“And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem”. Isaiah 2:3
 
  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” In my last column I shared that although Charles Dickens penned these words his quote applies to my life as well. Now with the bad news out of the way I have some very wonderful news for the readers of this column.

  For over 15 years I shared my life with the readers of the Quay County Sun. During that time I told how God uses people, animals, and things to teach me Biblical truths.

  Over the years many people told me I should write a book based on these columns because I needed to share it with others. I often thought about it, but always put it aside because I wondered if people would actually read it. Mark kept encouraging me as well to put my thoughts into a book format. He suggested that I write a devotion a day book. He never gave up encouraging me and prodding me along. With no more excuses, I got to work.

  After almost two years the book was finished and ready to go to press. However, the book was without a title. I had a publisher and a deadline, but no title for a book. I tried many titles, but none of them seemed to fit. I went to the Lord in prayer and still no title came to mind. Mark even joked and said I should call it “Living With Mark”.

  One morning during my daily quiet time I opened up the book of Isaiah. Like me, the people of Israel were in the midst of a difficult time. I read through the first chapter and when I came to Isaiah 2:3 I stopped. I read the verse over and over. That’s it, I told myself as I felt the Lord’s presence so strongly. I knew right there and then that the Lord had given me the title: “Let’s Go To The Mountain”. I thought this was so appropriate as many times I sit on my front porch alone with God and look at Tucumcari Mountain.

  Next came another trial as I prepared to finally send off my manuscript. The author representative told me that I had to undo all the formatting I just finished and put the entire book into one file. For three days I worked relentlessly long hours to get this accomplished. Late one night I was finally finished and decided that the next morning I would look over it one last time for any mistakes. I went to bed with joy knowing it was finally done.

 Early the next morning, the Lord woke me and impressed upon me to write an entirely new devotion for Dec. 31. I asked the Lord again if I had heard right and then headed once again to the computer. The words seemed to fly off of my fingers onto the computer screen. I was in awe and thanked and thanked the Lord for what He just did.

  With the book finally in the hands of the publisher I was faced with yet another decision. What did I want on the cover of the book? I immediately thought of Tucumcari Mountain and I set out to take the perfect picture. I took picture after picture from different locations and even different times of the day. Mark even put me up in the cherry picker of his truck to take pictures from high up. It was one of the pictures that I took while waiting for the sun to shine on the mountain just right that wound up being my choice.

  Once again I questioned God if this was what He wanted. It wasn’t what a person might think of as a perfect picture because there was so much in the foreground with the mountain off in the distance. God showed me how we allow stuff to come between Him and us. Instead of going directly to Him so He can teach us His ways, we allow the world to get in the way. Most of it is just stuff that will wear out or be discarded. We need to learn that God is most important of all.

  The book is scheduled to be out in time for Christmas and I can hardly wait. More important than the book is the valuable lessons that God taught me during the process.