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Re:Word Weekly – 2/24/12

Feb 24

Re:Word is a weekly roundup of stories on faith, relationships, and the creative life.

1. How Big Is Your BUT? – Watch Lysa TerKeurst's webcast on overcoming excuses. (via @LysaTerKeurst)

2. On Writing The Perfect Ending – Sue Brower (Executive Editor at Zondervan) shares proven wisdom for making your romance, women's lit, or suspense story go out with bang. (via @acfwTweets).

3. The Cost of Not Failing - The engrossing story of would-be comedy star Duke Fightmaster leads Ed Czyewski to observe, "When we refuse to fail, we rob ourselves of important lessons … and prevent ourselves from taking important steps forward." (via @TheHighCalling).

4. Four Ways to Be a Better Friend by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp).

5. What about Purgatory? asks author and scholar Scot McKnight… (@scotmcknight)

The poet Dante presents his poem "Purgatorio" to the city of Florence.

6. Five Ways to Spice Things Up with Your Spouse by author Sheila Wray Gregoire (@sheilagregoire)

7. 19 tips for authors (and aspiring authors) by Seth Godin. If you're not familiar with Godin, he's an incredibly entrepreneurial (and busy) thinker, writer, and marketer — so I'm not surprised his first love is for self-publishing. We disagree on a few points about publishing (i.e., Tip #7), but even when Godin isn't right he's worth considering. Here are two of my favorites from the list:

The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you'll need later.

Pay for an ~~eidtor~~ editor. Not just to fix the typos, but to actually make your ramblings into something that people will choose to read… One of the things traditional publishers used to do is provide really insightful, even brilliant editors… but alas, that doesn't happen very often.*

(*I can't speak for the personnel at other publishers, but my editor colleagues at Zondervan are insightful and even brilliant. // I tip my hat to Zondervan author @pastorbrady for bringing Godin's post to my attention.)

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan

(Disclosure: Some Re:Word stories are by Zondervan authors. Some are not. All regard words or the Word, and all are useful / enriching / or just flat-out interesting. Image attribution: Domenico Di Michelino [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer shares these personal opinions for information purposes only. To receive new blogposts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

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Closed Door Stories: Looking Back on God’s Love

Oct 05

God just closed a door. That’s because (A) He loves me, (B) He doesn’t love me.

We posed that question yesterday, and the reader response on Facebook confirmed that many of us are dealing with confusing and frustrating “closed doors.” Closed doors might make some of us wonder if God is really up to something good in our lives — maybe He’s judging us, or maybe He isn’t even paying attention!

My Zondervan teammates and I can relate to those struggles, and we hope to encourage you. Below you’ll find a couple of our personal stories that share how God has used closed doors to reveal his faithfulness and goodness to us. We pray that you will know God’s loving presence in your struggle, too.

First, if you missed the Daily Inspiration email that kicked off this conversation, here’s the excerpt from Max Lucado’s God’s Story, Your Story.

When God locks a door, it needs to be locked. When he blocks a path, it needs to be blocked. When he stuck Paul and Silas in prison, God had a plan for the prison jailer. As Paul and Silas sang, God shook the prison. “At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose” (Acts 16:26).

There God goes again, blasting open the most secure doors in town. When the jailer realized what had happened, he assumed all the prisoners had escaped. He drew his sword to take his life. When Paul told him otherwise, the jailer brought the two missionaries out and asked, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). Paul told him to believe. He did, and he and all his family were baptized. The jailer washed their wounds, and Jesus washed his sins. God shut the door of the jail cell so that he could open the heart of the jailer.

God uses closed doors to advance his cause.

He closed the womb of a young Sarah so he could display his power to the elderly one.
He shut the palace door on Moses the prince so he could open shackles through Moses the liberator.
He marched Daniel out of Jerusalem so he could use Daniel in Babylon.
And Jesus. Yes, even Jesus knew the challenge of a blocked door. When he requested a path that bypassed the cross, God said no. He said no to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane so he could say yes to us at the gates of heaven…

Your blocked door doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you. Quite the opposite. It’s proof that he does.

“Closed Door” Stories from the Zondervan Crew

First, Jonathan shares:

One of the first tangible “closed door” experiences in my adult life was when my wife miscarried our first child. We had been married less than a year, and it wasn’t a planned pregnancy. The unexpected joy of the pregnancy was almost immediately contrasted with the shock of its loss. We were struck with life’s big questions: Why does God bring these experiences into our lives? What’s the purpose of pain? Why is life created, only to be snuffed out? Does God display his power over us occasionally, just to remind us who’s boss?

Those kinds of questions can’t be answered in a day or by the sing-songy clichés of a greeting card. Through the support of others, prayer, grieving, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, we were able to find rest in the truth that God does love us and the child we never got to meet. Pain and struggle in this world are the result of sin, but God is faithful to use even those experiences to bring us closer to him. Our hope was deferred for a moment. About a year later, we welcomed our second child, James, into the world.

-Jonathan

Stories of Christmas Songs

Dec 14

Guest post by Ace Collins. For more Christmas info and discussion from authors Ace Collins, Amy Clipston and others, visit Facebook.com/ReclaimingChristmas.

Christmas songs never really leave us. Like clockwork, they come back annually to set the holiday mood. They are less like old songs and more like familiar friends—just like the folks who sing them. Without holiday hits, entertainers like Bing Crosby and Perry Como may have faded into the past and their hit songs would have been buried in another era. But because of their holiday hits, these performers now come back to us each year with the regularity of Santa himself. Yes, Bing and Perry, as well as so many others—including a group of mischievous rodents, The Chipmunks, and a rocker named Elvis—make our holidays sing.

If you think about it, Christmas songs are like time machines: just hearing a few notes from our favorite holiday tunes can magically transport us to a cherished moment from our past. These carols are powerful musical greeting cards reminding each of us of the joy that is coming this Christmas season, as well as the wonderful love and glad tidings from past holidays as well.

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