Have Faith in God’s Providence

I am positively convinced that God has a sense of humor.

Why?

Because I have just written a book called Providential. It’s 324 pages, nearly 65,000 words, more than 370,000 characters. Providential is a memoir, an exploration of the gift of God’s providence in my life over time. In the book, I share stories – many humorous, some more serious – that demonstrate how God, in conjunction with my free will, has worked his plan for me.

And now, Katie Pesha has kindly offered me an opportunity to say a few words about the book in a blog post. To promote the book and encourage you to buy it and to read it.

And I don’t have any idea what to write.

After an 18-month process of drafting the manuscript and preparing the book for publication, I feel like an athlete who just finished “putting it all out there on the field,” and now I am being interviewed during the postgame show. But at heart I’m an introvert, and I find myself reverting to cliché, like athletes do: “I just want to help the team win. Just get some hits, score some runs, win some games.”

To think that Katie promotes me as one of her “marketing strategists”!

And now my challenge is compounded. With my book in print, people have asked me to autograph their copies. I know this traditionally entails including some short, positive, inspirational phrase. All of this is brand new territory for a rookie book author like me. What on earth should I write?

I think I have settled on the words that are both the overarching message of my book and the handwritten message I will include in the copies I’m invited and privileged to sign.

The words are these: “Have faith in God’s providence.”

That’s really what my book comes down to.

As I note in Providential,

In the end, my purpose for writing this book is not just to chronicle my personal and professional recollections. My hope in sharing these stories is that readers may come to a greater understanding of and appreciation for the role of God’s providence in their own lives, and with that newfound insight choose to celebrate our Lord’s amazing love and care for us and share it with others.

I humbly invite you to read my book and reflect on the role of God’s providence in your life. Published by En Route Books and Media, Providential is available on Amazon, and you can ask your local Catholic bookstore to order it for you as well.

Thanks for reading!