So I have to tell you this story and I’m not sure how. Perhaps I could scour the internet for a secret website that has your secret email. But, I think I’ll place it on this random blog post in the context of a random quote. If you read it, it must be providence!

I’ve been a fan for years. In 2001 I graduated college and was presented with two job offers – one in NC [my home] and another in New Jersey. The latter was more enticing but the thought of moving to NJ was mortifying! As I was praying through the decision, I began to read your second/technically first book ‘Through Painted Deserts’. [I know, if I were a true fan I would have read 'Prayer and the art of volkswagen maintenance']

As I turned those first pages, God began to speak to me and He told me I had to leave home so He could take me and my soon-to-be wife on an adventure that would bond us together with Holy Spirit glue.

So we went. And it was beautiful, and fun, and traffic-y.

While we were in NJ, we had the opportunity to attend a creative arts conference where you were speaking – I was thrilled.

One afternoon, in between work shops, my wife wanted to visit an art exhibit. I decided to wait in a small adjacent foyer and enjoy a apple. One minute into my apple, you walked into the same small foyer and you stood there – I suppose waiting for someone too.

I began to speak, but then I realized that you had no clue who I was. I had read all your books and your conversational writing style had fooled my subconsciousness into thinking we were old friends.

So instead of speaking, I propped my leg up on the wall behind me like an awkward cowboy and slowly ate my apple while staring at you.

I was sure I was turn up in a later book as ‘the awkward guy who ate an apple and stared at me’. Maybe you would use me as an analogy regarding Jesus and the church, how I didn’t engage?

All that to say, thanks for being a faithful and willing tool the Lord is using to bless folks like me.

If I’m not mistaken, your first chapters are usually longer than this one? I thought it didn’t necessarily need to be split up into three parts. But I felt like you were just talking to me and telling me whatever came to your mind, which is the way I talk

I think the intro does a great job of giving us food for thought which you will talk about in more detail later in the book. Can’t wait to read it!

Stephen

P.S. I am an aspiring writer, and in everything I write, I try to be honest with people and give them a different point of view. Your books have been a help to me in my walk of faith and a refreshing experience to read. My study group is actually going to use Open Table soon. Hope to meet you someday in Heaven if not on earth.

You are a wonderful writer. I can’t wait to buy the book. Thank you for the stories, the honesty and hospitality of your writing. And the thing about depressed Germans. That was hilarious.

This may be too late now, but I did want to comment on one little thing. The last line of the first chapter sort of landed funny on me; I think it was because compared to the wonderful free sincerity of the rest of it, it felt kind of like it was contrived, like you were just thinking of a clever way to end the chapter.

So, first of all, of course you have something interesting to say; you’re a writer for heaven’s sake! You say interesting things all the time.

Second, one of the things I love most about God is that God doesn’t want me to be interesting. God just wants me to be there. Other people are always wanting me to be interesting. It’s nice not to have that burden with God. I know God will listen without evaluating. And I would love it if God would tell me what it all means sometime.

So, I know you don’t know me at all, and I hope my forthrightness isn’t insulting. But I just wanted to say this, because that one sentence seems so out of kilter with the rest of it.

I can’t wait to get the book. The chapter titles are wonderful. I am eager to see what you have for us next. And you are very brave to put this out there at this early stage. Thank you!

I’m clearly a little late in my thoughts here, but I’d like to shout them out anyway. I like to hear (see) myself talk (type).

- Please, please don’t take out chapter 2. Move it, maybe, if you must, but please don’t take it out. I identified with and enjoyed more content in that chapter than in the whole of Cat’s Cradle or Still Life with Woodpecker.

- I’m going to sound like I’m contradicting myself here, but one thing I noticed is that the first three chapter feel a little…down. It’s not so much that you sound fatalistic, as you described yourself, but that you sound like you’re unsure if you even want to have the philosophical/spiritual/religious discourse with the reader that your book is quite obviously initiating. I felt like you were almost asking me, “Well, I don’t mind talking about this with you, but…are you sure you want to? I’d just as soon not, but if you want to keep reading, I guess that’s fine, too.” Don’t get me wrong – this sense wasn’t overpowering at all…it’s just a very minimal undercurrent that I had to sit and think a long time about, to even figure out what it was. But it’s there, and it distracted me from the rest of what was going on.

- I enjoyed your ruminations about sitting with God and talking for hours or days about the stories of your life. I like to think of Him in that way, as well. I particularly appreciated the emphasis on whether or not we’d have a good story to tell – it reminds me of what Jesus says about the good trees bearing good fruits…