Skip to main content

A Year of Living Prayerfully - Adventures, Insights, and General Awesomeness

On Monday night, I will be driving down to Hamilton to celebrate the launch of a new book from Tyndale House Publishing: A Year of Living Prayerfully.



I cannot tell you how excited I am to read this book. Or more accurately, to re-read this book.

You see, a few years back, my friend Jared asked me for a favour - would I help him edit a book excerpt for a book that didn't yet exist? He was prepping material for a literary agent, and wanted a pair of eyes to help him send the best possible material.

I, of course, said yes. I love reading, I love editing, and I love my friend Jay.

The chapter he sent me was crazy. It was fun, it was lively, it was thought-provoking.

I wasn't the only one who loved it - the literary agent signed him, and then they approached several major Christian publishing houses, and you already know how this ends: Tyndale signed him.

So he asked me for another favour. Would I be a pair of eyes for the full manuscript?

Yes. Of course, yes.

Such an adventure. So much fun. Great opportunities to say to him, "MORE OF THIS!" - and of course, to roll my eyes and remind him that not quite all his readers will share his sense of humour...

And now we're here. About to celebrate the launch of his book, the story of an unconventional prayer pilgrimage that found him walking on hot coals, celebrating New Year's Eve in North Korea, dancing with Hasidic Jews in NYC, hanging out in monasteries, and meeting the Pope.


Jared is a man of courage, determination, and wit. He's also someone who thinks critically about his life, who engages intentionally with the world around him, and who has been co-leading an anti-human-trafficking initiative for years. 

Seriously. All this. And more.

I'm excited to read the finished product. And I'm excited for you to read it too.

You can order it on Amazon. You can find all the places its available via Jay's website. OR you can join us in Hamilton on Monday - admission to the launch event includes a copy of the book (and all proceeds are going to charity).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Simone Weil: On "Forms of the Implicit Love of God"

Simone Weil time again! One of the essays in Waiting for God  is entitled "Forms of the Implicit Love of God." Her main argument is that before a soul has "direct contact" with God, there are three types of love that are implicitly  the love of God, though they seem to have a different explicit  object. That is, in loving X, you are really loving Y. (in this case, Y = God). As for the X of the equation, she lists: Love of neighbor  Love of the beauty of the world  Love of religious practices  and a special sidebar to Friendship “Each has the virtue of a sacrament,” she writes. Each of these loves is something to be respected, honoured, and understood both symbolically and concretely. On each page of this essay, I found myself underlining profound, challenging, and thought-provoking words. There's so much to consider that I've gone back several times, mulling it over and wondering how my life would look if I truly believed even half of these thi...

I Like to Keep My Issues Drawn

It's Sunday night and I am multi-tasking. Paid some bills, catching up on free musical downloads from the past month, thinking about the mix-tape I need to make and planning my last assignment for writing class. Shortly, I will abandon the laptop to write my first draft by hand. But until then, I am thinking about music. This song played for me earlier this afternoon, as I attempted to nap. I woke up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 this morning, then lay in bed until 8 o'clock flipping sides and thinking about every part of my life that exists. It wasn't stressful, but it wasn't quite restful either...This past month, I have spent a lot of time rebuffing lies and refusing to believe that the inside of my heart and mind can never change. I feel like Florence + The Machine 's song "Shake it Out" captures many of these feelings & thoughts. (addendum: is the line "I like to keep my issues strong or drawn ?" Lyrics sites have it as "stro...

The ROM, The Earth & Procreation

Disclaimer: This post is intended to generate discussion and a sharing of many opinions. It is NOT intended to judge or condemn anyone's life choices. I had an unexpected moment at the ROM last month. C and I were listening to a presentation for kids on wildlife conservation (or rather, I was listening, and C was eagerly anticipating what live animal would come out next), when a statement caught my attention and still hasn't let go. For most of history, the earth could provide enough resources for the earth's human population. But today, our population is growing rapidly, increasing by 250 000 people every day... Forty years from now, it will require 2 Earths to provide sustainably for our survival as a human species. But we only have 1 Earth. 250 000 people. Every day. That is roughly twice the size of my hometown. In one day. So I did a little math. (First, I rounded down to 200 000, just in case the figures were inflated or failed to account for some sort o...