Will Bowen - To You; Love, God: A Year of Daily Guidance and Inspiration Straight from the Source

Whether you greet your morning with these messages or hold them as the last thought of your evening, the gift will be the samea sacred visitation, beautifully wrapped and presented. P HILIP G ULLEY , author of Living the Quaker Way In To You; Love, God, Will Bowen infuses ordinary everyday life with extraordinary spiritual insight. As someone who is burned out on churchy language, I found sweet relief in Bowens clear and accessible meditations on how God sees, knows, and loves us. Im keeping this book on my nightstand. E LIZABETH E STHER , author of Girl at the End of the World Like the great prophets who speak in the divine voice, Will Bowen offers daily wisdom and inspiration from Gods mouth to your ear. This God will affirm you, challenge you, love you, and prod you to be the divine being you are.

Each days gem combines deep wisdom with the simplicity of a beginners mind, brilliant insight, and a heavenly sense of humorstraight from the Source. D AVID R OBERT A NDERSON , author of Losing Your Faith, Finding Your Soul What a giftsort of a spiritual vitamin to start each and every morning. Some of the messages are so profound that they have found their way laminated and into my wallet or on my desk where I can see them every day. M. M ANARD , Gladstone, MO I look at life differently than I did before. K. K.

H ILL , Morristown, TN I really feel like I am talking to God when I read the letters every morning. They have so helped me. M. C LESI , Boca Raton, FL The devotions lift me up beyond the daily dramas, always pointing up toward the Light and Truth that never changes. S. F ARROW , Vancouver Island, BC On many occasions the messages are exactly what I need that day.

Recently I have been sharing them with my teenage daughter, and she loves them! S. G ARLAND , Kansas City, MO I cant tell you how much To You; Love, God has meant to me. I read the inspired messages every morning, and what a beautiful way to begin the day. They give comfort, peace, and insight into experiencing the life God wants us all to experience. J. P. P.

L OFFSTROM , Zinga, Tanzania The messages of To You; Love, God have inspired and sustained me through some of the most difficult times of my life, including a divorce and the recent sudden loss of my daughter. C. P IZZI , Calabash, NC To You; Love, God inspires me, makes me think, and most important, helps me appreciate all the blessings that come my way. D. K ELLEY , Clifton Park, NY

T O Y OU ; L OVE , G OD
P UBLISHED BY C ONVERGENT B OOKS Hardcover ISBN 978-1-60142-689-5
eBook ISBN 978-1-60142-690-1 Copyright 2014 by Will Bowen Cover design by Mark D. Ford All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published in the United States by Convergent Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House Company. Convergent Books and its open book colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bowen, Will.
To you; love, God : a year of daily guidance and inspiration straight from the source / Will Bowen.First Edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-60142-689-5ISBN 978-1-60142-690-1 (electronic) 1. Devotional calendars. I.

Title.
BV4811.B625 2014
242.2dc23 2014024223 v3.1 For my mother, who taught me that God has no grandchildren, only children.

Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.
P IERRE T EILHARD DE C HARDIN I felt like a plate spinner. You may remember plate spinners from early television variety programs like The Ed Sullivan Show. A plate spinner is an entertainer who balances individual dinner dishes atop dozens of thin, shoulder-high rods mounted into the stage. A brisk spin transforms each plate, for a time, into a gyroscopic top that seems to defy gravity as it balances on its delicate perch. With only one plate whirling around on a single rod, its easy to ensure that centrifugal force keeps that plate in the air.

However, as additional plates are set into motion at ever-widening distances from the performer, the task of making certain that none crashes to the ground becomes increasingly more difficult. As more and more dishes are added, the plate spinner must dash frantically about, shaking each wavering spindle to ensure that its plate remains aloft. At some point, he must either stop adding additional plates or watch helplessly as some are lost. Chances are youve felt like a plate spinner yourself. Every year life seems to hand us more and more plates to add to those weve already got spinning. We discover that not only do we need to keep our own plates spinning but more and more people are depending on us to spin theirs as well.

We find ourselves dashing about in a mad frenzy, trying to keep parts of our lives from crashing to the ground. As a minister, my job is to spin the spiritual plates of my congregation. In the early years at my first church, I noticed that people left Sunday services with their spiritual gyroscopes buzzing! They bounced out of church joyous, hopeful, and feeling a connection with God. The church office was typically quiet Mondays through Wednesdays, but by Thursday and Friday our phones were lighting up with calls from people seeking prayer and guidance. Many Friday afternoons there would be a line of people outside my office awaiting counseling. In call after call and session after session, I found that these wonderful people simply needed an infusion of spiritual confidence.

They needed to know that they were safe, supported, and loved. In short, they needed their plates spun. It seems that spiritual inspiration has a shelf life. A Sunday service may invoke new understandings, instill hope, and offer inspiration, but the bloom of that rose swiftly fades under the onslaught of negativity in our society. As our churchs attendance and influence grew, I noticed that I was becoming exhausted and overworked trying to keep everyones plate spinning. My own plates were wobbling, and as a result, many of those who sought guidance from me were teetering and on the verge of crashing to the ground.

One day, while I plowed through a pile of e-mails, I wondered, Wouldnt it be great if God could send everyone a daily e-mail just to remind them that he is present, that he loves them, that things are going to work out, and that they have everything they need? On impulse, I opened a new message screen and typed, To You; Love, God. I then began to share as succinctly and poetically as I could what I would like to have God say to me in an e-mail if that were possible. Inside, I felt exceedingly arrogant and unworthy of such a task. Who am I to speak for Godeven if Im attempting to make other peoples lives better? Nonetheless, I sent it out to our e-mail database and soon people began to respond. Comments such as these became commonplace: Thank you so much for your daily inspiring words. My friend has been forwarding your most beautiful messages to my e-mail.