It has been a joy to spend time this week at a large Christian convention where I was able to tell the story of God’s work in my life. Sometimes when God does His work in our life, it is obvious to all who see. Other times His work is done in a way that it is easy for people, even ourselves, to think it is our work. When we begin to tell the story and give God the credit it can be a great encouragement to others but it also should bring joy to the one telling as it reminds us of God’s incredible love.

The story of my first book, “Seeking God: Poetic Devotions For a Life of Prayer”, is simply a story of God’s hand at work in my mind and life. Interacting with people at the convention, some of them authors themselves, made me realize the amount of hard work that is typically represented by a book. As people would look through the book, a common response centered around how much work it must have been to reach this point. At first I felt guilty hearing that type of remark but it didn’t take long until I began to see those comments as a great opportunity to tell the story and give God the credit.

The book, “Seeking God”, came entirely out of my prayer time! Up until this book I had not written a poem nor had I spent any time reading poems. Yet on December 17, 2013, as I was praying about some decisions I needed to make and some responses that needed given, a poem appeared in my mind fully formed. It was as if it was stuck there and wouldn’t leave until I typed it out. My initial thought was, “That was odd!” Over the next weeks, the poems kept coming and I began to share them with friends and on social media. It wasn’t long before people began telling me that I needed to put them in a book. I kept putting it off — “I only have a handful of poems, not enough to even think about a book.” The excuses were easy, yet the poems kept coming and people kept asking so in early January I had a small booklet printed and began to share it with people. Then a few weeks later a second booklet soon to be followed by a third with a total of 60 original poems spread between the three booklets!

With the encouragement of friends and family, I began to research book publishing and found that no one really wanted to publish a book of poems. Yet in my search, I was pointed toward a printing company that turned out to be easy to work with and it wasn’t long before I was holding a proof copy of this book that has me listed as the author! At every level, I know that this was completely the work of God in my life and in my mind. On March 17, 2014, three months to the day of the first poem showing up in my mind, the first official copies of “Seeking God: Poetic Devotions For a Life of Prayer” were printed! It is a one hundred sixty page book of sixty original poems with prayer points written for each poem. That doesn’t happen through man’s effort or might, but through the mighty hand of God as I listened and shared what He was giving.

I don’t know what God is doing in your life but I encourage you to tell the story and give God the credit!