Two Years Since Unknown!

Wow. It’s wild to even be saying this, but Unknown, my debut novel, is officially two years old. From starting it way back in 2018 as a freshman in college to publishing and editing it in 2021 and now looking back on it in 2023, I’m just so thankful for the opportunity to both write and be published. It’s one of those dreams that God fulfilled in His own way and timing (and not in the way I ever really imagined as a younger writer!)

Unknown might not be my favorite book I’ve ever written, but it’s definitely up there near the top. Gabe and Sofia will always hold a special place in my heart (and I can’t forget I did say Gabe was one of my favorite characters I’ve ever written.) There’s so much in that story that I look back on and either shake my head at in laughter or connect with on an even deeper level today than I did when I was twenty-one.

So much of this book focused on God’s calling upon a person’s life and the cost of obeying the Lord. And no matter what season of life we’re in, obedience can be one of the most wonderful and difficult things we ever experience. Maybe we’ll never be a missionary to Russia amidst some wild drug trading scheme, but even the small steps of obedience like honoring your parents, loving your siblings sacrificially, or answering your kids patiently after they ask the same annoying question again – all of these are obedience.

And when we are obedient, God will provide – even when your temper’s frayed almost to breaking or your bank account is perilously low. It doesn’t matter. God isn’t limited by our human understanding, and whatever He’s called us to, He will provide. God doesn’t command us to obey His calling and just leave us to hang. He leads us, guides us, and cares for us – no matter what happens.

So let’s be obedient to the Lord’s call upon our lives, whatever that is, rather it is seemingly great or small, for all are important in His sight – and trust Him with the rest!

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.