A Book Happened

If you click on the image, you’ll see the Amazon listing for the paperback edition. 

Not What I Imagined

That’s an odd way for me to put it, isn’t it? Not “I wrote a book,” but “a book happened.” I don’t mean anything clever or coy–honest.

I’m still trying to figure out how this book came to be. Not that I didn’t plan to write a book–if you’ve read the About Godspotting page here, then you know I felt a call to write for God back in 2009. I started blogging as a warm-up exercise before tackling the book He told me to write.

I wasn’t expecting this book. I was positive He wanted me to write a deep, heartfelt story about His love for us, or my love for Him, or how He reached out to me when I was mired in the quicksand of bad, selfish choices and rescued me. I thought He wanted me to share a story that might bring others closer to Him.

Silly me.

I thought He wanted me to tell my story. After all, everyone I know is writing a memoir. (And they’re beautiful, insightful, inspiring memoirs.) When the opportunity to write a novel was extended to me, I accepted. I’m not really a fiction writer, I told myself, but it’s the mark of a professional to take an opportunity to work in multiple genres. The justification I created went something like that.

Not surprisingly, the writing was hard.  Writing is always hard. No matter how much you love to write, it’s still hard. But I added an additional layer of difficulty: I convinced myself that writing this book was delaying my real calling. I had to finish this book before I could get to the book God wanted me to write.

I finished the book and looked up to find myself in a fog of confusion. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Things seemed kind of crooked, maybe, or off-kilter. I remember telling my pastor, Something’s going on in my heart but I can’t figure out what it is.

Friends, it was this: After fretting and struggling and trying to understand for a week or so, God finally spelled it out for me.

My Child, He said, don’t you think I can use this book to bless people? Why can’t you see that this book is the one I wanted from you? 

(Actually I think He began with You dimwit rather than My Child, but that’s another story for another day.)

I’ve learned so much in the process of writing this book. One of the most important lessons is this:

You can make up any story you want, so long as it tells the truth. 

Teach me to do Your will,
For You are my God;
Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

Psalm 143:10 (NASB)