Happy New Year, Thank You and What Comes Next
The Aftermath Update to “The Presence”
Happy New Year.
We made it. Thank you for joining me this pasto year on 365 Days of “The Presence: A Devotional for Living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder.”
Thank You.
Thank you to all of my readers in 2023. I set out to write daily for as long as I could and by the grace of God I made it all year. I had been working on a book about thanksgiving and related concepts of the Presence of God and worship. I couldn’t make any progress other than collecting random ideas. It was not like my book eXXXit that flowed naturally almost every-time I sat down to write. But then one day it dawned on me that this was a devotional and then the concept all came together. Additionally, a friend named Jake Glover gave me the idea to release a book initially through a free daily blog per chapter and I realized the challenge of doing it daily as a blog would be the right fit for this project. My wife bought me a desk and armed me with all the support I needed. Then an author friend Caroline Rice, who writes devotionals, gave me some helpful advice for a format that helped me focus daily.
Thank you Grace for being the most supportive wife a guy could ask for. You encouraged me and helped me write at the latest hours, most random places and days of great discouragement.
Thank you Jake and Caroline for your practical advice and wisdom.
Thank you Substack for creating the greatest platform for writers. Your interface made writing everyday so enjoyable and smooth.
Thank you all my readers for following along. Thank you for writing me and letting me know how you were encouraged on different days. That meant so much to keep me going. Thank you for all the likes, comments and shares.
Thank You Jesus for Your Presence. I hope to live more and more in Your Presence. When I was wondering what book to write next I felt You speak to me and say, “write what you need the most.” Thank you for Your guidance. I desire to glorify You above all else.
Here are some of the stats from the last year:
What Comes Next.
I am definitely taking a break from writing daily. But I hope to write 2-4 times a month on Jesus, culture, theology and leadership. I also need to finish my Master’s Degree and I have a fair amount of writing for it that will become discipleship resources for our church.
My goal is to get “The Presence” published as a book during 2024 so it can be purchased and read in print for January 1, 2025. Please pray with me for the right publisher, editor, designer and marketers to come together. If you know anyone in publishing please connect me. I’m not sure which route to go yet, but I believe it will become clear as I head down the path to publishing.
The good news is that Substack is a blog as well as a newsletter so it archives all of my old posts in a very nice format. That means you may read through it, comment and share it all over again.
Here are the first few days to get you started if you like:
Congratulations, John, on this wonderful accomplishment that has blessed so many of us. It will be a great devotional! Caroline may have already mentioned this to you, but for a cover design there is a web site that is reasonable and you get designs from several different people. I used them for the cover of my book "Faceless." The site is 99designs.com Caroline could suggests publishers. I've used a couple of different ones. Praying the Lord will direct you to just the right publisher.
Thank you Pastor John for all the time and effort you and Pastor Grace have put into this devotional I've enjoyed every day of it and I've learned so much from you and the others who commented. It's been a big blessing and a part of my daily .morning worship and study. God bless you and your family abundantly in this next year.