MY BLOG POSTS
Buy My Books for Pocket Change!
Hey guys! The Kindle store at Amazon is having a fantastic sale on several YA titles, First Date and Starring Me among them.
For less than the cost of a new bottle of nail polish, you can buy BOTH these books. $1.99 each. Crazy, right?! Crazy AWESOME!
Grab them soon — the sale ends June 23.
And, please, tell your friends!
If All Your Friends Jumped off a Cliff…
I know you’ve all heard this…
And when we hear it, we normally think of peer pressure. Of going to that party or or seeing that movie or dating that guy.
But I believe there’s a more subtle “cliff jump” happening everyday, and we don’t even realize we’re in the air: it’s in our minds, how we think. We allow the world’s standards, their version of what “should be”, to be our standards.
In dating, for example, many Christian teens/young adults have been sucked into the mindset that you should “date around” or “sow your wild oats” when you’re young. Many are told sex before marriage is fine and living together before marriage is beneficial. But God’s word – and divorce statistics – tell us just the opposite.
We adults are told to adopt the “me first” attitude at work and at home. We are told to tell ourselves “I deserve ________ (whatever we want most).” And, sure, it sounds great. I’d like to believe I deserve a spa day or “me time.” But I don’t “deserve” anything. I would like things. I am refreshed by time alone. But deserve…? I think that is one of the most dangerous words in our vocabulary – it is the complete opposite of the “put the needs of others above yourself” lifestyle that we are told to live.
What about you? How do you develop your opinions? Your standards? Are they based on God’s word or are they based on the standards of those around you? Or maybe they’re one step more “holy” than those around you (“my friends are all having sex, but I’m not going nearly that far…”)?
Is where you are where you should be? Where you want to be? Have you followed all your friends off a cliff? If you have, stop and think. Pray. Seek the Mind of Christ, not the mind of the world.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
Growing Pains
When my oldest daughter, Emma, started trying to walk, she fell all over the place, all the time. It was painful to watch. She was getting bruises and scrapes, she was crying, frustrated. Part of me wanted to just save her the heartache, to pick her up and take her where she wanted to go. But I didn’t. Why? Because the only way to learn how to walk is to keep at it, to get back up when you fall down. Though I felt cruel, letting her poor little bottom keep hitting the hard floor, I knew in the long run, it was for her good.
We get that. It makes sense. But we have a hard time getting that when it comes to our Christian walk. We fall down and yell at God for allowing it. We throw our hands up and say, “What good is being a Christian if God lets me get hurt? What kind of loving Father is He??” Some of us even turn away from Him, refusing to continue to follow a God that allows us to endure difficult situations.
James tells us to be joyful when we face trials because “the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (James 1:4) And Paul tells us that perseverance develops character and character develops hope. (Romans 5:4)
Those of you “regular” visitors, and those of you who know me well, know that one of the most difficult experiences of my life was when our family had to leave Spain. We thought we’d be serving as missionaries there for years and years, but God had us return after just ten months. I was angry, hurt, confused, embarrassed. I didn’t see why we had to leave, didn’t understand God’s purposes. It was a dark time for me. But, looking back, six years later, I see how that experience changed me for the better, how it shaped my character. I am far more compassionate now, far more humble. I’m not perfect, but God used that very difficult time to shape my character so that it better reflects Him. And reflecting Him – glorifying Him – is why I am here. God’s will isn’t a location, it is a state of the heart. I would not have learned that lesson had I not been through that experience.
Growth is painful. But it is necessary. Just like I love Emma too much to “save” her the pain of learning to walk, God loves us infinitely too much to let us remain babies. And while being “happy” during hard times may be impossible, we can be joyful.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
The Birth of Anomaly
“Would you be willing to switch genres – to science fiction?”
This question, posed by my editor at Thomas Nelson over a year ago, brought about a mixture of excitement, fear, and awe. Switch genres? I’d only just begun writing contemporary fiction. The question hung in cyberspace, haunting me. Could I switch genres? I felt (still feel) so insecure about my writing. And some of my all-time favorite authors write science fiction, some of my all-time favorite books are in that genre: Ted Dekker’s Circle trilogy, CS Lewis’ space trilogy, Brave New World….I can’t do THAT!!
But God delights in using the improbable. I have seen that over and over again. None of my English teachers from high school would have ever guessed I would grow up to be an English teacher, and they sure wouldn’t have guessed I’d be a writer. But that’s what God does – He uses us in ways we never expected so that we know it is through His power and a result of His grace that we accomplish His plans.
So I said, “Sure” (sounding far more confident than I felt!), and I began to draft ideas for what would be the Anomaly trilogy – a Christian dystopian/romance, set in a future where the world has been destroyed by nuclear war and the only survivors were scientists who created an underground community in preparation of just such an event. The first book in this series comes out next month (!), and I couldn’t be more excited. This is something I think I have always secretly wanted to do, but never thought I really could do. I am humbled and encouraged that the amazing team at Thomas Nelson believed in me more than I believed in myself.
I’ll be giving away copies later this month, and they’ll be a blog tour where free copies AND a mini-iPad will be given away!! Stay tuned for info on that.
But, for now, let me introduce you to my new “baby”….
Thalli has fifteen minutes and twenty-three seconds left to live. The toxic gas that will complete her annihilation is invading her bloodstream. But she is not afraid.
Decades before Thalli’s birth, the world ended in a nuclear war. But life went on deep underground, thanks to a handful of scientists known as The Ten. Since then, they have genetically engineered humans to be free from emotions in the hopes that war won’t threaten their lives again.
But Thalli was born with the ability to feel emotions and a sense of curiosity she can barely contain. She has survived so far thanks to her ability to hide those differences. But Thalli’s secret is discovered when she is overwhelmed by the emotion in an ancient piece of music.
Sheis quickly scheduled for annihilation, but her childhood friend, Berk, convinces The Ten to postpone her death and study her instead. While in the scientists’ Pod, Thalli and Berk form a dangerous alliance, one strictly forbiddenby the constant surveillance in the pods.
As her life ticks away, she hears rumors of someone called the Designer—someone even more powerful than The Ten. What’s more, the parts of her that have always been an anomaly could in fact be part of a much larger plan. And the parts ofher that she has always guarded could be the answer she’s been looking for all along.
Thalli must sort out what to believe and who she can trust, before her time runs out…