On Thursday, October 30th I made an amazing discovery. The standard procedure when a writer is preparing a new book is to look for similar books on the market to study their production and marketing techniques.
As you may know, I’m working on my second book - a novel (Feb 2009 - I’ve written about it before ) which is geared towards middle school and high school boys (as well as their fathers). Since the story has ’superhero’ elements, I wanted to include illustrations in each chapter. One of my issues is figuring out how many drawings to do.
One of my favorite accounts from the Bible is the story of Joseph, which starts in Genesis 37.
“Joseph was a young man who had been called a Dreamer by those closest to him (his brothers) - by those who did not understand nor believe in his dreams. He never asked for these dreams… yet they lived in him - having been placed within his heart by the hand of God. It took many years and the encountering of some very difficult circumstances before his dreams came to pass - and then those who knew, but had resisted, began to see the fruit of these dreams. It was the fruit of these dreams which lead to the salvation of many people.”
“DESTINY IS WAITING ON US” (formerly posted on February 6, 2008)
My Writing Accountability Partner, Tisha Y. Lewis, spoke these words to me after hearing about my speaking opportunity at Bethune-Cookman University in January ’07: I was able to dialogue with Communication and Theater Arts students about linking their experience with opportunities while sharing from my book, Transition: Breaking Through the Barriers. This was an exciting and uncomfortable time: exciting because speaking here was one of my dreams; uncomfortable because I had never done it before. Yet through the mixed emotions, there was fulfillment!
“Destiny is waiting on us.” This phrase is fascinating, yet unnerving because destiny is often thought of as something we wait on. But similar to the scientific discovery that light is both particle and a wave; perhaps we too will realize that destiny is both given and received.
As I walked into my place of employment and waited for the elevator… hesitation overtook me as the dreams that live inside of me suddenly swelled up in my mind. Where did this come from? “…Lord is it possible?” Everything seemed so far fetched from where I stood - almost too fantastic to ever come to pass. And what made it worse was that I was becoming afraid to believe them.
If you are seeking to live life to its fullest then this is a question for you.
Jesus gives the call in Luke chapter 9, verse 23: Then He said to [them] all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
In our daily lives, what causes us to unplug from God? Why do we do it? And how does that affect the outcome of our destiny when we do?
You Got A Deadline? “Nothing gets done without a deadline.”
Hey everybody!
You may have heard this quote about deadlines before. I heard it from my friend Andrew Seltz. Do you know what it’s like to be behind deadline? It doesn’t feel good! But isn’t it funny that when you give your deadlines over to God, while doing your best, somehow things work out? God has a better deadline for things than we do. I try and remember that. :-)
Take a look at this 2 minute video called, Metamorphosis. It’s a parable about the spiritual transformation which comes to us, through the Kingdom of God.
I had a chance to do an audio interview with my friend - Demetrius Veasy II - at the 2008 NY ComicCon Convention, back in April. Demetrius is the creator of the Lions 12 comic book series. I’ve added music and visuals to the interview, which you can watch below. Demetrius and his manager are the ones who ‘twisted my arm’ and forced me into My BIG PROJECT Challenge .
Do you have one of those projects that you’ve been thinking about for a long time? Maybe you’ve been saying for years that you would get around to it and now it seems like forever? I remember a quote I read a while back, "Most people talk about their dreams, very few actually go out and do them."
I’ve got some projects that I’ve been holding onto for several years, but there’s one in particular that I’ve carried around with me for at least 10 years. I would always talk about it and even did some illustrations and technical schematics. But all I did was talk.
PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW: It’s from James Nachtwey, an acclaimed journalistic photographer, and is about a new strain of Tuberculosis that is proving to be very deadly in 49 countries around the world.
The problem seems so large and I as an individual seem so small. It’s so easy to focused on our own lives that we are oblivious to countless others around the world who are suffering in ways we can’t imagine. It’s easy to shut our eyes and close our ears and restrict our hearts on this issue, but this would be the wrong choice. We are all created in God’s image. We are all connected.
