The day has come! Actually, it came Friday, but dedicated blogger that I am, I didn’t even think to post something here. If you’ve seen my work at lionsrealm.net, you know that was meant as a joke. I still need a real job to meet our needs, so updates may be slow in coming, but they will be coming.
You should be able to purchase the book at any of the major online retailers. Here’s the link for Amazon. A Kindle version is also available.
Earlier this month, I signed an agreement with a publisher. My guess is that the book will be out sometime mid-year 2023. I’m excited to see what God will do with this. Meanwhile, i have taken a job. I had hoped to move into a new career, but the time for that is not yet.
The theme of my life continues. If the intent of the book had been purely biographical, I might have entitled it “This is Not What I Expected”, But maybe the title should be, “This is Better than I Expected!” I see God’s hand now in everything that has happened. Yes, it’s easier to see it when good things happen, but I am learning to trust Him in every situation.
I started reluctantly looking for work around the middle of June. I wasn’t trying very hard. I put my resume up on a couple of job search sites and started browsing through listings. Soon I started getting contacted by recruiters, and that lead to an interview and a job offer. The start date keeps moving out, but because I started this process before I needed to, the delay has not hurt me and has given me time to wrap up other projects that I won’t have time fore once I’m on the clock.
When I was laid off last year, I told my wife that because of the small number of people with experience in the software I worked with at the bank I could get a job whenever I was ready. But I confess there was some doubt. Would people be put off by my blindness? Yes, there are laws, but laws don’t change hearts or cure ignorance. The economy is down. In our polarized society, would I be discriminated against because of my views? What about the fact that I refuse to be injected with a dangerous vaccine that does not protect as well as the natural immunity that God gave us and actually makes it more likely that we catch future variants of the virus? So, it was gratifying to have my assurances confirmed.
In my mind, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Last year was to be my big break, the chance to start a new chapter of my life based on mission and ministry. It isn’t happening quite the way I imagined, but I am not disappointed. God showed me that I am needed right where I am for now. I will be able to continue supporting our church at the same level I have for years. Someday, it will be strong enough that others will be carrying more of that responsibility, but for now God has assigned me to fill in the gap. He has provided so that my wife will have whatever care she may need.
Maybe the book will take off and lead to bigger things. Maybe it will just get into the hands of one person who needs to the encouragement to keep going. All I know is that God told me to write it, and I have obeyed. He’s running this thing. I trust that all things will work together for His glory and for my good.
I confess, I find this a little intimidating. It took me longer than it should have to get the book written. I had a hard time imagining that anyone would read it, much less buy it. But I felt that God wanted me to write it, so I did. It’s still a rough draft as I write this, but it’s almost ready to start shopping publishers.
Now I’ve got to build the web site to go with it. That shouldn’t be a problem. I have built and rebuilt 3 web sites already, one of them several times. But this is different. People might actually visit this one who will make decisions on whether to work with me based on what they find. I don’t get a pass for being a blind man developing visual interfaces. WordPress’s new block editor isn’t the most screen reader friendly thing ever, though to their credit they have a team working on accessibility.
So what do I do? I haven’t got a job yet. I’ve got to start paying attention to how I spend my money. Do I hire someone to come make it pretty? Maybe so, if I really believe in what I’m doing. I’ve already dropped money on hosting.
It would be easy to put it off. It would be easy to give up on the whole project. I can’t do that. I’d be disobeying the Lord, and I’d be making lies out of much of what I just wrote in the book. So, here I am. Maybe things will have come together by the time you see this, or maybe it will still be a work in progress. That’s okay. I’ve got to start somewhere, and somewhere is right here!
