Recently I published a Foreword to a new novel by Greg McKitrick, A Walk in the Thai Sun. This book is a detective novel with a twist. Every detective novel has twists, but this one twists toward an exploration of Christian faith as it unfolds in the unbelieving heart of the protagonist, a retired police detective whose missionary son has been murdered. Have a look at the book trailer, and here’s my Foreword:Continue reading
On August 7, 2014, Karen and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary. I posted a photo of us to Facebook, along with these words:
Q: Can a monk and a missionary find happiness together?
A: AND HOW!!!
Happy 32nd Anniversary to us!
This one post, incidentally, ended up reaching more people and garnering more likes than all my other posts put together.
To celebrate the birth of 2015, here’s the New Year’s chapter from my book Champagne for the Soul.
Ron Reed, the Artistic Director of Pacific Theatre in Vancouver, has written a splendid Foreword to my new book Twenty-One Candles. Ron or I will be reading from my book at all the performances of Christmas Presence, PT’s annual celebration of the season with an evening of stories and wonderful music. Find out more on the PT website. And here’s Ron’s Foreword:
Michelangelo said, “My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it be through earth’s loveliness.” I experienced a little of that loveliness last week at the official launch party for my new book Twenty-One Candles: Stories for Christmas.
This, the fourth and final installment of my series on Contemplative Prayer, contains a beautiful excerpt from George MacDonald’s fairy tale The Princess and the Goblin.
While there are many books on meditation and contemplative prayer that outline various methods, I believe the essence of this prayer is not a method but simply resting in God’s presence: loving Him, and letting Him love you.
We cannot speak of contemplative prayer without addressing the notorious problem of controlling or silencing one’s thoughts. You may ask: In order to practice this prayer of quiet, of focussing on deep feeling, how can I completely still my mind? When I try to become quiet, my thoughts race more than ever. Well, the brain was made for thinking, and you can’t stop your thoughts any more than you can stop grass from growing. Besides, you want to remain open to thoughts that may come to you from the Lord. So don’t even try to suppress your thoughts.Continue reading
This week I begin a four-part series on contemplative prayer. I call it “Feeling God” because it strikes me as odd when Christians talk of hearing God’s voice when what we really mean is feeling God’s voice or presence.
Here it is! The official book trailer for Twenty-One Candles: Stories for Christmas. I don’t mind saying that I’m mighty proud of this book and deeply pleased with it. After all, it gathers together twenty-one stories that span my entire 30+ years of writing. Originally written to send out as Christmas cards to friends, I now send these stories into the world.