Fear and Perspective
There is nothing overly remarkable about the image you see above. There are a dozen mailing envelopes stacked up and – though not visible from this angle – they are all labeled, addressed and ready to be sent. Yet for me, this picture is much more significant. Let me explain. Inigo Montoya voice, “No…there is too much. Let me sum up…”
I ordered – and received – 20 author copies of my book Simple Preaching Prep. NOTE: Author copies are copies printed for the author at cost without any extra markup. That way an author can sell, give away, etc as they wish.I reached out to a dozen different ministry professionals asking if they would like a free copy of my book. These are individuals teaching the subject of preaching in a variety of Bible colleges and ministry training institutions.Most of these people I have never met and do not know me from Adam. Seriously…I am a complete stranger to them. Some of these people I regard very highly when it comes to teaching and preaching.A large majority responded with very encouraging messages stating they would, in fact, love to receive a copy.The envelopes in the picture each contain a book that, as of this morning, have been sent out to the people on that list.
While to you the picture above may be unremarkable, to me there is a lot of emotion. A singular action (sending out my book) brings out emotions of both excitement and fear. What if they think my book is not very good? What if they say this is actually the exact same material covered in a dozen other books and my book brings nothing new? What if I have been wasting my time and energy? What if these people I regard so highly just brush this off as a “nice try”?
On the other hand, what if they like it? What if suddenly a bunch of people begin examining every one of my sermons for the slightest errors? What if there is a backlash of personalities who are firmly against my approach so that it spawns some weird sort of online counter-movement?
What if? What if? What if?
Realistically, I know that the extremes are highly unlikely. Yet as I send this book out into the world I do so with excitement and fear. I do so hoping and praying that it can serve churches in helping give others the courage and structure to preach their first sermon. So while you may see nothing but a stack of envelopes, for me that image represents much, much more.
