My Feet On My Hearth

I rolled into good ole NA this afternoon after spending the week at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. It was full of information and inspiration. I was privileged to sit under the teaching of award winning novelist James Scott Bell. He is an incredible teacher and a humble down to earth guy. Have you ever sat in a class and felt disappointment when you realized it was time for the class to be over? That's how it was every day in his class. By the way, regarding my previous post...I have a lot of editing and rewriting to do!

I gained interest from a few editors who liked one of my book proposals. I also met with my agent about an upcoming project that we hope to present to publishers soon. The conference is beneficial enough if you just attend the classes and workshops but the best part for me is meeting people in the writing industry from around the country. If you're interested in improving your writing skills and/or getting published in any area of writing, I highly recommend this conference.

In addition to Jim Bell, I also enjoyed learning from Ron Benrey and Alton Gansky. General session speakers also included McNair Wilson and Jim Watkins. McNair Wilson is hard for me to accurately describe: witty, motivational, encouraging, hilarious, fresh, creative, spontaneous...a wonderful speaker and fun to spend time with.

It was a good and profitable week but I'm glad to be typing this from my favorite chair in the den with our hearth serving as my ottoman. The Blue Ridge mountains are beautiful but, like Dorothy said, "There's no place like home."

Done! (for now)

I finished my novel this morning. I started it about ten years ago working diligently for months on it. About a third of the way complete, I moved, changed jobs, churches, etc. In other words, life happened. The novel stayed hidden in my computer for years. Occasionally, I would pull it up, brush it off, and visit it. Only in the past year or so have I made serious strides in getting that story told. So, today, at about 7:42 AM, I wrote the last sentence.

Now, it's time to rewrite, edit, rewrite some more, edit some more, etc.

I'll be attending the Blue Ridge Mountains Writers Conference next week in Ridgecrest, NC. Hopefully, I can learn some more about the craft of writing fiction and talk to a few editors about the book. I attended this conference last year and it was awesome! Can't wait to reconnect with some of the people I met last year, learn more, and be inspired more. Last year, God spoke to me in a unique way on the last day. I blogged about it here. I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say to me this year!

For you TNC'ers out there, this coming Sunday is going to be HUGE! I can't wait to witness what God is going to do here. Pray for Steve as he prepares what will be one of the boldest visionary messages he has ever presented. Then we can cap off the day with FACEDOWN. God doesn't stop blessing his people when they are obediently and anxiously following him. Let's keep seeking him and we will continue to marvel at what he is doing!

Batterson Highlight Reel

Last night I finished reading Mark Batterson's book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. It is full of quotable stuff and I thought I'd share some of them with you. The book is based on the brief story of Benaiah found in 2 Samuel 23:20-21.

• Sometimes God won't intervene until something is humanly impossible.


• Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small.


• God is great not just because nothing is too big for him. God is great because nothing is too small for him.


• Don't accumulate possessions. Accumulate experiences!


• Opportunities often look like insurmountable obstacles.


• Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God.


• Sometimes you have to run away from security and chase uncertainty.


• If life is infinitely uncertain and God is infinitely complex, then all we can do is accept our finitude and embrace uncertainty. Faith doesn't reduce uncertainty. Faith embraces uncertainty.


• Maybe faith has less to do with gaining knowledge and more to do with causing wonder.


• We want a 3 act play but Jesus takes us to the Improv instead. If the script was already written up front for us, it would undermine our dependence on the Holy Spirit.


• 20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. (Mark Twain)


• Maybe righteousness has less to do with not doing anything wrong and more to do with doing things right.


• When everything is said and done, I think our greatest regrets will be the God-ordained risks we didn't take.


• Some of us approach our relationship with Christ like we're called to play a "prevent defense" when we ought to be in a "2 minute drill."


• Why is it that the Church is known more for what we're against than what we're for?


• The Aramaic word for prayer means to set a trap. Prayer helps us catch opportunities God throws our way.


• Faith is the willingness to look foolish.


• We serve an unlimited God with unlimited resources. A God who looked at a few loaves and fish and saw a banquet for 5000 people.

Draining My Brain

I don't have anything in particular here to post but here's what has been on my mind lately:

1. Pray for John Redmond and his family. John is a TNC member who is in a tough battle against cancer.

2. Speaking of cancer, I've had my mom on my mind a lot lately. May 14 will be 5 years since she left for heaven.

3. I'm near completion of a novel. Maybe one day you'll see it in print. I'm writing the climax now and hope to have the first draft finished in a couple of weeks.

4. I can't believe it's already May!

5. My baby girl is going to her second prom Saturday night. (She went to the Lakeside HS prom last week.)

6. My son is preparing to be in the Mr. SC Bodybuilding competition. My wife and daughter don't want to attend because the contestants wear gross tight bikini shorts!

7. Psalm 37:4 keeps coming up everywhere. Steve used it last week. We talked about it in J Team. I posted about it at www.tncblog.com and I used it in a couple of recent counseling sessions. "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." To me, life is summed up in those words. Focus your life and ENJOY your life with Christ and he will place his desires in your heart and fulfill those desires.

8. Walt and Betsy left for an incredible trip to Turkey and Israel tonight. I'm going to miss that knucklehead for the next two weeks. (Walt, not Betsy.) See www.drpepperking2.blogspot.com

9. I'm starting to get excited about our mission trip to Guatemala in June!

10. TrueNorth Church is an awesome church! The staff, leaders, volunteers, etc. are a true blessing to us!

11. I'm finishing up Mark Batterson's book, "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day." I've underlined a bunch of stuff. I'll post it on here soon.

12. I've been looking forward to watching the Dallas Mavs vs. Golden State tonight. It just started.

13. I hate my front yard. Does anyone here know anything about landscaping?