are you pre-, mid-, or post-?

I remember, years ago, listening in on conversations that dealt with pre-, mid-, and post-. These conversations revolved around people's opinions on when Jesus was going to return to earth: pre-tribulation, mid-trib, or post-trib. I never really saw the point of these conversations because I thought, really, Jesus will come when he darn well wants to.

Today, (on twitter, of course) I discovered another kind of post- thing concept. It's called post-publication depression. Never heard of it before. But it got me thinking...

Post-publication depression. What triggers that? Maybe the high wave you ride of the excitement of publication followed by the sudden low of... nothing after that. Yeah, I can see that. Good to be made aware.

Then the faint memory of the conversations of my past got me thinking some more...

How about pre-, and even mid-publication depression? Actually, I've had those! And what were the triggers?

My own thoughts.

Pre-pub depression: "This will never get published." "Why would I even venture to think that anyone would want to read this book?" "I'm a nobody" "Maybe I should just forget about it and stick to my day job!"

Mid-pub depression: "Why do I have so many edits? See! I knew it! I'm really not a good writer after all!" "Gak! People are going to read my book! What if they think it sucks?" "Why is this taking so long?" "What if no one buys it?"

Not looking forward to the post-pub thoughts.

Anyway, after my moment of introspection, (I just taught that word to my ESL students yesterday during a lesson on the root word "spect" so it's fresh on my tongue) I realized that no matter how much I think or worry or plan, what will be will be. My inner-monologues during pre-, mid-, or post- make no difference to what will actually happen in the end, or what is happening in the here and now. All I do is waste precious moments being consumed by what I think MIGHT happen. And those thoughts could potentially paralyze me into doing nothing at all. Yikes!

So, I guess I'm pre-, mid-, AND post-. Before, during, and after.

And yeah, come to think of it, "publication" and "tribulation" could very well be synonymous. And Jesus can show up anytime he darn well wants to.