Why I Wrote God Never Changes

One day, a work colleague abruptly asked me, ‘how do you stay so happy and hopeful during this terrible time?’ I could see he was struggling, yet I could not find the courage to say, ‘ I have tremendous faith in God, and trust in Him to sustain me in all ways’. Instead, I said, ‘when I’m feeling down, I try to eat right and get more sleep’. What? Did I really say that? I instantly felt bad that I did not toss my friend that lifeline he was needing. I tried to find him and make it right but to no avail. Two weeks later, my friend ended his own life. I was devastated; he reached out, and I’d let him down.

I immediately started to feel the tug of the Holy Spirit working in my heart; leading me to people and opportunities to learn and hone a courageous faith. I joined church ministry groups that dealt freely in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. I taught and prayed and assisted the lonely, the needy, and the disenfranchised with a newfound zeal – I had found my courageous faith!

And then God asked me to step out to a new level.

Late in 2016, my family moved from Southern California to a farm in the Central Valley. We moved ourselves and made many round trips hauling our possessions from our Long Beach area home to our new farmhouse in Madera, a nearly 600-mile circuit. We had to leave room in the truck for my infirmed mother-in-law and our old dog, Penny, who traveled with us and had to be accommodated on each trip. As our new home was still under construction, we slept upstairs in our barn. It was rough. During the stress and intensity of the move, God put it on my heart to write this book. And He was demanding. Although I would be so very tired at the end of a strenuous day driving, loading and unloading, and caregiving, I was compelled to sit up at the old table with a lantern and write, after everyone else had gone to sleep. The winter nights were beautiful but so very cold. We had to wear our heavy coats and hats even to bed, and I would be shivering at my writing table quietly stamping my feet and blowing on my hands to keep them from freezing. But the stories came easily. I felt that the Holy Spirit was upon me, encouraging me to persevere, refueling my energy, and inspiring the stories that I was to write. It was always clear to me that God wanted this book, and I overcame my shyness and was obedient to that call, even though the timing was really inconvenient – for me. But as Christians, we know that all things happen for good in God’s time, not ours.

I’ve always felt that God assigned me to write this book as a work of evangelization. It’s all about Him; and how He calls us to overcome ourselves and to be his face to others as He does His work in us. He seeks us, and He wants us to seek Him. My goal for the book is not to make a million dollars, but to get a million people to read it and find their way back to church and back to the Creator.

And I believe my friend is now satisfied and smiling down from heaven.