Moving On…On Tuesday

Today marks the end of one of several projects I’ve been working on this summer. Earlier in the month I finished one book project and today is the release of Emily P. Freeman’s book Simply Tuesday, a book project of a different sort. A few months back I was invited to apply for a spot on the launch team for the book, and much to the surprise of this inconsistent blogger, I was chosen. What’s a launch team?

The cynical answer is that you are chosen to work for free marketing a book through word of mouth and social media. The book lover answer is that you are chosen to get an advance copy of a book by an author you already enjoy reading, and tell your closest 1,000 social media friends how much you like it. At least, they hope you like it. You receive emails from a team leader with tasks and inspiration for ways you can get the message out about the book, and you join a Facebook group to connect with others on your launch team. 

I discovered I’m even an introvert on social media, because while I read everything on the team page, I didn’t contribute much there. I posted about three things, “liked” mostly everyone’s posts and I made only a couple comments. What was interesting was watching a community of women immediately begin to form from all over the country and Canada. People started following one another on Instagram, followed each other’s blogs, and prayed for each other, some even met up at a conference they found they were all attending. They made friends. I didn’t. Because I’m the girl in the corner of the couch watching you all mingle. Don’t feel bad though, because I learned a lot, found some great writers and of course, got to read a great book before everyone else. And, a great book it is.

Today, the book is released to the rest of the world and I hope they embrace it. This book was a book I was meant to read this summer, after a long season of seeking the Lord for what I was supposed to be doing, how and when and where I was supposed to be doing it. I discovered a ton about myself reading this book, and a little about God, too. Does that freak you out a bit, the little about God part?

That’s because this book is heavy on introspection in a good way, with a gentle constant reminder that you are not alone, Christ is with you and Christ is in you. The emphasis of the book is on embracing humility, although I couldn’t have defined that way until about 100 pages in. When Emily talks about being small, about being directed by love, about shutting down the hustle by sitting on a bench, she’s talking about humility, dependence on God, being led by the Spirit and cultivating relationships along the way. It’s a different language than I speak, there’s an absence of biblical terms that I’m used to, and as I said in another post, a poetic language, one I had to learn to glean the spiritual truth in her writing. I’m dense that way. When I’m sick I read apologetic books as a literary comfort food. Now I feel bilingual. Plus, I suspect Emily is my clone, albeit a more mature one.

Listen, our flesh and this world push for big, for significant, for impactful, for fame of some sort constantly. At best it confuses us and at worst, it destroys us. Whenever I feel defeated, unprofitable, and insignificant and let’s just say it, a failure, I remember that I was created for good works that I would walk in them. To discover what they are and how to walk in them requires a smallness, an acceptance of the humility Jesus showed when He allowed no accolades, when He washed feet, when He went to the cross.  It is to sit with Him, to let Him show you how your smallness is a gift, and how He uses that for His kingdom.

And now I’m done. It’s time to move on, to more projects, to more books, to more good works. It’s time for vacation, it’s time to absorb what I’ve been shown and decide how I move forward with it. It’s time for change, for growth, for overcoming fear with faith. It’s time for the last peach shake of the season and a new Bible study. It’s time for Raiders football and the other 31 teams. It’s time, as Emily says, for small moment living in a fast paced world. Let’s get on with it.