Zondervan Blog

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Re:Word Weekly - 2/24/12 Posted: 24 Feb 2012 03:53 PM PST   Re:Word is a weekly roundup of stories on faith, relationships, and the creative life.    1. How Big Is Your BUT? - Watch Lysa TerKeurst's webcast on overcoming excuses.  (via @LysaTerKeurst)   2. On Writing The Perfect Ending - Sue Brower (Executive Editor at Zondervan) shares proven wisdom for making your romance, women's lit, or suspense story go out with bang. (via @acfwTweets).   3.  The Cost of Not Failing - The engrossing story of would-be comedy star Duke Fightmaster leads Ed Czyewski to observe, "When we refuse to fail, we rob ourselves of important lessons ... and prevent ourselves from taking important steps forward." (via @TheHighCalling).   4. Four Ways to Be a Better Friend by Ann Voskamp (@annvoskamp).   5. What about Purgatory? asks author and scholar Scot McKnight... (@scotmcknight)   The poet Dante presents his poem "Purgatorio" to the city of Florence.   6. Five Ways to Spice Things Up with Your Spouse by author Sheila Wray Gregoire (@sheilagregoire)   7. 19 tips for authors (and aspiring authors) by Seth Godin. If you're not familiar with Godin, he's an incredibly entrepreneurial (and busy) thinker, writer, and marketer -- so I'm not surprised his first love is for self-publishing. We disagree on a few points about publishing (i.e., Tip #7), but even when Godin isn't right he's worth considering. Here are two of my favorites from the list: The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you'll need later. Pay for an eidtor editor. Not just to fix the typos, but to actually make your ramblings into something that people will choose to read... One of the things traditional publishers used to do is provide really insightful, even brilliant editors... but alas, that doesn't happen very often.* (*I can't speak for the personnel at other publishers, but my editor colleagues at Zondervan are insightful and even brilliant. // I tip my hat to Zondervan author @pastorbrady for bringing Godin's post to my attention.)   - Adam Forrest, Zondervan   (Disclosure: Some Re:Word stories are by Zondervan authors. Some are not. All regard words or the Word, and all are useful / enriching / or just flat-out interesting. Image attribution: Domenico Di Michelino [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer shares these personal opinions for information purposes only. To receive new blogposts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

Prisons and Other Places the Kingdom Takes Root [Excerpt by Philip Yancey] Posted: 24 Feb 2012 09:05 AM PST   Excerpt from Grace Notes: Daily Readings with Philip Yancey (eBook).   Taking God's assignment seriously means that I must learn to look at the world upside down, as Jesus did. Instead of seeking out people who stroke my ego, I find those whose egos need stroking; instead of important people with resources who can do me favors, I find people with few resources; instead of the strong, I look for the weak; instead of the healthy, the sick. Is not this how God reconciles the world to himself? Did Jesus not insist that he came for the sinners and not the righteous, for the sick and not the healthy?   People often look upon [Jean] as mad... The founder of the L'Arche homes for the mentally disabled, Jean Vanier, says that people often look upon him as mad. The brilliantly educated son of a governor general of Canada, he recruits skilled workers (Henri Nouwen was one) to serve and live among damaged people. Vanier shrugs off those who second-guess his choices by saying he would rather be crazy by following the foolishness of the gospel than the nonsense of the values of our world. Furthermore, Vanier insists that those who serve the deformed and damaged benefit as much as the ones whom they are helping. Even the most disabled individuals respond instinctively to love, and in so doing they awaken what is most important in a human being: compassion, generosity, humility, love. Paradoxically, they replenish life in the very helpers who serve them.   In India I have worshiped among leprosy patients. Most of the medical advances in the treatment of leprosy came about as a result of missionary doctors, who alone were willing to live among patients and risk exposure to study the dreaded disease. As a result, Christian churches thrive in most major leprosy centers.   In Myanmar, I have visited homes for AIDS orphans, where Christian volunteers try to replace parental affection the disease has stolen away. In Jean Vanier's center in Toronto, I have watched a scholarly priest lavish daily care on a middle-aged man so mentally handicapped that he could not speak a word. The most rousing church services I have attended took place in Chile and Peru, in the bowels of a federal prison. Among the lowly, the wretched, the downtrodden, the rejects, God's kingdom takes root.   "The most rousing church services I have attended took place in Chile & Peru, in the bowels of a federal prison. Among the lowly ... God's kingdom takes root."     Learn More -Philip Yancey Learn more about Grace Notes eBook Visit Philip Yancey's blog   (Image & some styling above are web-exclusive features not included in the text of Grace Notes. Image attribution: By MicheleLovesArt (Van Gogh Museum - Tree-roots, 1890) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

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