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gospelwakefulnessLast weekend I had the privilege of meeting a young man who told me he was converted during a men’s conference I preached a couple of years ago. As encouraging as that was to hear, the news was made sweeter when he told me the very first Christian book he read was Gospel Wakefulness. Two years later, he is growing by leaps and bounds in the faith and is prayerfully exploring God’s call to the mission field.

When we preach these sermons and write these books and articles and blog posts, we grow accustomed to hope-filled trusting that the Lord is using the material somehow, very often in ways we will never know about this side of glory. So I don’t know why I’m always surprised to learn how instrumental some meager literary offering has been in the life of some precious child of God. But this book Gospel Wakefulness, released in 2011, is probably the one I hear most about. I still receive messages regularly from folks who have found in the book some measure of hope or joy, some deeper level in their affections for Christ. (To be more specific, the chapter on depression is the section I hear about most.)

I’m really happy about this, and I’m sure it will sound prideful to some, but while I don’t think Gospel Wakefulness is my best work, it is still the book that best captures what motivates all my writing. It essentially represents the “vision statement” for my writing, my ministry, and my life. Readers who’ve followed me for some time will likely know that the concept of “gospel wakefulness” — which certainly is not original to me — was not born out of some theological speculation or desire to insert another “gospel as adjective” entry into the ever-growing resources of the young, restless, and Reformed (or whatever we’re calling it these days), but rather out of the dark well of my own life. Gospel wakefulness is something that happened to me. (I’ve shared this testimony in numerous places, publicly and in print, but it is probably most extensively retold in the last chapter of The Prodigal Church.)

Indeed, when I was originally trying to tease out what gospel wakefulness means — the shortest way to put it is “revival on the personal scale” — I had no clue there was a “gospel movement.” I was actually smack-dab in the attractional church I was trained for ministry in and trying to feel my way out. That gospel wakefulness eventually became a book was the result of numerous years of trying to wrap my mind and heart around the way that God’s grace saved my life.

I know 5 years is not a big milestone, especially not in “book years,” and especially not in a world where a new gospel book seems to drop every week (sometimes written by me!). But it’s a meaningful milestone to me and, I am learning, to others as well. I have to thank people like my long-time brother Bill Roberts (an original Thinkling!) for being the first guy to ask me to teach on the subject — which basically prompted me to learn how to articulate it. And also men like Ray Ortlund, as well as Justin Taylor and my friends at Crossway, who took the risk of publishing the eventual book.

About twelve years after God reached down into that little guest bedroom and woke me up and rescued me from despair, and five years after the book released, gospel wakefulness is still my life’s theme and mission. And if you’ve read it, I have to thank you too. I hope it has blessed you in some way and helped you enjoy the glory of Christ more than anything else.

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