42 months later (give or take a few weeks)

i'm a little overwhelmed as i have watched the response to the announcement that my first book is available for purchase on Amazon.  i use the term "first book" very loosely, as --- at least today --- i have no intention of doing this again any time soon.  This author business is not for sissies.

"Becoming Eve" is not the book that i had in my creative mind when i first decided to try to write something substantial.  However, the convergence of my own experience with the heartache and disappointment that i heard from one woman after another began to reveal a pattern of misinformation, sin and unbelief around our gender that it seemed i needed to address.  I thought it would be relatively simple to write my own story with a solid theological foundation and some amusing anecdotes and applications. 

Forty-two long months later, the book is finished.  Sigh.

The process was slow in part because i have a full-time job and a very busy family.  But primarily the writing was slow because i am still learning.  Having been married 33 years and raised two children and after almost 25 years in ministry, i am still becoming Eve. The transforming process that the book describes has been my story all along, and i have some distance to go.  And honestly, that's a little daunting.  To write as if i am an expert at godly womanhood when i know the state of my soul, the tenor of our home and the propensity to be anything but a godly woman has threatened to paralyze me.

At the end of the day, the Lord wrote this book.  i know that sounds hyper-spiritual, but it really has been my experience.  Often, as i was working with my editor, i would read a paragraph and think to myself:  "Seriously, where did this come from?"  God has been so faithful throughout every single stage of this effort.  Many, many days i wanted to quit (and i did...for months at a time...).  But He has gently and kindly prodded me on and we are finally done.  i have absolutely no idea if this book will benefit anyone else --- but it's writing has benefitted me.  i am becoming Eve and, by His grace and for His glory, i am more a "life giver" than i was 42 months ago. 

That's who she was, you know.  Eve.  A helper and a life giver.  That was the plan from the beginning....

You'll have to read the book.  I hope it will encourage you...and challenge you...and equip you.  If you read it, please don't hesitate to let me know what you think. 

In the meantime, i'm grateful and humbled by the response of my friends and family.  "Thank you" seems trite.  So i'll trust the Lord to bless you for your kindness to me.  This will not be a day that i soon forget.

p.s.  If you are local and would like to purchase the book from me (no shipping cost), let me know.  i should have copies in my office next week.