With the problems on my last blog I wasn’t able to complete the description of my ‘spiritual experience’ as I had intended. The problems have been rectified now so hopefully I can complete sharing with you.

If you remember in my last blog I described my Christian development that began at the very young age of two and has continued up to the present time. I’m not an ‘in your face’ Christian. I’ve always tried to demonstrate my faith by my actions and have never been one who is comfortable grabbing someone by their lapels and asking, “Is Jesus your personal savior?”

I was involved in a situation like that one day as I was innocently browsing through the aisles of a Walmart store. Two young gentlemen approached me and began asking me questions. I suppose they were fifteen or sixteen years old.  They wanted to know where I was from, what I did for a living, etc.

I thought it rather strange as it’s not often teenagers take an interest in an old, gray haired guy with wrinkles in a Walmart store. So I played along with the questioning to see where it would end up.

Then the key question was asked. “What do you think will happen to you once you die?” I was just beginning to tell them of my plans to spend eternity in Heaven when a clerk came bustling up to them and demanded to know what they were doing.  Obviously a customer had gone through the same questioning as I had and had registered a complaint.

One of the boys proudly replied, “Why we are proselytizing!”

The clerk quickly replied, “Well you take your proselytizing and do that out in the parking lot!”

So the two boys cheerfully left the store to take up their proselytizing positions in the Walmart parking lot. Meanwhile I continued browsing and as I wandered the aisles thought about the courage those two boys demonstrated.

I don’t have the courage to do that. I’m hoping living a Christian life by example and writing Christian books will accomplish the same results as grabbing customers’ lapels in Walmart stores.

Besides admiration for the two boys actions I was able to add a new word to my vocabulary – proselytizing. I had never used it before. 🙂

That’s right I began this blog intending to finally share my spiritual experience with you. I better get to it. As a Christian I am always tuning into what God may be trying to tell me. I always envy those television personalities who hear God speak to them in an audible voice. Well my November experience wasn’t an audible voice but I knew it was from God.

This experience deals with my children’s book “Nature’s Christmas Story”. I wrote that story in 1981 added my own pen and ink illustrations and began sending it to publishers. For twenty-five years I went through the same ritual….forty-seven times to be exact. I addressed a large manila envelope to a publishing house and included a cover letter, the manuscript and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Forty-seven times I mailed it and forty-seven times my self addressed , stamped envelope with the original contents plus a rejection letter were returned to me.

Somewhere during that time period the internet was being invented. Suddenly print on demand publishing houses became available. An author was able to self-publish their own material. I did just that in 2008.

For the past ten years I have been marketing that book as well as several others that I have also self-published.

Then this fall I got the phone call thirty-seven years after I had written “Nature’s Christmas Story”. Heidi called to ask me if I would give her permission to use “Nature’s Christmas Story” in the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church children’s Christmas program.

Of course I said yes. After thirty-seven years my story would become a play. It would be considered ‘off broadway’ I’m sure but a play none the less.:)

During those thirty-seven years of writing and self-publishing I would be praying for guidance and wisdom. There were successes and failures. Sometimes I felt God’s hand very close to me and other times I felt alone. Although I always believed He was present.

Then came the spiritual experience I’ve been alluding to. It came one Monday evening as I was attending a men’s Bible study in our local Covenant Church. It was just several days after Heidi had called me so I was still flying high.

We were studying the Book of James and as we read the fifth chapter the seventh verse really spoke to me. It said, “Be patient, therefore, brothers until the coming of the Lord.”

God did not speak to me in an audible voice as I read that verse. It was more like he showed me the words “be patient”. I could be patient in my own time or in God’s time. He allowed me to experience the difference between human time and God’s time.

My time would have included no forty-seven rejections of the “Nature’s Christmas Story” manuscript. Maybe a half dozen rejections and then an acceptance by a big publishing house which would have led to Walt Disney purchasing it for big bucks to turn it into a Christmas movie. The movie would still be showing today right along with the likes of “Miracle on 34th Street”.

God’s time was what I experienced as well as his inspiration for writing “Nature’s Christmas Story”. Then He let me enjoy forty-seven rejections over a twenty-seven year period. As 2008 approached He led me to a print on demand publishing house and finally in God’s time my dream was achieved! Then ten more of His years passed until He inspired Heidi to adapt the book for a church children’s Christmas program.

A peace settled over me as I read and reread James 5:7. Be patient, therefore, brothers until the coming of the Lord. Living in God’s time is a part of accepting Jesus into our lives.

So what can my experience teach you? If you are praying to God for something don’t ever give up. Continue to pray, relax and enjoy waiting for an answer in God’s time. It really is a lot more fun that way. 🙂

Until next time.