Exciting News!

Hello friends. First off, I wanted to say I’m sorry that my posts have been a bit scattered lately. It’s been all I could manage to just keep dinner on the table and clean clothes in the drawers, life has been FULL. I try really hard to make my first priority protecting my kids from feeling the effects of bustle and busyness, so they are happy but it’s the blog that gets neglected!

But there’s news. Good news. Great news.  Some of you have already heard, but … we finally have a publisher. Last night, in a hurried moment between dinner dishes and women’s Bible study, I signed a book contract.  Sacred Mundane: Let your days transform your life comes out in 2017 and I’m thrilled.

There are probably a few of you, ol’ faithful friends, who have followed this long journey all along the way.  I won’t bore you with too many details (I’ll save those for the book ;), but about 15 years ago a vision was birthed into my heart and I first wrote the words in my journal:

Sacred Mundane.

I knew, somehow, at that moment, that this was to be the manifesto of my life. And, I sensed strongly, that I was to write a book with this title. This vision came before Jeff, before kids, before speaking or blogging or any of that. This vision has been part of my whole adult life.

For ten years, I just tried to learn about it. I wasn’t actively writing, I just knew I wanted to learn more about how to see God’s power and providence in the details of life, and learn how to grow in glorifying Him in the midst of the mundane.

Nearly five years ago, Jeff lovingly shoved me out of my comfort zone. 😉 He insisted I sign up for a Writer’s Conference (“But I’m not a writer!!”), and even insisted that I schedule a meeting with a literary agent and pitch my book idea. It isn’t the least bit of an exaggeration to say that I was scared out of my mind. I lay in bed the night before, terrified. I didn’t know what to say, I hadn’t the foggiest idea what the book proposal was, let alone how to write one. And worst of all, my meeting was with “the scary guy.” I sent out desperate texts to friends asking them to pray that I didn’t throw up and that no one laughed out loud at me.

To my everlasting amazement, I loved the writer’s conference. I still remember the keynote speaker saying, “If you can do anything else, do it. But if you cannot help but write, if you cannot keep quiet about your message … then write.” I knew then, I had to write. I couldn’t not. And this message was in my bones. To my amazement, the literary agent was hugely encouraging. He told me to write a proposal, and go from there.

I was so thrilled. I remember thinking it might take a few months to find a publisher. (hahahahahahahaha!!!!)

FIVE YEARS LATER.

Almost 3 years ago, I sensed God leading me to let the dream die. Even though it was from Him, I sensed clearly I was supposed to bury it. He showed me that planting and burying look exactly the same in the moment. You dig a grave, bury the dream … and wait.

One year later, I received an email, out of the blue, from an amazing, godly, experienced, wonderful literary agent named David Sanford from Credo Communications. He wanted to represent my book and help me find a publisher. I was actually going to respond no, saying that I had let the book die and needed to let it be dead. But gratefully Jeff (blessed man!) intervened and spoke truth: This IS God bringing it to life! 

And by His amazing grace, He did. One year to the day after “burying” the idea, He birthed a new vision for Sacred Mundane. He gave me fresh ideas and showed me missing parts I had missed before.  And David began faithfully helping me and pitching the project before publishers.

It still took almost 2 years of that. I wanted to quit so many times. It was SO DISCOURAGING. In November, he left me a message asking me to call. I remember thinking, “I hope he’s telling me that he’s ready to quit. He probably realizes this will never happen, and is going to let me down gently and tell me he’s through.” Quite the opposite. He is amazing. So incredibly full of faith, always hopeful, joyful, upbeat, and believing God for doing what seems impossible to us.

There’s another interesting part of the story, but I’ll save that for later.

For now, I just wanted to share that I am thrilled to be partnering with Kregel to publish Sacred Mundane. I also want to ask for your patience these next 5 months as I finish the manuscript. My priority is making sure that MY mundane is still sacred; that is, I want my man and my kids to still get plenty of mama and not feel neglected. So, there may be times that blog posts are less regular. Thank you for grace.

And thank you for reading! I’m so grateful for YOU, faithful wonderful friends and fellow sojourners along this faith journey. You are such a gift to me.

And now I’m off to fold laundry. 🙂

#sacredmundane