I have written extensively about the catalyst, the moment, the inciting situation that kicked my writing into high gear. Although I had been interested in writing professionally for since I was a kid, I never really took this passion seriously until I needed it in my season of wandering through the valley of the shadow of death. I was an absolute mess and had broken relationships/ friendships all over the place as a result of my mess. In this season, I turned to God of course. But I also turned on myself – and it wasn’t good. I needed something to pull me out and therapy was too expensive. So I took out a notepad and started writing and I didn’t stop until I was able to make sense of what I was going through – pain that in many ways I brought upon myself because of my own emotional unhealthiness.

That was a long time ago. Nearly ten years ago. And as I said, the good thing, well there were many good things, about this whole situation was that I wrote and published my first book – Dancing on Hot Coals. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be where I am today without that book – so thank you drama-filled 21 year old me! This book has revolutionalized my life in more ways than one, mostly because it allowed me to tap into a gift that was lying dormant, waiting to be awakened. Most of the opportunities that have come my way in terms of career, vocation, and even my family, is as a result of this book and the inciting situation that caused me to start writing in the first place.

At first, most of my writing revolved around me, myself, and I – my insecurities, my hopes, my dreams, my faith! But as I began to get interested in biblical justice, something started to shift in my writing expression. I gradually started to write about the intersection of faith and justice, wanting to illustrate the disconnect that many Christians in the West have between the belief that we profess with our lips and the injustice that we do with our hands – a disconnect that has roots in Gnosticism and dualism. Over the years, I have written more than 200 short pieces in this regard, with the hope of inspiring us believers to live differently and to embrace the totality of the Word of God, which not only calls us to live holy lives but also strongly admonishes to do justice and resist the temptation to exploit and marginalize others.

I have gathered what I consider the best of these essays and compiled them into a second book – Embracing a Holistic Faith: Essays on Biblical Justice, which also includes a study guide for deeper reflection. This book will be released on April 4th and I couldn’t be more excited! Essays include thoughts on the biblical basis of social justice, God’s heart for justice, politics, American ideals of freedom and more. Of course, I could use some nice reviews of the book, so if you are interested in tweeting/facebooking or writing a short review for amazon, let me know and I will send you an electronic copy of the book – for free (LIMITED TIME ONLY).

Otherwise, I hope that you will buy the book on the 4^th!

See you then.