this week,

all over this world people will obey the voice of the Holy Spirit. 

and have nothing tangible to show for it. which is the way it is with many good and true acts.

but this week.

this week you can hold someone's obedience in your hands. 

because this was written in obedience, from first pen strokes on a yellow legal pad to final edits.

because God likes obedience. more than our sacrifices and more than the money we give and more than where we live or how, he wants us to let Him navigate us through our days and months and years and lives, to be sitting so close to Him that we hear every word He whispers to us, and to trust Him that He knows what He's doing, and then to follow Him wherever He leads.

and i have watched this man do that most days for my whole life.

and then one saturday morning at breakfast, he quietly told us he had started to write a book.

because he'd had an impression from the Holy Spirit that morning to do so.

the book, he said, was about obedience. 

and then this little book got bounced around from publisher to publisher, who all loved it and who all said it would not sell because its author is unknown. 

and this man just kept shrugging his shoulders and reminding himself that his job was to be obedient, and if God had told him to write a book, it probably was because it was a message some people needed to hear.

which is how he came to self-publish the book with the humility of someone who knows that the only books that are self-published are the ones that were rejected everywhere else. he knows this, and still he quietly goes about the long and costly process of being obedient. 

and then, just as these books are going to print, curious things happen: advance copies of this little book show up in Africa and Chicago and California and New York City and people who, unlike he, are known, really like this book.

an order is placed for thousands of copies. the owners of bookstores want to carry it in all their stores. publishing houses want to talk. 

and still: his response is to fast and pray with his wife in order to get quiet enough to hear God and then to obey Him. because they would rather walk the sometimes lonely and gravely path of obedience than hop in the first car that pulls over to offer them a ride on the freeway.

so this book is in local Christian bookstores; you should buy it at one if you can. you can also buy it here, and join in the conversations being had about listening to God and obeying Him.

i do wish you'd read it; it might change the way you go about your days and weeks and years. 

and if it doesn't, may you still be edified that you get to hold a brother's obedience in your hands. that kind of thing doesn't just happen every day.

:: jenn ::

 

p.s. thank you for the water you have been for my dry heart this past week. i have some reflections from the bottom of the well that i'll share in another post.

 p.p.s. if you would ever ever like to cook and serve the love feast with a group of jolly interns and whoever else the good Lord brings, we would be so grateful for the help. we will plan the meal and buy the food, you just show up one wednesday or more (!) a month at three p. to help cook and serve. maybe your house church? small group? family? consider. it really is an adventure. email me at jenntendero@gmail.com if you're interested. 

Comments

[Sue Mitchell]

Yes, ma'am! Just ordered my copy today!

[Sue Mitchell]

Got it today! Looking forward to reading it.