Follow the Cloud

“…the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.”

 Deuteronomy 1:33

He did this very thing.

My husband had been telling me to write a book for the past three years.

I just laughed at him.

“About what?!?”

“What do I possibly know enough about to actually write a whole book about?”

Well, as my plans to return to Newark, faded into the upcoming move to Atlanta last spring, Danny kept saying,

“I really think this might be the season for you to write a book.”

Still, I had no idea how that would play out.

Then late May of 2013, my friend who was living in Swaziland, contacted me:

“I know this sounds crazy, but as I continue to pray for you, I can’t help the feeling that we are suppose to embark on some sort of writing project together.”

Ok, Lord, I get it,

And the cloud started moving.

So after we moved and got settled in Norcross, GA we started scheduling time to sit and listen to the Lord and ask Him what sort of writing project we were to embark on and what it was suppose to be about.

Mind you, we were in different countries, different continents, different time zones, different hemispheres. And the same cloud that moved in my heart, moved in hers, and we started piecing together what this book might be about, what it might be called, how it might be formatted.

And little by little, piece by piece, a book began to be formed. Lots of listening, and journaling, and scribbling on little notecards was engaged in. We recruited prayer warriors.  We spent time on our faces.  We spent time listening to Jesus on the cracking phone line because making phone calls from Swaziland isn’t the easiest experience.

I popped in another Veggie Tales movie, when I should have been homeschooling my 4 year old and monitoring my 3 and 1 year old, and I typed.

And I stayed up until 3 and 4 am at least once a week typing away, studying away. The Cloud was saying “move!” push forward, write every spare minute, move forward. And I did.

And it came together, our book called,

Radical Tabernacle

God came to dwell among us. That He might dwell in us. That we might dwell among them.

A discourse on the elements of the Old Testament Tabernacle, the ways they were fulfilled in Christ, and how they continue to be fulfilled in and through us, as Christ lives in and through us.

In January,  we had gotten 90% of the book done, when a literary agent asked for a book proposal. We scrambled to even figure out how to write one, then put it together to present.  That’s when we got our first rejection letter, due to too small of a platform.

And now, due to a very challenging pregnancy, it has taken the past three months to finish this last 10% of the rough draft.  The Cloud has said , “camp” simply through a body and foggy brain that can hardly get three meals a day ready for five children, much less stay up late to write a book. I am so thankful that the Cloud said move hard, move fast last fall, and that I followed, for at this point, and this pace, this book would NEVER have been written.  But God, in a certain window of intense availability and energy, He prompted us into this adventure.  May I never miss another prompting, simply for the the miracle I have seen Him bringing about in this process.

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But here we are now, ready to enter into the heavy editing phase, and the Lord has kept bringing us to Scripture about the consecration of the Tabernacle and the rededication of the Temple (the permanent Tabernacle).

Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy. Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it will be most holy. Anoint the basin and its stand and consecrate them. Exodus 40:9-11

and then in 2 Chronicles 29:15-17, after a long rebellion of the Lord, the people reconsecrate, clean out, and anoint the elements of worship in the (now permanent) tabernacle

When they had assembled their fellow Levites and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify the temple of the Lord, as the king had ordered, following the word of the Lord.  The priests went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley.  They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of theLord. For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the Lord itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.  2 Chronicles 29:15-17

And now we clean up, we reconsecrate our manuscript, we listen long, and sort through and we ask the Lord, “What stays?” “What goes?” and “What is still needed?” We pray over and ask for the anointing of the Spirit of God over each element of this manuscript. And we would ask for prayer as we enter into this task.

Nicole, my co-author, has blogged about prayer requests as we enter into this phase, if anyone is interested in helping pray us through this process. And for all of you who have been praying, and cheering us on,

Thank you.

And may each of you continue to follow the Cloud of the Presence of God as He leads you and prompts you, the thrilling adventure that awaits is never a dull one….and never an easy one.

Platform: Gaining One Worth Having, and Keeping One Worth Preserving

An email came from a literary agent. A book proposal hurriedly composed. Edited. Reexamined. Sent out. A writing sample was requested. A meeting was held, a team deliberating over taking up the project.

The factor that did or didn’t seal the deal?

Platform.

Its the buzzword of this blogging, tweeting, social media dependent culture. Your songs can’t be heard, your blog won’t be advertised upon, your articles won’t be distributed, and books won’t be published….without it.

Platform.

It means you’ve got to be popular, and noticed, and esteemed in order to be heard. It means you have to have a following of people, because people have money, and money buys books.

And its interesting that the very One I type away into the wee hours of the night for, and the One I’ve been on my face in front of asking for guidance, and the One I have begged to give me wisdom and words, the One whom I pray is glorify in and subsequently hoped in due to this book,

Well, He seemed bent on destroying his

Platform.

After healing a leper (revolutionary medical progress!!) he said, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (Matthew 8:4)

The demon-filled man, whom Jesus set free, begged to go with him and join the rank of followers, but “Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” Mark 5:19

When faced with the possibility of a very wealthy, very powerful young ruler becoming one of his followers, he had such a heart-probing conversation with him that, instead of gaining an important and rich follower, he lost one, for At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Mark 10:22

After feeding the five thousand, and teaching the people that HE was the Bread from heaven, he was met with grumbling, complaining, arguments, and On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”…From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. John 6:60,61

When tested to see if he would “break the Sabbath rules”, Jesus proceeded to heal the man with a shriveled hand and defy cultural  and religious values and destroy his popularity so badly that, Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Mark 3:6

No, He did not weigh in on His popularity. He did not unite the masses to follow him and give him a platform to be heard by the Jewish rulers who were getting it all wrong nor to the Romans who were oppressing his people. He lived for one platform alone. The one established by complete surrender, yieldedness, and obedience to the will of the Father.

Part of my New Years Resolution was to write a book, of which the rough draft is done, due to wee hour writings and a husband who believes in the project. This past fall, my missionary friend in Swaziland, and I have been plugging away at the work, asking for God’s guidance in the project, for neither of us had a clue as to “how to write a book”. We felt the specific call to write, not knowing where that might lead. We just figured that we would self publish it upon its completion this spring. Then, two weeks ago an email introduction by a mutual friend to a literary agent in a prestigious publishing agency led to the request for a book proposal, and then to the asking for more and more writing pieces and information. It was all barreling along quite unexpectedly and thrillingly well.

And then the blog stats were asked for. And those meager numbers didn’t impress, at least not enough to have enough clout with a Publishing House. Every email leading up to this had sounded so promising and so hopeful but then, that email was received, actually at the end of a day spent taking my sweet four year old daughter and our international exchange student around the Disney theme parks. My girl and I, we had found our place to watch the evening Disney parade and fireworks, and while we waited for it to start, I whipped out that phone and read those words:

“We enjoyed your work, but – given our current client list – I needed a confident and unanimous response from my colleagues…and we didn’t get there. In brief, we’re concerned that publishers will find your current platform limiting.”

After a long day, we waited to watch the parade

Katy-Grace and I had just had a great day at Disney together

And I tucked phone back in pocket, and gazed at my girl all eager to see a “real” princess go by in a parade, and I longed for her to know that she is a princess because of what King Jesus has done to make her a child of God, not because of sparkles and puffy dresses.

And it hit me.

The best place for her to learn that…. is upon a

Platform.

The platform I build through day in and day out service and sacrifice, being joyfully engaged in the little things in her world, in the worlds of my five little children and the one growing within me. And maybe building a platform in that blogosphere, literary world would distract this mamma’s heart and mind from gaining the one platform worth having…the one I build in my husband and children’s lives. And building one out there might chip away at the one platform that I do have that is truly worth keeping. The platform that is right here. Right here in flesh and blood, right in front of me.

So, I will willingly forego landing a publishing deal, or all the work it would take to get a platform in order to land a publishing deal,

if I can only build a Gospel-centered, Christ-exalting, love-exuding platform with my husband and children.

I will labor in the mundane, sacrifice in the secret, faithful preach the Word of God to those within my own four wall, that I might build that platform in my children to proclaim to them the Savior that died for them ad loves them. And Lord willingly, they will be made into little disciples who do the same in their spheres of influence in 5 or 10 or 25 years.

This is the type of platform Jesus built. One with twelve simple, average guys who were so captivated by the miracles they saw and the death and resurrection they witnessed and the love and power that was imparted to them, that they moved forth into their communities, cities and the nations to repeat the process of building platform, in their own spheres of influence.

May I do the same, for these kids, as Christ does it in me, for His glory.

I have a big job before me. A time-consuming, emotion-consuming, life-consuming platform to build. It may not be as glamorous as soaring blog stats. It may not be as significant-in-my-culture’s eyes as a name on a book fresh off the printing press.

But it is big in God’s eyes. And it is big in those little one’s eyes whom I have the opportunity to gaze into and tell that they are loved. and prioritized.

And the platform I have in their lives is worth every moment of the work that building it entails.

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Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false God
They will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from God their Savior
Such is the generation of those who seek him.
Who seek your face, God of Jacob.
Psalm 24:3-6