Finished

 I've carried a dream in my heart since I was twelve years old. I wanted to be an author. I cannot explain where it came from or exactly when it started. I always loved to write. Creative writing assignments in school excited me. I wished for more of them. While other students groaned in complaints, I eagerly grabbed my pen and furiously dreamed up stories writing with passion. Other than playing professional football, and God calling me to preach, the only thing I dreamed of doing was writing. 

I celebrate today finishing the rough draft of another book. I titled the book, Only Believe: The Power of a Transformational Jesus Touch. I poured my soul into that book. The book touches on Jesus stories from the Gospels. It is a book of hope and written to encourage faith in people. We are nowhere near ready to go to print. I just finished the rough draft. Now the work starts. Proofing, editing, eventually shopping it to publishers, choosing page layouts, front and back cover designs, and after all that we go to print. The work does not stop after that. Then the book has to be marketed. Hopefully people will purchase copies and be helped by it. 

Today, I celebrate finishing a project close to a year in the making. There were set backs along the way with constant demands on my time. One set back nearly brought the whole project to a devastating end before it was finished. Back in late 2025, I wrote feverishly to finish the book before the end of the year. I was nearly 75% complete, when after a writing session suddenly I lost everything on the computer. Nothing was saved. I had saved the work each step of the way. Then it was gone. There was some glitch in the computer that erased months and months of work. 

I cannot even begin to describe the way I felt. Sick to my stomach. I could not believe it happened. Shock. Devastated. Crushed. Grieved. These feelings touch the surface. I do not have the words to describe the depth of those emotions. I wanted to cry, but no tears formed. I barely functioned for days. A technology expert looked at my computer and was able to recover a portion of the book. I still lost at least one third of what I wrote. The church got me a new computer and the remaining part of my book was saved on a thumb drive and downloaded onto the computer. That incomplete manuscript sat dormant for five months. I could not bring myself to go back to write on it again. I wrote blogs and articles for our newsletter. I just couldn't bring myself to work on that book. That is until three days ago. 

It started with a question from someone about whether I had done any more work on the book. I went to the file and opened it for the first times in months. The cursor blinked at the end of the recovered portion and I asked God to inspire and help me finish the book. Three days later I typed the last word of the last sentence and put down the last period. Finished. God enabled me to finish the project He initiated me to start in the first place. Now to devote my time to more blogs and my next book to be titled, Shake The City: A Revival Story. This is a book about a 23-day revival that broke out in the First Baptist Church in Seminole, TX where I served as pastor. I leave next week for a prayer/writing retreat to begin that work. 

There is a sense of contentment that comes with finishing anything. Many people start projects and do not complete them. When God calls us to start something, there should be an obligation to obey to completion or God releases us. We can all look around to see books we started reading but never finished or home projects that started with great gusto only to fizzle out with frenzied schedules. Quitting can become a habit. So can finishing. So, go ahead and finish the project you started. Resurrect that dream you gave up on too early. Let us finish for the glory of God. [Gal 6:9]