I have five writing projects in the works all in varying degrees of intensity. These books have a spiritual thread in common. They are written to bring the focus back to God and His way of working behind the scenes. My message is that God is enough…for any problem, hurt, or sadness. In Him, we can find the necessary tools and comfort—if we will seek Him in an honest way. He uses people, circumstances, and our intentional will to gain entrance into our lives. It is a journey that takes varied forms and unusual meetings. One never knows what is down the road and around the bend.

Here are my current book-authoring projects. All of these books are fully written and are now in the time-consuming process of proofreading and re-working, editing and footnoting, documenting sources and gathering permissions (there goes my summer!). I am eager to bring them to the light of day. Some of their content I have shared on this blog as a resource to my readers. The graphics I am posting are only sketches of my playing around with book cover ideas, but they will not be the final versions. Titles are subject to revision–I’m open to any suggestions.

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1. STEPPING STONES: 7 Devotionals for the Discouraged and Broken-Hearted—This booklet is for the hurting, divorced, or disillusioned. It contains practical spiritual insights for dealing with pain, loss, and suffering. It is short and to the point but hits on areas that trip us up because we’ve been hurt in the deep places that are difficult to address and embarrassing to talk about. Its content offers hope for the Christian who is wounded and suffering.

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2. God’s Pain Pill: A Holy Intervention: Finding the Path to Spiritual Freedom— A booklet that offers a look into ways we can access God through a careful, inward look that takes us to the mirror of God and opens us up to His transformative power. It has practical application steps to help facilitate meaningful spiritual change for the inner person. The text is Matthew 11:28-30. I’m excited about this book’s potential to help free people who are stuck in their (hidden) pain. It contains the steps God used to free me. I’ve used its concepts with the women in my church.

I picture a graphic of a business person with their head in their hands with the light of God shining down.

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3. A Quiet Grace— A collection of personal stories that highlight grace in action. Extending grace to others is part of loving well. If we look back on our lives, we can find a multitude of times where grace acted in a gentle way. That is what I did. I combed through old and new writings of mine from over the years, people’s stories that touch my story. This book includes comforting experiences that happened with family, friends, and strangers. These are encouraging stories that sometimes cause me to weep as I read them because they speak of love and human connection. I asked God for a title, A Quiet Grace is what was given to me. This is a heart-warming and thoughtful book.

Photo used by permission.

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4. Treasures of Life and Soul: 365 +1 Daily Readings: The Secret Wisdom of Loving, Learning and Living with Courage, Fortitude and Grace— Writings from themes I first tweeted on Twitter in 2014. This book contains bits of wisdom and spiritual themes for each day of the year, most are happy but some are poignant: includes topics of death/suicide (Robin Williams), love, joy, God-realities, human-stuff, and love of nature. It is easy reading and contains interesting thoughts about life and its most important aspects. It is uplifting.

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5. The Golden Silence: Moments with God at New Clairvaux: My Journey across the Church Divide–This is the second book in a three book series. This is a hugely different book for an evangelical protestant writer.  I look in a new direction, I take an open look at a form of worship that I don’t understand and of which I have little first-hand background knowledge. I observe some monks, a community of twenty-one Christian brothers, as I spend one year making weekly visits to a Trappist Cistercian monastery. What I find there surprises me. I find community that demonstrates Christ’s love in action. Mostly I find God’s peaceful presence. This is a reflective, contemplative book. I know it will be a controversial book but one that makes Christians, on both sides of the divide, think. I truly believe God led me to write this book. I was apprehensive because of the Christian community that prides itself on its ability to disagree with those who don’t believe completely as they do.

The Abbott volunteered to write the Foreword after he read the draft copy of my manuscript, which came as a great surprise to me since I am not Catholic. His well-written foreword makes me even want to read the book! It is beautiful and well-said. Father Peter Hansen, an Anglican priest (Province of Christ the King affiliation) in my home town and personal friend, also endorses this book. He authored the book, You Were There, which I have reviewed on my blog’s Book Feature side.

On a Side Note: I have found that we as Christian people are often afraid of what we don’t understand. There is a big and timely message in this book. Our world is in trouble. I feel a sense of urgency. Christians must come together to pray for those throughout our world who are spiritually lost, those who live in dangerous areas, those who no longer believe in God or have faith that He exists, or, if they do, see God as irrelevant and unimportant to life in the now, and those who are compromised in some way and/or are emotionally hurt and wounded. Praying for the world is our duty and privilege. We must get serious and we must get rid of our rigid, fake ways of living out our spirituality. Christ is the answer.

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WHICH ONE OF MY BOOK(S) DO YOU WANT TO READ?

Leave me a comment or email me at nlbrumbaugh@gmail.com.

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