BP96
I am diverging a bit from my usual blogging routine to announce in this post that I have a book entitled, The Rumbling Beneath, that will be published in a month. The Rumbling Beneath will be the first in a series of five books that follows the lives of six students at a small graduate school in the Midwest.
The six students–Rachel, Armando, Emily, Stewart, Aliyah, and Jack—enroll at the unique academy to grow in their faith. They anticipate a quiet season of spiritual growth, but all that changes when they discover a century-old journal in the cave system beneath the school that leads them on the adventure of a lifetime.
As they progress through the semester, the six friends encounter physical and spiritual enemies in the outside world and also become aware that within each of them is a dark secret they must face if they are going to trust God and avoid lifelong isolation from others.
The Rumbling Beneath and the books that will follow address many issues that believers currently battle in a world increasingly committed to relative truth and the deconstruction of faith. Spiritual, psychological, and relational issues that often plague lovers of Jesus are encountered by Jack and his five peers. I invite you to come and follow them on an amazing journey that will be guided by the hand of their loving God but opposed by hell.
To help introduce the book series, I will be hosting a book launch party on Thursday, May 19th from 7-9 PM at the Dunn Bros in Arden Hills, MN (1160 County Road E). Please come join us for a fun evening of refreshments, music, prizes, a Q&A about the book, several reviews by those who have read the whole series, and a drawing to see whose name will be assigned to a character in a future book!
Books will be available to purchase, and I will sign books for anyone who wants a personalized copy.
If you can join us, please RSVP at dgkirby77@gmail.com. Just indicate who is coming and you will be set. (I apologize to any of you who have already received an invite to this event and are now getting a second one.)
Or just show up!
If you can’t make the party, we’ll miss you! I am told that the book will be available on Amazon by May 22nd. Please let your friends and family know about this God-honoring, faith-dedicated book. The Rumbling Beneath is written in a way that it can be gifted to those who have yet to believe as a resource that points them to faith in God instead of faith in oneself or the world.
Why did I write The Rumbling Beneath? For several reasons.
First, loved ones from several generations in my family have drifted away from God and eventually deconstructed their faith. How sad and agonizing that has been to observe! Because of that, I decided to write books that will, prayerfully, help them and other young and older adults see why faith in Jesus is the best pursuit in the universe. Nothing else compares.
After all, Jesus is the only One who answers all the psycho-spiritual-relational questions in this world. He is the only One who offers solutions to our anxieties, hungers, nightmares, and deep longings to be seen, known, and to belong. He is the only One who loves us unconditionally and has the power to fill us with joy, peace, love, and a belief that walks by faith in a world that walks by sight.
Second, I have felt an urge for a decade to write a series of books that will offer believers in Jesus a Hogwarts experience from a Christian perspective. I want to be very clear—my intent is not to criticize Harry Potter; rather, it is to write a book series that portrays the power of a real God moving in the lives of characters in a way that brings hope to all who read it. The Rumbling Beneath has nothing to do with fictional magic but everything to do with the greatest miracle in this fallen world—hearts transformed eternally by the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ!
Thirdly, I initially intended to write a non-fiction book for young believers in the age range from 16-25 (a period I refer to as the Love Him or Lose Him stage) that would assist them to navigate that difficult span of years when many who have grown up in Christian homes encounter tempests of doubt that lead them to shipwreck their faith against the rocks of materialism, secularism, and university professors who debunk metaphysical reality.
This initial nonfiction book would have addressed apologetics, scripture, and unhealthy and healthy psychological coping skills–topics that are so significant to the formation of faith in that ten-year range from 16-25.
But when I began preparing to write the nonfiction book, I heard a podcast about C.S. Lewis and what he referred to as the power of story. Within days, I felt an irresistible conviction to shift from writing a non-fiction book to a fiction book. I have never looked back. I have embraced the power of story as my writing medium just as I did with my reading medium when I read hundreds of fiction books beginning in second grade.
The fourth reason I wrote this book series was because of Satan. Over the years as I raised my own children and worked for 40 years with people struggling with mental illness—many of them in the Love Him or Lose Him range—I have witnessed that there is a dark personality in the universe who opposes God’s purposes for humanity. Accordingly, one intent of The Rumbling Beneath and the books that follow is to raise the awareness of how the enemy subtly and not so subtly battles to undermine our intimacy with God, with other people, and even with our own hearts.
The war for your soul is real. It is fierce. It will be fought to the death. You must develop awareness and skills to wage that war in your own lives and in the lives of others.
The fifth reason I wrote The Rumbling Beneath is to honor the God who pursued me at age 17 just as I was entering the Love Him or Lose Him period—and I was strongly leaning toward losing Him. Since that critical juncture in my life, Jesus has been my best friend, my GPS (God Positioning System) for the navigation of life, and my eternal hope.
There are other reasons I chose to write The Rumbling Beneath and the other four books, but the five above are the main ones.
Let me close this aberrant post by encouraging you to listen for the rumbling beneath the world you walk around in every day. If you listen closely, you might hear it. What is the rumbling? What is the quiet thunder beneath the monotony and the mundanity of the material world? It is the groaning of the universe and the groaning of your soul as they hunger for the Creator, as they agonize to see beyond the world of sight and gaze into the eternity for which they were made.
So, don’t stop your ears as so many do against the rumbling and the thundering and the groaning. Pay close attention because this world is not what it appears to be or what it will be. It is far more than what meets the eye. Never settle for the temporal and deny the eternal.
Run to Jesus to see the thundering meaning and know the rumbling purpose that dwells beneath your feet and inside your soul.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
For we walk by faith, not by sight ~ 2 Corinthians 5:7