It seems like MANY years ago when I was on my way to do a safety inspection for a client I was working with. It was a beautiful autumn morning and I was enjoying the silence and peacefulness in my car, even though I’d been struggling with a bit of restlessness in my life–particularly my faith life. I felt like I wasn’t perhaps doing all that the Lord desired of me.

As I rounded the bottom of a gentle hill, I heard an inaudible voice in my heart say:

“Pay attention to your life.”

Well! When you get a nudge from the Lord like that, you start paying attention to your life!

And even more intriguing–I knew what He meant.

You see, I’m a “Martha”. If you know anything about Jesus’ friends, you know Martha and her sister, Mary. Martha is the one who runs around doing all kinds of tasks: preparing meals, tidying the house, washing the dishes, making sure there are clean sheets on the beds and towels in the bathroom, polishing the windows until they sparkle . . . while Mary–she sits at the feet of Jesus, listening, watching, soaking up all of His wisdom. And this kind of got Martha’s goat once in a while.

I have Martha’s personality. I like to be busy, serve others, have a clean house and I can occasionally complain, worry and be anxious. I can judge others with the best of them. I struggle with looking at the world with the eyes of Jesus, hearing with the ears of Jesus, loving with the heart of Jesus.

And I knew that the Lord was calling me to change. To slow down and be more attentive to my life and His actions in it.

I also knew that the Lord had blessed me with the charism of writing and I somehow knew that He wanted me to write a book. I had no experience as an author and I certainly had no idea what the book was supposed to be about (which caused me untold amount of worry, doubt and fear). But EVERY time, I thought about taking the easy way out and NOT writing this book . . . every time I procrastinated doing His will . . . every time I told Him I wasn’t the person for the job . . . ONE Scripture passage ALWAYS appeared in my day and caused me no small amount of consternation–

–It was Matthew 25:14-30 where the master goes on a long journey and entrusts three of his servants with talents. To the first he gives five talents, to a second servant–two, and to a third–one. Each according to his ability. When the master returns and settles accounts with them, the servant given the five talents returns with five more and the master praises him, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.”

The same happened with the servant who was given two talents.

But when the servant given only one talent comes forward, he tells the master he buried the talent. (You KNOW where I’m going with this, don’t you?) He had nothing more to show for the talent entrusted to him and said, “I knew you were a demanding person . . . so out of fear, I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.”

And what did the master say? (Yikes!) “You wicked, lazy servant! . . . Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” (Double yikes!)

Like I said . . . that Scripture came up every time I pondered not doing what the Lord desired of me.

Not really wanting to be among those wailing and grinding their teeth, I took one tentative step forward . . . and then another . . . and then there was the day I was sitting in Adoration at my small Catholic Church feeling restless and anxious because I’d not been devoting much (if any) time to writing “the book”. I prayed, asking the Lord to give me confidence, wisdom, perseverance, faith and health to get it done–for His glory and my salvation. (Yes, I was still sweating out that wailing and grinding of teeth part). After writing that prayer in my journal, I closed the journal and gazed at Jesus in the monstrance on the altar. Out of nowhere, I heard another whisper in my soul:

“Your salvation does not depend on your writing this book, but the salvation of others may.”

And in that moment, I knew–I knew I was not meant to think of this book as “my story”. (I mean–who really cares about MY story?). No, I realized that perhaps within the words of my story, others would find theirs . . . and this would draw them into a deeper relationship with the Lord.

From that day forward, ever so slowly, (and I mean s-l-o-w-l-y!) the book Everyday Encounters with the Lord came to fruition.

The entire thing has been a work of the Holy Spirit–from the call to pay attention to my life so I could better see Jesus in it, to subject matter, to the timing of the publication.

I hope you not only order and enjoy this book the Lord and I have written, but that you also come to Pay attention to your life and see how the Lord talks, walks, acts and nudges you along your way.

And be sure to let me know if and how it has blessed your life!