Greetings from Hurst,

Having just published my book, The Contentment Dilemma; Examining Life’s Mysteries and Purposes, a week ago, I would like to share a bit about my journey in completing this work.

Let me start with two quotes from the second chapter of the book:

Of myself, this book would not have materialized. God got after me to write this work and patiently walked me through the numerous phases of its creation. For example, as I type this, it is 10:40 p.m. I had retired at 10:00; however, God distinctly put in my mind to get up and work on this project. He assured me He would give me some important thoughts to write.

I felt like staying in bed, but God persisted. So I got up, and upon opening the writing project, the following note caught my eye: “Explain how I am confident God and Satan exist.” God is giving me this explanation and keeping my mind supplied with a steady stream of words as I type. He also spelled out the word “steady” in my mind when I could not think how to spell it right off-hand…

I have ample evidence that Satan despises this book. He did his best to distract and discourage me from completing it by instigating a horrible mental sensation that used to bother me when I worked on my writing projects. Satan would have gotten me to give up writing if God had not heard my cry for deliverance and made him stop it.

I got stuck countless times, when I didn’t know how to word something or wasn’t sure where to put a particular thought or if I should even include it. But God didn’t let me down, and each time I took one of these problems to Him, he would provide a solution. Sometimes the answer came with a few minutes of contemplating, after I laid it out before my Lord; and other times, the answer came before I was even done praying about it.

And so often, after I asked God to help me with the wording, the solution that arrived in my mind was especially amazing. Even now, when I read the manuscript, the language of these areas stands out to me as being especially powerful.

There were a few cases when a phenomenal solution to my problem popped into my mind, and made itself at home, the second I decided to ask God about it.

Indeed, I feel very unworthy of having my name attached to this work. Without God’s help, I could have done nothing and the book would not exist.

Now, I want to share an experience of my audiobook narrator, Wesley Martin, which we have added to the end of the audio production of Chapter 2:

Narrator’s note: While recording this chapter, I distinctly felt Satan’s resistance. I was making all kinds of mistakes, mostly just saying the wrong word and things like that. (I distinctly remember that I was making an exceptional amount of errors in the sentence where Marcus shared how he felt entirely satisfied after he asked God to forgive him.) I also experienced the distraction of numerous unexpected and unusual notifications that my device was sending me. The lawnmower was also running outside, and even when I closed the windows, my mic still picked it up.

I finally decided, “This is enough.” Upon considering what to do about it, I asked God to remove Satan’s presence. Amazingly, in the middle of my brief prayer, the mower went down to an idle. I felt encouraged.

I was editing the file I had recorded so far when my mom got done mowing the yard.

When I got back to recording, things went much more smoothly. While I still made occasional mistakes, it wasn’t like before. I actually ended up rerecording the first part of the chapter.

Interpret that as you wish. — Wesley

Yes, the writing and production of this book have been a long road, and it certainly felt overwhelming at times. But as God promises in His Word, He was right beside me through it all, so to speak.

To God be the glory.

Pick up a copy of this book today.