Surprises!

My daughter is so cute. I know, I’m biased, but she dressed up as a Secret Service Agent for her costume day at school. And, as she left the house, she spoke into her lapel mic (aka, my cell- phone earpiece), saying, “the pack is leaving the den. I repeat, the pack is leaving the den.” (Apparently, Jack Bauer has rubbed off her!)

We have a lot of bodyguards in the Warren family. (That happens when you have three boys). But a recent phrase has made me smile - “I got your back,” Noah says to Peter as they play Warriors or touch football in the yard. It’s spilled over into other areas of life, like fetching the red pepper for the dinner table. Or saving the PS 2 game.

Methinks they’ve been watching too much television. But the way they’ve adapted it make me chuckle.

I, by nature, tend to have a vivid imagination, not unlike my kids. People have to sorta watch what they say around me because more often then not, I miss the next ten minutes of conversation as my mind wraps around something they’ve said, a comment, a question and pretty soon I have a book half-plotted. I recently had lunch with a song-writer friend who said that she’s constantly hearing “hooks” for her songs. Yeah, well, imagine constantly hearing stories.

It gets sorta crowded in my head.

The fun part about being a writer is research. I love to learn about new professions, new locations. When I wrote The Perfect Match, I enrolled in a firefighter’s course. When I wrote Expect the Sunrise, I had a pilot friend take me through the take- off and landings of small planes (picture me sitting on my kitchen chair, using a wooden spoon as he sits beside me as co-pilot). For Reclaiming Nick (due out in January), I went to Montana and spent a week on a ranch. And in September, in the middle of writing Taming Rafe (the sequel to Nick), I went to Gilly’s in Dallas and climbed on their mechanical bull.

I’ve interviewed soldiers, firefighters, cops, search and rescue personnel, smoke-jumpers, cowboys and bull-riders, and asked them stupid questions like, “How does it feel to jump out of a plane?”

The REAL cool thing about all this, however, is that nearly all of these were divine appointments. Like the time our family took a flight to Kalispell, Montana, and my son’s seatmate mentioned he was a Green Beret. Yeah, well, guess who changed seats with his mom? Or when a fellow writer mentioned she was dating a bull-rider who would be glad to look over my scenes for accuracy. Or the unexpected junket this summer to New York, right during the writing of a book sent in Manhattan. Or the surprise last weekend when a fella I’d only just met at a fundraising dinner offered to take my daughter and I out for a spin on his yacht. (Yeah, I said Yacht). Did he know that I am working on a book set on the eastern seaboard?

No, but God did.

I spoke this past month at a school, and used 1 Thess 5:24 as my basis – He who called you is faithful to do it. Yes, that verse is talking about perfecting our salvation. But I also think that when God asks us to do something, like be a mom, or run children’s church, or even write books, He’s already there, providing crayons or patience or even bull- riders.

I don’t know what God is asking of you today, but I pray that you see him providing in surprising, delightful ways that remind you that you are not alone in this.

Because, God has your back.

Thank you for being such a blessing to me – for reading my books and writing to me, letting me know that they’ve blessed you or made an impact in your life. I’m very grateful for your encouragement and support.