An Abundance of Steadfast Love

In between working on my long, nonfiction book over the past few years (due out soon), I collected my months of illustrations of Honeybun, and wrote a children's book about dog rescue -- Saving a Dog. It just came out as an e-book yesterday! It is short, and sweet, a quick read. The print book is also at the amazon.com site:. The link to the ebook is: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HNTXAD0 . I will pause in my deep commitment to spreading God's message for a brief, shameless plug:

Please buy, read, and then write a glowing review at the Amazon site. It is dirt cheap! If you act now you could read the book and be the first person to review it! Your name will be immortalized on Amazon! And please share this blog and/or the book link with everyone in the world. My retirement depends upon it.

Now, back to my Godly message.

I published the book using my new Microsoft Surface Pro. I cannot believe the amazing things this tablet/computer can do. I can draw and paint with it, and it feels almost identical to working with actual materials. The picture on this blog was done on my Surface Pro. The absolute ONLY thing I have been unable to get it to do is cook dinner, but that is why God made pizza delivery. (See, I told you this would be about God.)

I started the day feeling like I was getting the flu, with violent chills. So I spent the whole day preparing the children's book for publication and working on editing the other TOP SECRET book due out very soon. By the evening, I was feeling healthy again. I guess all that sitting around must have healed me....unless the Surface Pro healed me. It really is a remarkable machine. It struck me how fortunate I am, what an abundance of wonderful things I have been granted -- freedom, family, shelter, my new Surface Pro...and forgiveness for all my lack of gratitude to the One who provides every morsel.But as I worked on my writing and editing on the new Surface Pro, I was feeling like this was a taste of heaven. I know that sounds terrible but there is a spiritual message. Stick with me.

My old laptop was a hand me down. While owned by another unnamed family member, it had had an unfortunate collision with the floor (the details of which I will leave out to protect a certain family member...). Anyway, while it had been a great machine in its day, it was now old, used, and had been somewhat compromised in the terrible struggle with gravity. So guess who inherits the laptop? For the past year I have been editing and writing my books on the laptop with great frustration. It crashes regularly, taking with it as much work as I had not saved up to that point. It is slow and noisy, with a fan that clicks on constantly as it struggles not to overheat. Some programs it cannot access at all. It was damaged in the fall, and try as it might, it can not on its own power ever be what the manufacturer intended it to be.

That is me without God.

I repented of ever trying to create perfection on that old computer. I prayed for something that would end this struggle and frustration of constant failure. My friend, the Computer Master emailed me that the Surface Pro was on drastic sale. Intervening on my behalf, he felt certain that this was what I needed. If I would just accept this computing gift, I would find book writing peace, perfection, and joy. The old computer must die, but a New One would rise from the ashes. By faith, I trusted him, put off the old, and accepted the new.

Enter Microsoft Surface Pro. It is new, fast, does everything I want it to. I wrote, illustrated, edited, and then sent to publish the entire children's book on the Surface Pro seamlessly. This is what a computer was meant to be!

This is me with God...sort of.

Analogies are never perfect, but you get the point.

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Psalm 5:7
7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear of you.

Colossians 3: 1-4, 7-10
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.