I wrote the final words of this nearly 69,000-word manuscript at 6:25 this morning and sat back in my chair, stunned. In the last three weeks, school has been canceled once for snow and delayed once for a power outage. We’ve had a ten-day long stomach flu followed immediately by colds and coughs that won’t quit. Out of the seven writing mornings I’ve had planned, I’ve been able to use one.

There is still an introduction to write, 10,000 words to shave off, citations to finalize, and an entire spring break between now and my April 1st deadline.

It feels like a lot. But then I remember that I wrote Mercy Like Morning when my oldest was a newborn, thick in the new-mom fog of sleep-deprivation and figuring out motherhood. It’s God’s preferred way for me to write my books, I suppose. One sentence, one paragraph at a time, ten minutes at a time. And God takes it all and pieces it together into the manuscript masterpiece He always intended it to be.

Four days into the puke-apocalypse, as worry began prickling, I sat down and whispered, “God, what do You want me to know today?” I felt three words drop into my spirit: “There is time.”

Twenty minutes later, God reiterated His time-promise through a smattering of words by @annvoskamp: “Whenever the enemy of the soul hisses that you’re way behind, you get to exhale and say, ‘Of course, I’m behind, because Jesus is leading me - which means I’m fully on the way and right on time because my heart is keeping time with His.”

Two weeks and a spring break and a list of things to still check off? There is time. And for today, I’m celebrating this morning’s big win.

When we lived on Maui, there was a hurricane that made its way toward us. We prepared as best we could, pulled the furniture inside, stocked up on food, checked off the things on the “a hurricane is coming” list. And then, just before it was supposed to hit, it stopped moving. The storm just sat there offshore, churning.

Last Thursday night, some demonic form of the stomach flu hit our house at 1:00 in the morning. And it’s just sat here, churning, ever since. Today, nearly seven full days later, it’s made its way through all three kids and we have two still flat on the couch with dueling fevers, the pukes still coming.

It’s my tell that I’m 25 days away from my manuscript deadline, the very first of what, God-willing, will be a full study-commentary series through every single book of the Bible. It’s a HUGE undertaking, a giant, God-sized dream, and I’ve lost a week of work on it snuggling these sick babes back to health.

All that to say, I would LOVE your prayer! For this sickness to lift and for it to bypass me altogether (and not drag this nonsense out any longer). And for an unheard-of level of productivity to finish the last push of the manuscript, re-read it all the way through, and edit out the approximate 10,000 extra words that will bring it all back inside of the 60,000-word goal. 🙏🏽💪🏽

Thanks so much for being part of this wild story, and cheering me on for so many years! It means everything absolutely everything. 🥰