ken wilson online

One of the reasons you don’t pray more has nothing to do with your dedication to God or your capacity for self discipline or your forgetfulness in matters spiritual or your busy life. It has to do with your need to learn how to calm your praying brain. Too often you close your eyes to pray and it’s an unpleasant experience. You become more aware of your underlying anxiety. You become more subject to your grinding thoughts. You put up with it as long as you can, then open your eyes and move on to the next distraction. There are ways to calm yourself. Thankfully many ways. Here’s one: a way to present your embodied self to God, and it goes like this….
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Writing a book, like having a conversation or putting words to your thoughts in any form, is an exercise in learning what you believe. It’s not just that you believe something and then put it into words. You discover what it is that you believe in the process of putting it into words. You read the book you write, or you hear the words formed by your thoughts in a conversation, for the first time. Like God in Genesis, chapter one, orchestrated the creation, made what he made, and then saw it himself for the first time, pondered it, and said, “It’s good.” Here’s a crack at summarizing what I believe after more than a few decades of organizing my life in fits and starts around Jesus of Nazareth and his path through this world:
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Just heard from Thomas Nelson that Barnes & Noble’s promotion of Jesus Brand Spirituality is June 3 - 13th.  It involves placing the book on the “New Hardcover Arrivals” in their “Top A stores.”  I guess that means bigger stores or whatever. Top A because they have Jesus Brand Spirituality on the table, perhaps? So do what you can to calm the rioting mobs who may have been expecting it out there on May 27.

That’s daughter Judy, the first confirmed purchaser of the book from a bookstore (Barnes & Noble at Union Square, in Manhattan.) I’m told by Thomas Nelson that this is the day the book will be found on the “new arrivals” table in all the Barnes and Noble stores nationwide. Not sure if that is the table in the front of the store or by the religion section. Either way, a fortunate selection as I’m not a well known writer. I think much credit is due the design team at Nelson, led by Greg Maclachlan who developed the cover of the book. Barnes & Noble has it on the display table for two weeks, I understand. If it sells well enough, they may extend the table time, which is what one wants.  If you wish to do me a favor, purchase it from a Barnes & Noble store sometime in the next two weeks. You could, for example, take the next two weeks off and travel to as many states as possible purchasing books from as many stores as possible. Or not. Having written it, I’d like it to sell more rather than less. I’m finding the whole book writing business much changed since the last book I wrote several years ago, before the Internet had such an impact.
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Frederick Buechner has a little devotional reading do-jobby titled, Listening to Your Life. As though your life is telling a story, and you’re both a participant in the story and audience to it. So while you’re in the middle of living your life, listen to it as well. Because maybe God is in there playing hide and seek.
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In one of my other lives, I serve as regional underseer of the Great Lakes Region of Vineyard Churches–about 114 churches in all. We had our regional conference in Cincinatti last week–hence my blogging silence. A wonderful time. We had nearly 200 more in attendance than our previous regional conference, always a good sign. The theme of the conference was 4Ward ’till Kingdom Come, because the theology of the kingdom is the treasure buried in the field of the Vineyard.
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What an experience,  being with these evangelical-charismatic Church of England  believers, mostly young–early twenties–in central London for a few days.  To be lifted out of one’s own context and set down in another’s, having so much in common with these people, and yet, the twist of a different context.  Fascinating.  The first thing you notice is the complete absence of a dominant religious right in their field of vision.  We’re defined by what we’re differentiating ourselves from, at least in part.
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Here at this Anglican church, St. Mary’s in Central London, that is. (The book is in soft-cover here, and released sooner than in the States.) Been doing their Refresh conference and speaking at their church service on Sunday. Fitting, I suppose–my mother having been a life-long Episcopalian who probably never quite got my Jesus freak from of Christian faith, but loved me anyway as mothers do. Anyway, the unconditional love word. Any way to find a way to love, that’s anyway love.
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So the blogger from the UK who offered first impressions of the book–must have been a galley copy–referred to in my post yesterday writes back and says I’ve misrepresented his post. Naturally, I re-read the post. And yes, he’s got a point.

It’s the lizard brain at work once again. Mine, that is. This limbic system placed atop the lizard brain that’s looking at the world through the lens of threat, dodge and dart. You conflate criticisms–hearing a current mild one on top of a previous harsh one from another source–and your brain plays tricks on you.
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Oh. I forgot about this part. You write a book and you’re holed away in your thoughts, and you show your drafts to your wife and your friends, and people rave. Or if they find something that needs tweaking, they offer warm hearted suggestions. But then the thing gets out there, and people tee off. At first you think, “that just goes with the territory.” Actually, first you think, “I hope the thing draws enough attention to get some criticism–good for sales!” But then, you’ve got the Internet and email which we all know promotes candor, speaking one’s mind, brutal honesty, minus relationship. So I got my first “what a load of crap” blog review. [Though check out the bloggers comment--thinks I misread it, and I think he's right. Sensitive writer syndrome strikes yours truly!]
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