Book?

Hi friends,

I've shared with a few people over the years that the Lord has given me a desire to write a book. I've also been encouraged by a few of you to do such a thing. I've been seeking the Lord and praying about this for some time now, waiting for the right time.

I'm at a point now where it may be the right time. I've grown a lot in the past few years, and I've become pretty solid on what the concept of the potential book would be. That was never fully the case before. Anyway, through a series of events I've come to where I've arrived now, thinking I'd really like to get started on this. A lot of the busyness of summer is over, and the kids are back in school. I don't go to work until 1pm everyday, so I have my mornings 'free.' I say 'free' loosely, because with my wife and I both working full time, I do my share of things around the house, such as laundry, dishes, etc. My mornings are also generally a time when I'm more able to communicate with the friends who live in my computer! :)

But anyway, without all the noise and the distractions of "dad, dad!" all morning long (which I do miss right now - you don't know what you've got till it's gone!), I've been thinking that this is an opportune time to try to get focused.

And so I bring to you these prayer requests!

I love writing - but I'm not a very disciplined writer unless I force myself to be. I blog kind of haphazardly - which is really ok with me because I'm not trying to be deeply intellectual or deeply theological. I'm just sharing what's on my heart. If it appears intellectual or theological, it's generally by mistake... LOL... or simply because it's what's truly on my heart at the time.

However, in writing a book, I don't want to be so haphazard. Yes, I want to share my heart, but I also want it to be something that will stand the test of time. I want it to flow, and to be an easy read, and to not be "too" theological or doctrinal, while at the same time not neglecting the truth of scripture for even an instant.

I also have to say that I have always written at my best when I've been under pressure. That is, when I've had a deadline. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know! I always got A's and B's on writing assignments in school - but I always waited until the very last possible moment to begin writing. For example, I took a Human Dynamics college course about a decade ago. At the beginning of the quarter, we received an assignment that would be due at the end of the quarter. A pretty big assignment. Well, it was the Friday before the Monday that it was due, and I hadn't so much as started working on it! I worked on it the entire weekend, and I got an A! Of course, at the time we had no kids and no other major responsibilities in life like we do now, so I'm sure that helped. ;)

Like I said, I'm not a disciplined writer unless I have to be! In writing 20 monthly articles for my church between 2005 and 2007, I worked well when I knew the articles were due. I say all this to say that as of right now, I don't have a "deadline" for writing a book. So... it's very easy for me, if I'm not feeling disciplined to write or concentrate for a length of time, to put it off till another time.

Also, one major difference between blogging and writing a book is that blogging generally involves one "topic" at a time. Same with writing an article. That makes it pretty easy for me to do. But with writing a book, there's a "bigger picture" involved, and all the individual paragraphs and chapters need to sort of flow to make up the big picture. Like I said, I have the big picture in mind, but breaking it down into sections and chapters, especially ones that make some sort of sense when they're put together, seems kind of overwhelming to me. My thought, and something my brother suggested to me a couple of months ago, is to come up with some sort general description of the book, and then a brief outline that breaks it all into sections/chapters.

I'm sure that will be of great help. I'll just say that I've always hated outlines! I see their purpose and benefit, but I hate doing them!

I think what I'm trying to say is that writing a full book involves a lot of planning and thinking... and of course, work, and I'm asking for your prayers in putting all of this together! Throughout all of this, I'm keeping in the forefront of my mind and heart that this is Father's work, not mine. It involves the physical and mental work and concentration of my body and mind, but it's Father who's doing it in and through me.

I would also ask that if anyone has any experience, advice, tips or suggestions that might help in this process, feel free to share them with me, either in the comments section or through email (my email address is on the side of the blog).

Thanks so much! The message of God's grace has obviously forever changed my life. I've learned a great deal, and I'm always continuing to learn, and my hope is to keep passing on the message of truth and grace that sets people free.

"Don't think about it so much"

I like thinking. I like thinking so much that I do it all the time. :) Ok, so maybe it's not a matter of whether or not I like thinking. It just happens. However, in Christ I do have the power to take control of my thoughts and to not let them carry me away. Our thought-lives have the potential of being very destructive if we don't intentionally guide our thoughts with the truth of God's word, renewing our minds to the truth of who God is and who we are in Him.

Sometimes our thought-lives can be quite humorous! One day when my son was 4 years old he had sort of a puzzled look on his face and finally he said, “Daddy, I try to stop thinking but I can’t.”

I wasn’t exactly sure if I’d heard him right so I said, “What???”

He said, “I try to stop but it keeps doing it.”

I replied, “What keeps doing it?”

He said, "My head."

:D

There's no such a thing as a switch to turn off our "thinker." But again, we want to take our thoughts captive rather than being captive to our thoughts. In the past I've shared how I overcame panic attacks through scripture and through turning my trust over to God. Through a counselor who I met with in my late teens (shortly after my panic attacks began) I had come to see that my panic attacks were partly due to thinking about things too much and especially worrying about things. I didn't realize that I was over-thinking things and over-analyzing things, and worrying about things so much. Unfortunately, although my counselor did help me to see the cause of my problem, she didn't speak the truth that I needed to hear to overcome my problem. It wasn't until 2 or 3 years later that I overcame by the truth of God's word.

This post is mainly just a reminder to us all (including myself) that we can turn all our thoughts and worries over to God - all of our thoughts and worries - and walk in the truth of His word. He loves us and cares for us. We can cast all our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:7). We don't need to endlessly think about all these things. If we simply include God in our thought lives (He is, after all, One with us, as 1 Cor 6:17 says), then we can think restfully rather than anxiously. God is not the author of confusion, but of peace (1 Cor 14:33), and He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7).

I've been thinking about some of this lately, and my thoughts were highlighted through a conversation with a lady who works in housekeeping at some of the places I visit daily for my job.  This lady has shared with me lots of times about how she is a worrier and how she really thinks way too much about things. A few days ago we were talking about this again and she told me that most of the time she'll focus in on one thing and she'll be obsessed with that one thing and she can't let it go and she'll let it bother her all day long. She says that occasionally that one thought will turn into several thoughts and she'll be overwhelmed by many thoughts instead of just one. Can anyone relate? :)

Well, on Sunday evening here at home, my daughter opened the wrapper of a little Dove chocolate. Each individual wrapper has a saying on the inside, and my daughter read hers out loud. The wrapper says:

"Don't think about it so much."

Ha ha! I really got a kick out of that. I'm saving the wrapper to give to my housekeeping friend. And to top it all off, as my innocent and naive little daughter was reading the wrapper again, she looked somewhat confused and she asked, "Don't think about what so much?" "What is 'it'?" We laughed and we explained that "it" means "anything that you may be thinking about too much!"

I'm pretty positive that this saying will not help anyone to automatically stop over-thinking things. In fact it's one of those things that we could easily and unintentionally turn into a law or rule that in the end works the opposite of what we intended. However, I do think that it can be used as a good reminder that in our lives in Christ, we have been made free and we shouldn't let our thoughts control us and take us over.