Why Publish a Book?

      On the morning of July 31, 2004, the phone rang and my husband, Gene, answered it. The woman on the other end of the line asked for me. Gene told her I was in the shower, and offered to take a message. The woman was crying inconsolably, which prompted Gene to knock on the bathroom door and insist that I take the call.

     Turning off the shower--I was halfway through, between the shampoo and the conditioner--and dripping wet, I took the phone Gene handed me. Who could be calling? I felt a little alarmed, wondering what was the matter, somehow expecting bad news.

     It turned out to be Maria, a woman I barely knew at the time, whom I'd met recently on the Internet while researching ways to promote my book, Abundant Gifts. She had been so helpful to me that I had sent her a complimentary copy of the book a couple of weeks previously.

    Between her tears, she told me she was on the 9th day of reading the daily stories contained in my book. She said that every day she read my book, her eyes were so reawakened to God’s abundance in her everyday life that she’d made it a habit to pick up the phone and call someone to share what she had discovered in my book.

    That particular morning, the day’s meditation made her weep because it gave rise to profound revelations that resonated with her. She said that upon reading the meditation, she came to the realization that as abundant as God’s gifts are, they couldn’t compare with his greatest gift of all--the gift of himself. "The Giver is the gift!" she exclaimed, clearly stirred by her realization.

    I was heartened by Maria's words because that's what I wanted people to "get " from Abundant Gifts:  that God is a gift-giving God who gives abundantly because of his gracious God-love. He is not the some cosmic vending machine, dispensiing candy to greedy children. He gives so lavishly for one purpose--to draw each beloved child closer to His heart of love.

    In this instance, the gifts kept coming. Incredibly, after Maria shared with me what my book had done for her, I too received a gift of immeasurable value.

    For some time before that moment, I’d had a jaded attitude toward being an author. About two years prior, I got very discouraged about how my books would get into print, then shortly thereafter go out of print. This made me wonder whether I ought to write any more books at all--and I even considered quit writing books altogether and finding something else to do for "real money." Maria’s call made me realize that if my words could touch people’s lives the way they’d visibly touched her, I had no business doubting whether I should continue writing books or not. This ability to write was a gift that God entrusted to me, and through which he intends to bless others. What right had I to refuse to serve the gift?

    Four days later, I received yet another gift. Maria had sent me a check in the amount of $1,000. Maria knew I didn’t have much of a budget to promote Abundant Gifts, so she said if a thousand dollars could help get my book into the hands of more people, to her it was money well spent.

   I thanked her profusely -- but she insisted that the gift I had given her by sending her my book was an even greater gift to her.