The Spectacular Gifts Have Arrived

What a blast!  Opening a box including books with my name on the cover!  This time last year I would have called you crazy if you had said this would happen in 2017 but it did!

 

 

I am truly humbled by this whole experience.  God has certainly taken the wheel on this journey because I never saw any of this coming.  I picked the books up on Monday and by Wednesday I had booked two book signings — one as the first author to do a book signing at a new, local bookstore in my neighborhood.  Listen, I am a sales professional so I can assure you nothing ever happens this easily or quickly.  Someone else is at work here.

Also, I did not pay a penny for these books.  The money to cover the self-publishing costs was supplied to me in a spectacular way.  Back at Easter I was trying to decide IF I was going to have the book published and, IF I did, how I was going to pay the substantial cost.  I prayed about it and came up with the idea that if I could, with the Lord’s favor, sell a few more insurance policies then I could fund the publishing that way.  But, that wasn’t good enough for God.  He impressed upon me during my morning quiet time that these books are to be a gift, like Jesus was a gift.  “Let me do something spectacular!” was the message I heard.  You see, I am something of a control freak.  I had already figured out in my head how I could WORK to pay for these books.  God had other plans.

The husband and I were in East Tennessee visiting our daughter and family for my May birthday.  While there, my brother-in-law handed me a check for a large sum of money.  He laughed and said it was for my birthday but I knew that the money was an installment payment from the sale of some jointly owned property.  I played along and put the check in my purse.  I even kidded with my husband about what I was going to buy for my birthday with MY big check.

The next Sunday, after missing church due to my trip to East Tennessee, a young woman came up to me with a thick envelope.  “This is for you.”  She said someone she didn’t know gave it to her to give to me but I hadn’t been there.  I slit it open and found a wad of $20 bills.  I was speechless (which is rare).  The note inside said it was for my books.

I was excited about the “spectacular” gift but it also made me feel a little sick at my stomach.  Where did this money come from?  Maybe that person needed the money more than I did.  Turns out I am a better gift giver than gift receiver.  Finally, I had to gratefully receive the gift and put it to good use.

So, OK, now I needed to get the rest of the money in some “spectacular” way.  As I discussed how much more I needed and by when, my husband said, “You already have the rest of the money.  That check, remember?”  Oh, dear, you guys are making this hard for me.  Accepting a wad of money from an unknown person is one thing but having my husband willingly support my project in this spectacular way was extremely humbling.

Two members of my church, who knew I was waiting for “spectacular” money, work at my local bank.  When I went inside to make my deposit, we laughed and cried a little about the spectacular gifts.  Together the two gifts more than covered all the publication costs of the book.

These spectacular gifts of love and grace will enable me to share this book with lots of broken people and God’s message through scripture will help them find some purpose from their brokenness.  I will sell lots of books and that will cover the cost of the next printing. But I will also be able to give some away because they were all spectacular gifts!

 

 

 

Glad it didn’t work out with the British

Last week was July the 4th and our annual neighborhood parade.  We have participated almost every year since we moved here in 2003.  While she was still able, my sweet mommy would ride in the front seat of the convertible and wave a small American flag to our neighbors standing in front of their houses as we passed by.

The grands have rode in the parade many years with mixed levels of excitement.  I thought for sure my grandson who will be 16 next week would want to drive Grandpa’s convertible in the parade.  Instead, it was me driving, my embarrassed 12 year old granddaughter on the boot and my daughter holding her dog, Ace, in the front seat.  My grandson did not even get out of bed to watch us drive slowly by.

I think next year it may be me and Ace.

All this got me thinking about how thankful I am to live free in a place where you can have a neighborhood parade.

 

I am glad the early colonists weren’t able to work it all out with the British.

My husband and I enjoy watching TURN: Washington’s Spies about the early days of the American Revolution.  Sometimes during the series, I will forget that I know the outcome and I will be worried for Washington and his Continental Army.  The methods of communication were painfully slow and unreliable.  It wasn’t like you could text someone and say, “The British are coming!”

Perhaps if there had been better communication, the founding fathers could have just picked up the phone and called someone on King George’s staff to voice their discontent with the taxation.  Better yet, John Adams could have Skyped King George himself and settled all the issues in one video chat.  I’m really glad they didn’t.

Broken communications can cause broken relationships.  Broken relationships can lead to broken hearts.  Like most brokenness, it sometimes takes years before you can find any purpose in all that misery.  Sometimes it takes 241 years.

A New Bride; A New Promise

Yes, this is me as a new bride in 1971.  My sister is dropping a new, 1971 penny in my shoe for luck.  I still have those shoes in a box somewhere.  The penny is probably in the box,  too.  As best as I can remember, I only wore those shoes that one time.  My homemade wedding dress is hanging in my closet yellowed by the 46 years that have passed.

The promise those two, crazy teenagers made to each other that rainy day in June has not yellowed, though.  It was not put in a box and forgotten in a closet.  Our relationship has been stretched but never broken.  Our hearts still beat for one another.  Our promise has been made stronger by the passing of years and parents.

I guess I am nostalgic because there is a new bride in our family.  My sister’s GRANDDAUGHTER is getting married next week.  Mercy me, time passes quickly!  Can that little baby girl possibly be a college graduate and getting married?!?  And so a new promise begins.  This sacred promise that they will love each other above any other human being.  My prayer for this new bride and groom is that they will have an unbreakable bond sealed with a sacred promise.  A promise sealed with a wedding kiss.

The Final Edit

Final Print Review.  That is what the spine of the maroon binder says.  The devotional that I wrote on assignment for my church is almost a real book.  It is surreal.  It has happened so fast.  Now, I am scrambling to plan a marketing strategy.

My publisher said, “Read every page.”  Final is, well, final.  To this point, I have purposely NOT read every page again for fear that I would want to re-write every page.  But, now I will.  After all, this is the final edit.

I am so glad that God provides us with grace.  There is so much brokenness.  Mistakes happen.  It is good to know that God gives us a chance to re-write a chapter of our life.  Of course, the final review will come one day.  Until then, we continue to search for our purpose in this crazy, broken world.

Finding purpose from brokenness

So, I have always wanted to write a book. Hasn’t everyone? It has been said that 80% of Americans have the desire to write a book. That’s 200 million people! Well, I finally did it!

I have been writing in some form since I was about 13. I won’t tell you how many years ago that was but some of you can do the math. For the past three years or so, I have been writing weekly study material for my church that is used by various small groups in our local congregation. This study material accompanies the weekly sermon. Last December, my pastor emailed me to ask if it would be possible for me to write a daily devotional type study to accompany his new 12-week series on the topic of broken which was starting in January. It was an interesting idea so I said, “Sure, let me see what I can do.” Over the next two weeks, I wrote twenty daily devotionals with Bible references and study questions. January’s four weeks were printed in the church office and was available for distribution to the congregation on Sunday, January 1. We were off and running!

What pastor didn’t know was that I had just lost about 75% of my self-employed income due to changes in the insurance market. I had plenty of time to write. With January finished, I went straight to work on February and March. As I dug deep into the topic of brokenness, I began to realize that it was just what I needed to minister to the brokenness that I was feeling. All my hard work and dreams for the future had been broken. I was scrambling to recover. My spirit needed healing and digging into God’s word was just what I needed to mend my brokenness.

I was really sad when my writing assignment ended. Then it occurred to me that in two months I had accomplished a lifelong dream — I had written a book. Friends and family started asking how they could get a copy of my Bible study. I checked into printing it at the local office supply — it was too thick and way too expensive. So, after much prayer and discussion, I called my writing guild friend who is a self-publisher to get it printed professionally like a real book. Well, my first book, BROKEN: Finding purpose from brokenness, is well underway and should be available the first of July.  Exciting!

And, yes, I have another project underway. When you get into a habit of writing every day, you miss it so I had to start on book number two!