No, you haven’t been scrubbed from the blog. You have not been un-friended. There is nothing wrong on your end. I simply have been silent for a few months. Truly, I don’t even know how to un-friend anyone.
So, I thought I would take a moment and catch you up a bit.
Last year was crammed, in the best of ways!
Three new grand-babies were born, including twins, making the total twelve, and all are ten years old and under.
Speaking of which, Viv, who is three, was playing ‘it’s-time-to-go-sleep’ in the middle of the day with her Aunt Amy. They both crawled into Viv’s crib-bed while Viv’s mom tucked them in, went through the normal bedtime routine, and then quietly turned out the light and closed the door. Viv, after a brief moment, turns to Aunt Amy and says, “Now we whine!…Mom, I need some water. Mom, you closed the door too much. Mom…” In one brief moment, Viv unwittingly gave up the long and closely guarded secret millions of kids have been keeping from their parents.
Needless to say, it changed her bedtime routine significantly.
A few of the highlights of 2017 include…
+ The release of The Shack movie on March 3rd and the non-fiction, Lies We Believe About God, that same weekend.
+ In April, I spoke at a three-day conference on The Trinity, hosted by Richard Rohr, completed the Foreword for Brian Zahnd’s new book, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God and participated in a 12 Canadian tour with World Vision and saw the release of the TBN series, ‘Restoring the Shack’.
+ In May, I spoke at both Google and Apple headquarters and at a Creative Arts conference at Bethel, in Redding, CA. I also took a nine-day trip to Hong Kong and mainland China.
+ June involved an Open Table Conference in Portland, OR, and a weekend with Steve Arterburn/Larry Sonnenburg in Washington DC.
+ July, a Soul Care Project near Nashville, TN, Wild Goose Festival in Hot Springs, NC, Worldcast Summer Conference in Yakima, WA and first time ever fly-fishing in Montana. Did I mention that I caught a huge brown on my first cast?
+ September, a LA Men’s Group weekend, Scandalous Love Conference (Las Vegas…of course), School of Theology in Sun River, OR, Open Table Conference in Spokane, WA, along with Whitworth and Gonzaga, the release of the docu-drama movie, The Heart of Man, and the airing of my episode with Oprah Winfrey, on Super Soul Sunday (yes, she is the best!).
+ The Fall involved east coast gatherings with New Canaan Society, the event Forgiveness Nashville, and a speaking tour through Switzerland and Germany.
Did I mention that these were a ‘few’ of the highlights?
Add to this many speaking engagements with amazing people in business, prisons, churches, universities etc., multiple movie screenings and promotional events, and a host of media events, including international and domestic. Now you can understand why I have been a little silent on the blog front. And just to warn you, that probably won’t change right away. I am WAY behind on all sorts of communication.
As of today, I am behind: 207 and 1,556 emails (two accounts) and hundreds of personal messages on Facebook as well. I don’t have a staff who answers my emails, so I get to what I can when I am able. Many, especially those incarcerated, write to me in long hand, and I have large stacks of mail sitting in piles around my desk. In addition, I get asked about 5-10 times a week to read someone’s manuscript.
Are you tired yet?!
Besides all that, I am continuing to work on writing and other projects, am married and live in the real world of diapers and dishes. Joy is my constant companion.
In 2018, I am trying to put the brakes on in order to catch up and focus on some projects, but my travel schedule is still fairly heavy.
You can check out the events page (here) for more details and if interested, I would love to see you along the road. We need to update that page because there are a few events not listed, plus a number of private ones we wouldn’t list anyway. Some of the trips this year include June 19-27 in Australia and New Zealand, September 29-Oct 6 speaking on the Life in the Trinity Cruise with Baxter Kruger and Francois du Toit, in the Mediterranean – which still has room if you want to go, and a trip to Taiwan, also in October.
Suffice to say, I wanted you to know that I was ignoring you for good reasons.
Thank you for all the ways you extend grace to me. I love meeting you on the road, for the hugs and holy-ground stories. I am deeply, deeply grateful for all that you have brought into our lives. Thank you!
My friend, theologian Brad Jersak, recently told me about friends of his overhearing their two-year-old talking to their new-born.
“Tell me about Jesus. I’m starting to forget.”
I love being around my grandchildren. They help me remember.
