It’s going to be hard to leave the beach later today. This Emerald Isle has worked its way into our bones.

But we’re also going to be returning to Wake Forest with glad hearts, because we dearly love the church, the community, and the wonderful people who live and worship there.

This time of study leave may have refreshed, restored, and renewed us, but it has also set the trajectory for the next few months, and it’s a direction loaded with a mountain of work!

As for me, I’ve made a lot of progress on the new book; I’m excited about how the bones of the manuscript are coming together, and I’m anxious to get the “go-ahead” from my publisher to pull the project together.

Here’s what tends to happen. The scriptures get under my skin and – in response – an idea for a book emerges. Then, when I’m beginning work on the project, I end up reading a lot more from the Bible, so I become even more excited and begin brimming over with still more ideas.

It’s a positive cycle of sustenance and inspiration, and it simply won’t let go. The challenge for me, then, is to communicate some of that sense of life so that my readers will be encouraged along in their own journey.

Writing to communicate life is a huge responsibility, and I pray that I don’t dampen the enthusiasm I feel because I’m so awkward sometimes with my words.

The Gospel is such a big story, such a powerful message, and such a beautiful invitation to life and light. I want all of that to be crystal clear in everything that I do.

In love, and because of love – DEREK