To all the people who have asked me what my plans are for the future....
To all the acquaintances who I've casually mentioned to that I'm pursuing some "writing projects...."
To all of my church family who has prayed for me and waited with me....
To all my family who has kept tabs on this even though they live across (or in another) country....
I signed a book contract today.
The dust is finally settling on some crazy few months and I am wonderfully, deeply, inescapably, thoroughly delighted to tell you that I am writing a book and Crossway is going to publish it.
Crossway is my dream publisher, publishing my present-day Christian heroes - John Piper, Alistair Begg, Randy Alcorn, Jon Bloom, D.A. Carson, Kevin DeYoung. And now they're publishing me.
That's kind of surreal. No, very surreal. Very, very surreal.
What's my book about? I'm so glad you asked!
The working title is This Changes Everything: How the Gospel Transforms the Teen Years. It's written for young people like me who want to grow more like Jesus and want a gospel living book to dig into how to do that. From identity to attitudes, from relationships to reading, This Changes Everything is both theological and practical - or so I hope.
The book is not completed. I have until August 1 to do that. Then Crossway edits the manuscript and sends it back to me. Then I make my edits and send it back to them and then they get everything together and publish it.
I've still got a long road ahead of me until my book hits shelves. But I'm excited. Obviously. This book will be my full-time job for the next six months and who knows where things will go from here?
If you think of it, I need your prayers. I feel so blessed to write this book and incredibly grateful to my advocates at Crossway and Brett Harris (who agented for me), but I need a lot of prayer moving forward.
Prayer for clarity, for wisdom, for discernment, for time-management, for humility, prayer for the team at Crossway, prayer for every person who this book will reach. Lots of prayer. I prayed a lot for trust and peace before I got the contract and I continue to pray for that. I hope you'll join me.
But today I mail my contract. From Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Wheaton, Illinois, it goes.
And this, folks, is just the beginning.