7 Takes to #NailedIt

Last updated on: December 1, 2017 at 9:49 am by Anne Kennedy

7 Takes to #NailedIt 2017-12-01T09:49:05-04:00 Anne Kennedy

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It’s Friday and that means Takes!
One

Welcome to all you who stumbled onto my blog yesterday via the fantastical sharing magic of the internet! Watched my stats climb and climb all day in total amazement. For those of you who wandered back this morning, I just wanted to mention that I blog Every Day. For real. I have nothing else of meaning and purpose to do (just kidding). Seriously, thank you for reading!

Two
And now on to the main business of today, which is that…my book has been out for a whole year! It’s practically like a birthday! And what I’d like to know is, did any of you manage to read it? And Even More Importantly, did you read the Bible? Did the book help you want to read the Bible? Because that was the whole point.

I do happen to know of one lovely person who labored through Deuteronomy for the first time as a result of my little effort. Finding this out was a total thrill. That’s what I was most longing and hoping for. And this lovely person more than happily admits to being helped.

Three
Or, if you bought it and didn’t read it and didn’t read the Bible, you can just buy Another Copy and try again! Or just try with the same copy, that’s fine too. Or absolve your guilty conscience by giving a stack of them away as Christmas presents. Truly, reading is hard, shopping is lots more fun.

Four
I must say, looking back over the last year, December 1st was essentially the kick off date for a very rough year. I announced my book with joy and wonder, took some awesome selfies, and then went straight into a full body and soul collapse. There I already was on December 1st, complaining that I couldn’t even do the seven minute work out, and no kidding because I was by that time sick and didn’t know it. Day after day I kicked and berated myself for being weak and lazy, when actually I really was weak but not really that lazy. I’m amazed I kept going as long as I did.

Five
And, of course, it wasn’t just exercise and strength that I lost. More tragically, Right After Publishing A Book To Help Anyone At All Get Through The Whole Bible, I literally (not metaphorically or anything) fell off of my habit of reading the Bible every day. Just toppled right off and lay in the dust of all my own tragedies. After years of ploughing relentlessly through the whole text in ten to twelve months each time, suddenly I couldn’t muster the ability to turn a single page or scroll over to a shiny app. I woke up day after day, crawled out of bed, crawled through the day, and crawled back into bed. It was terrible.

Six
But then, somehow, by the grace of God and with the wonder of modern thyroid replacement, mid autumn I looked back over my shoulder and realized I had meandered out of the valley of the shadow of despair and weakness. I can see it all hazy in its eternal twilight, softened by gentle sunlit rays of hope in front of me.

I’ve been waking up for almost two months now early enough to flip open my tablet and push play, to attend haltingly and habitually to the word of life. And, because somehow these two things are always tied together for me, I’ve been sauntering over to my mat for the occasional plank. I don’t just lie on the floor now. I actually suspend myself between heaven and earth, persecuting my core for health and vanity.

So, for real, if you didn’t read the Bible this year, Neither Did I, but it’s not too late to try again.
And again. And again.

Seven
And I am sorry, but I can’t help succumbing to a little schmaltz. I am still so grateful for my friend and editor through the whole process, Jessica, and for Kalos, and especially for you all, and am praying that a blessed, fortifying, repentant, beautiful Advent overshadows your hearts and minds, and that this month and the coming year find you intensely considering Jesus, who, as you know, will not meet any of your hopes and expectations, but will haul you over the line into his effulgent and eternal life if you fling yourself onto his mercy. Then you’ll really be able to whisper #nailedit.

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