The Earth is Full

I had a big announcement to make yesterday. I was going to be funny and silly and proud and humble all in one.
But, in light of the Tragedy in Boston, it fell flat and I never made the announcement.
I prayed a lot about it yesterday and this morning and I am ready to share, but there is a different reason today.
You see, I've been absent from this little blog for the last five or six months because I've been busy writing a book. A fiction novel.
Recently I had the opportunity to timidly pass my book proposal to a publisher at a conference.
And he liked it. His team liked it. They wanted to read more. So I sent them the first five chapters. And they liked it.
Mr and I met with him and left with a contract in hand to look over, pray over, seek counsel over.
And yesterday, I let the publisher and his team know that I would love to sign that contract and make these 80,000 words I've been tenderly (sometimes not-so-tenderly)
pounding into this computer into a book that someone else can read and have an opinion about and all of those things that I've always dreamt about.
My writing dreams are coming true and it is so unreal that I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it. It's a very exciting place. It's a very scary place.
I spent a lot of the past week doing a crazy, funky little happy dance that made my kids -my toddlers mind you- roll their eyes at me.
But then I read the news yesterday and I've watched the horror and I've had to step back and analyze what's really important.
And of course a blog post could never be enough to convey what is really important, but I will say this: the thread in this book that God has been leading me to write (that is an entirely other post) is that the earth is full.
But full of what?
Sometimes all we can see is that the earth is full of sin. Of depravity. Of horror and selfishness and fighting and anger and all kinds of nasty things.
Yesterday it sure looked full of that, didn't it?
But I've been learning and growing and seeking Him and He has shown me over and over that, yes, while the earth is teeming with all of those ^^^^ yucky things, Scripture says it's full of something else.
"For the word of the LORD is upright,
And all His work is done in
faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the
LOVINGKINDNESS of the LORD." Psalm 33:4,5
We can't always trust what we see on the news or what our emotions tell us, and I'm not saying there isn't ickiness and that the horror of Boston and other things going on that are blowing up our social media sites are not happening.
But our perspective can change our thoughts and emotions like nothing else can.
The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.
He has proved it over and over and over. In so many way. Most powerfully, He, who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might live with Him forever - away from this filth and depravity.
Away from OUR own filth and depravity.
I can't wait to introduce you to Lydia and Charlotte and Suchin and many others that have been alive in my mind and in my computer for months now. They, too, have questioned and sought the Lord, some willingly, while others could not deny His persuit of them. All have seen in a unique way that the earth is full.
For now, my editor has to tear my work up - the Lord has been gracious to give me the story and now He will be gracious as He humbles me!
In the days ahead, while the news is full of inspiring stories and stories of hate, remember His love and that His lovingkindness takes up more space than the evil around us. He hates this even more than we do and His heart breaks, longing to call His children to Himself, that all may know Him and find peace in Him.
Let's do our part to spread the lovingkindness He has so freely bestowed on us.