Resolved: Tell More Stories
One Sentence Inspiration
Here’s a one sentence paradox consistent with the joy of Christmas. Happy Christmas, friends.
“We are cradled close in your hands-and lavishly flung forth.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke
One Sentence Inspiration
“We will sense you [God] like a fragrance from a nearby garden and watch you move through our days like a shaft of sunlight in a sickroom.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Breaking News
Well, friends, it looks like A Small Cup of Light has finally made it really big! After only three months on the market, the book has reached the dog demographic. Traditionally difficult to please, the dog market still has a wide reach and might, if pleased with the book, catapult my debut effort to the New York Times Bestseller list. Reviews from dogs worldwide are still pending…I’ll keep you posted!
(This beautiful dog belongs to friends of mine. They say he has claimed his copy of the book. Look for Shiloh’s review of the book in The Bark magazine and Modern Dog magazine.
Shopping for Christmas presents?
Get the paperback for less then 10.00 and the Kindle version for about 7.00 bucks HERE!
Food For Thought: A Theological Praise of Roosters
I live on the fringe of suburbia with all that comes with living there, including the white picket fence. Although farms and their open fields are only a stone’s throw away, it’s not very often that I hear a rooster. I heard one, however, the other morning. Its voice brashly cut the crisp, silent air. Honestly, it felt like everything, including me and the distant cars, shuffled off our sleep and wandered more alertly into the dawning day because the rooster crowed.
That experience nudged a little thought slowly into my mind: a rooster can’t help waking up and pronouncing to a drowsy world that the morning has come. Is it possible that God wired a rooster to proclaim the coming dawn and thereby to remind us that God’s mercies are new every morning?
It occurred to me on that cold morning that if even a dumb animal can rise early to alert the sleeping world that a new day has dawned and, with it, new mercies, then why can’t I? Why am I prone to stumble through my morning, bereft of the joy that comes with a new day? That tendency is worth exploring, it seems to me, if only to remind us of the fundamental need we have for mercies that are renewed each day.
Ironically, a rooster’s call haunted Peter his whole life. Each time he heard one, the sting of shame probably knocked on the door of his mind. It was, after all, the rooster’s cry that heralded his betrayal of Christ. And yet that the same rooster call also proclaims the deep, theological fact that God’s mercies are new every morning. Ironic, isn’t it?
Every morning, the rooster cries out to the world, “Wake up! Wake up! Yes, rise and shine and give God ALL the glory.”
What if we did the same?
Would our lives be different?
Would the world change?
Even a rooster reminds us that it’s time to tell a new story.
One Sentence Inspiration
“Whom should I turn to, if not the one whose darkness is darker than night, the only one who keeps vigil with no candle, and is not afraid-the deep one, whose being I trust, for it breaks through the earth into trees, and rises, when I bow my head, faint as a fragrance from the soil.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke
The Life Changing Gift You’re Looking For
Tired of buying ties, sweaters, and garden gnomes? If you’re not sure what to buy your friends for Christmas, I’ve got great news! A Small Cup of Light is now available in paperback, hardback, and Kindle versions. Just click on the version you prefer below and you’ll be teleported directly to the Amazon page you need.
If you’ve read A Small Cup of Light, then I don’t need to convince you of its power to change lives. You might already have a list of friends who need the book.
If you haven’t read A Small Cup of Light, then here’s a quick peak:
A Small Cup of Light is the story of an unexpected encounter with God in the desert of despair. Several years ago, I suffered a sudden and massive health collapse that crippled many of my faculties nearly overnight. That experience prompted me to ask the hard questions, like, “What shall we do when confronted with the ache of our suffering in the presence of a living God?” That health crisis turned my life upside down and exposed the myths I was telling myself. Now I’m learning to live my story more intentionally, more joyfully, and with greater vulnerability. My story is proof that a relationship with God can be more intimate not in spite of suffering, but because of suffering. A Small Cup of Light is a bold invitation to face God in the darkness. It is a rousing call to the human spirit, offering hope to the hopeless and a song to the suffering.
- J.I. Packer, author of Knowing God, called the book, “Haunting, deeply pondered, and beautifully written.”
- Jerry Sittser, author of A Grief Observed, called it “Stunning…a superb book in every way.”
- One Amazon reviewer wrote this: “Don’t miss this book, whether you are in the midst of a period of darkness, depression, physical suffering, loneliness, tragedy, or know someone who is, this book is for you. You will come away with a new or renewed perspective on suffering.”
We live in a broken world with broken people. If you’d like to encourage, comfort, and inspire those whom you love, this book is worth giving to them.
You can visit the book’s web page for more information. Just click HERE. You’ll find everything you need there, including a few book trailers, to know the book better.
Want to share this news with friends? Just click the social share buttons below and help spread the light! Thanks for being a part of this journey with me.
A Poem Resolution
I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out
In a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.
–Credo, by Jack London