unlike today’s but with stirrings to live in the present more fully. It wasn’t a surprise when I began writing books that historical-fiction adventures begged to be included. I drafted one and laid it aside as God gave me fantasy stories instead. Years passed.

As January 2024 awoke, God drew me back to this book, and I got to rewrite and explore a dark period that glowed in faint hope like the sunrise. I met people from history I admire as well as ones with weights around their hearts like chains, and I learned: every person must choose their “one thing.”

The phrase became real to me when my brother planted a giant watermelon seed in his mulched garden. To grow the largest produce possible, he daily cut off flowers, fruit, anything that threatened to take away the nutrients from the single watermelon he selected specially, and that one, huge prize became the plant’s “one thing.” He covered it with a sheet from the sun, watered it, checked for bad spots, and watched over it daily.

He could have grown a second melon on the vine or a third. But every additional fruit stole life and water from the one prize melon that grew to be hundreds of pounds. That watermelon was the “one thing.”

And every person in history chose theirs too.

As I researched Jamestown 1609 for my novel, I met people like John Smith who is remembered from history for his leadership and heart of adventure and exploration, and perhaps his “one thing” was discovery.

In forests where the native village of Orapakes lay, I found Pocahontas whose “one thing” was to bring peace between peoples.

Even before Jamestown was settled, as Robert Hunt stepped from one of the first ships to Virginia soil, he prayed a blessing over the new land, and his “one thing” was to see the country not only experience the amazingness of the Gospel personally but for it to spread to the next generation and eventually the entire world.

Joan Pierce’s “one thing” may have been to use her skills of gardening for the good of the colony.

There were men who lead murderous expeditions and slaughtered the natives, perhaps with the “one thing” of achieving fame or power.

The list goes on and on. Every hero, every remembered name, had something they desired and aimed to achieve, from sacrificial and heroic to cruel and overbearing.

As I wrote the story of so many heroes, I also found individuals who’ve nearly been forgotten.  For example, three gentlemen—Rose, Scott, and Morrell—lived full lives, leaving behind only their names and the title of their jobs: laborers. There’re countless others who are names in history that we imagine up stories for, but their true “one things” are forgotten, buried like dusty pages of a book on a high, abandoned shelf. Their tales are forgotten, and it was a huge honor for me to prayerfully research their stories then write a truth-packed adventure that, I pray, gives them continued purpose today.

Like forgotten heroes, the rest of my story is yet to be written. So is yours.

God invites us to pursue our “one thing” that defines our lives, and I’m guessing the heroes you admire have similar dreams to the ones stirring in you. You may desire to be an author like someone, an explorer like someone, or a business person like someone else.

You have one choice. One watermelon to cultivate.

And you’re invited to,

“...continually set your hearts, before all else, on (God’s) Kingdom and the salvation that comes from him.” (Matthew 6:33)

Before all else.

Yet Jesus warns,

“No one can be a slave of two masters... You cannot be slaves of both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)

Following Jesus isn’t like having a little melon titled “religion” that you let grow on your vine along with your other passions and pursuits. It’s also not having a “Jesus” melon and another melon the same size. It’s only Him. It’s knowing Him deeply and allowing Him to not only be Savior but also Lord, Friend, Master. It’s allowing Him to prune any competing fruit so He is our “one thing.” That relationship with Him, that transformation, changes your entire life, and He often then beautifully takes your gifts, talents, and relationships and uses them in crazy ways beyond your imagination!

In the Bible, Jesus tells us that to follow Him means losing everything... but He also tells us what our future hope is: a restoration like Eden (Isaiah 51:3) where Jesus is King over all governments (Revelation 17:14), resurrected bodies with strength and healing (1 Corinthians 15), an inheritance that Jesus Himself shares with us (Romans 8:17), and that’s not even mentioning the amazingness of every day life with His Spirit in us!

In my life, Jesus asked if He was worth losing everything to find, and the answer is a resounding “yes!”

It’s meant sacrifice, denial, loss of friendships, yet it’s been the sweetest, most life-giving, and joyful thing I’ve experienced. As I walk in Him, He’s allowed me to use the gifts and dreams I have for His coming Kingdom, and it’s purposeful beyond what my childhood dreams ever were. I can know God! I can be His daughter! I can live life with Him who loves me most in this world!

Jesus is my one thing. Is He yours?

He invites us but also warns,

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Surely he is going to sit down, before anything else, and figure out the cost to see if he has what he needs to bring the job to a satisfactory finish, isn’t he? Of course! Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation but isn’t able to bring the tower to completion, all who see it will begin to do what? Mock him... In the same way, therefore, any of you who refuses to give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:28-29, 33)

The heroes of Jamestown left behind their legacies, and writing historical fiction has given me the honor of exploring them and weaving a tale that highlights the truth of the Gospel in beautiful, individual, broken lives—all invited to restoration.

If someone wrote my story one day, I hope they never define my “one thing” as being an author, a writer, a sister, an encourager, or anything else. Those are such good gifts I love, but they’re not what I seek first.

Following Jesus is the ultimate treasure in life and the best prize we can attain; so I challenge you, what’s your “one thing” going to be?

About the author

Because of the grace of God, Hosanna Emily is a warrior poet: a warrior because God is her Father (which makes her a crazy-in-love princess) and she lives fighting to be faithful for the day His Kingdom will come and a poet because she loves beautiful, truth-filled words. Thus, she fills her journal with poetry, her blog with urges to live for Jesus, and then writes books on top of that.

On a normal day, you may find her homemaking on the family farm, going on long walks, singing worship, cooking healthy food, playing Frisbee, randomly dancing the Virginia Reel, dreaming of Jesus' coming Kingdom, and enjoying life with her family of more than a dozen amazing people and her church family of even more.

Links:

Blog: Having a Heart Like His

Books: Amazon.com: Hosanna Emily: books, biography, latest update

Instagram: @hosanna.emily

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