I could hardly sleep last night, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face all day.  I have never felt like this before.  EVER!  I’ve never been this close to finishing anything with my writing.  This is it!  The last chapter of the book that took 40 years of “research,” but was written in about 40 days.  Right after I finished writing the last chapter it hit me.  I wanted to be super stoked, but all those failed attempts to write in the past flashed in my head.  I held it back.  I kept telling myself: “It isn’t finished yet Bruno; you still have a chapter left.  Get er done before you get too worked up pal”. 

Another sign that God commissioned this book, is how excited and relieved I am about completing it, even though I have zero expectations that it will ever get published.  I could care less if I make a dime off of it; that is not why I wrote it.  I wrote it for an audience of 6, not 6,000,000.  In the past, it was never about the subject of my book, it was all about the money honey.  I always looked ahead of the actual writing of the book, to the glitz, glamour and gazillions I would get when I was done.  Flash forward to today, and I am just so thankful it’s finished!  If this book never goes any further than to you guys, who cares?  I helped God achieve His mission in my life, and in part of yours.  I think that is pretty darn cool, and much more valuable.    

I’ll have to ask God what He wants me to do next.  Maybe He will want me to go back to work in corporate America, or maybe a job working with young people at a school or church.  Maybe it will be more writing, or the Bible study like I used to do for Zach.  Maybe now that the book is done, He doesn’t need me here anymore; or maybe He has a lot more for me to do and I’ll be here for longer than I planned.  Whatever chapter in my life comes next, I can’t help but feel like a huge weight has been lifted from me!  Maybe now I can finally get my life started. Lol   

A couple days ago, your aunt Steph and I were talking out back about all the work that needs done around the ranch. (that sounds cool calling it a ranch even though the only animals we have are two mini doodle farm dogs)   I casually told aunt Steph that I would start working on everything once I finish the book.  She turned to me so quick I thought she was going to get whiplash.  “What?  You can’t wait for that.”  I said “chill girl, I’m almost done.  It won’t be that long.”  It was a funny and surreal moment.  I have said that same phrase to her: “wait until I finish my book,” hundreds of times since she met me.  This time was different though, and it felt really strange knowing I was almost done.  I don’t have any anxiety about what comes next.  How could I?  I just saw what God did for me the last 40 years.  If I am doing what He wants me to do, I expect it will all work out and end up being what is best for me.  This book is proof of that.    

The world will tell you to never give up on your dreams.  I am here to tell you that until I gave up on my dream, it didn’t happen.  God wanted me to know that writing a book wasn’t the most important thing in my life.  Once I realized that, the book got done.  Once I put my trust in Him, and not in my future book earnings, my dream of writing came true.  Sure, it wasn’t anything like I thought it would be, and the subject of the book isn’t anything I would have ever predicted, but that is how God works.  He can turn all things to good;  even me and my book.  My old plans were much different, but God had the right one.  The way this book came about takes me totally out of the picture, so there is no way I can get credit for it.  See how that works?  My whole life I took credit for any of the good that happened to me.  Now, the biggest thing I’ve wanted to accomplish my whole life, I can’t even brag about.  I can’t say “see dad, I told you I would be a writer someday!”  lol.

I am literally sitting here stunned.  I don’t know what to do now.  I am so happy writing this last chapter, but I still can’t believe it is happening!  What an amazing God we have!  This is it kids, this is it!   Uncle Bill’s book is done!  The moment I started writing this book, the pain and anxious feeling in my gut was gone.  I don’t even remember what life was like without that feeling…and now it is gone?  Wow!  My world has been a blur since the moment I wrote out the first page.  I’ve spent nearly every waking hour working on it.  I swear it felt like I was in some sort of out of body experience, because it went so quick and easy.  I know I was getting help. 

I had this poster on my wall for years.  This was how I imagined my life ending up.  I put it on my wall hoping that if I looked at it and envisioned it enough, it would all come true.   Although it would have been cool for you guys to have a rich uncle with cars and a house like that, I would have probably been a jerk, and I definitely wouldn’t have let Jack, Miles, or Nikk touch any of those cars.  I bet there are a lot of mosquitos when you live by the water too.  Uh, no thanks…

God had a better plan for me; and instead gave me this place.  What an awesome God!  Had He given me the choice when I was 18, I would have picked the poster.  Now, there is no chance I’d pick the poster because what I have is perfect!  God knew better than me, He always does. 

Ok, so back to business.   The goal of this book was never to help me feel better now that I accomplished my life-long dream.  The goal of this book is to help answer some questions you guys had, and to give you the truth from a source you can trust.  I wanted to tell you how God orchestrated it all, so that you know how our God works.  The hope is that I can play a small part in your journey to heaven.  I spent over a decade behind the scenes planning, observing, and researching the material for this book.  Material designed for you guys. The rest of my book is just an awesome example of a man trying to achieve something great on his own, only to realize he can’t do it without God. 

Don’t get it twisted.  God wanted me to write this book, but I am not the one who He wrote if for.  God pulled everything together over all the years, just for you.  Its possible that for some of you, this will be the closest you ever get to hearing the truth.  For some of you, it will be eye-opening and get you curious to learn more.  Some of you will read the whole book right away, some will read part of it then stop, and some won’t read it until later down the road sometime.  But God has His plan, and it obviously involves you guys reading it at some point.  If you won’t read the Bible, maybe He can get to read my book which is mostly about the Bible.  Only God knows, and I can’t wait to see what He does.

40 years to write this book.  Not even one of my efforts over the years paid off.  It wasn’t until I let God take control that things started moving.  God made it a long journey for me because everything I lived through had to be in here. I’m also a slow learner.  Don’t forget that I had to wait the last 20 years for all of you to be born and grow up.  All of the time we have spent together was not by chance, and was all part of God’s plan.  I can’t wait to see what the next part of His plan is for you guys too.    

So what is next for my wonderful, caring, cool, and crazy nieces and nephews? 

 

If you believe what I told you about Jesus, then you need to get baptized.  Baptism is NOT a requirement to be saved; just ask the guy on the cross next to Jesus.  He was saved while hanging on a cross, and he never had the opportunity to get baptized.  Even though baptism isn’t required to get to heaven, it is something very important to Jesus.  He would tell you that He died on the cross for you, and you can’t even let others know you believe in Him?  It should be the first act we do after we come to faith.  We should do it immediately, and not wait months or even weeks to do it.  The good news is there is not cutoff date.  The offer to please God by getting baptized doesn’t expire.  Maybe some of you needed this book to remind you.  Well then, let’s go before the water gets too cold!   

If the savior of the world asks us to do one thing to show we have faith in Him, what is to stop you?  If you don’t quite know what you believe yet, that is fine…don’t get baptized.  I am strictly talking to any of you who are believers right now.  I can guarantee you one thing: if you don’t get baptized, God will find ways to keep reminding you until you do it.  Just make our Lord Jesus happy and get dunked already, will ya?  Do you think it is a coincidence that right as I am writing this last part on baptism, that your aunt Steph tells me it was 10 years ago today that Zach got baptized in grandma’s backyard?  There are no coincidences, only God incidences.

Baptism is a picture of what happened inside you when you came to faith in Jesus.  Your old spirit died and was buried, and you are raised back to life with a new perfect spirit.  The water is symbolic for the earth, and dunking you under it is representing burial in that earth.  You then come up out of the grave (water) alive in God.  This outward act of baptism symbolizes the inward act of being born again.   It also represents Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.  It’s telling others that because Jesus died, and was resurrected from the grave, we will too.  If you have questions, please let me know.  I volunteer to baptize you wherever and whenever you want me to.  Yes, this means I will come do it even if you live out of state at the time. 

My best advice is to attack studying the Bible like it is just as important, if not more, than anything else you learn.  If you do that, you won’t end up like your Uncle Bill, and having to wait until I was in my forties before I found real peace in this world.  Because I know so much about the next world, and because I know when we are getting close, I don’t have that stress.  Because I know that God is in charge of when I die, I don’t worry about it.  Who cares?  The most important thing is that I got to get this stuff written and in your hands.  I got to be a part of the plan God used to bring Zach to faith, and I pray hard that I can help Him with you guys too.  What else could I possibly want?  What else really matters?  I’m here to please the God of the universe, not the god of this world. 

I’d like to help you guys and other young people with my Uncle Bill’s Bible Hour, and I feel like I can start on it as soon as I get done with this.  Again, it all depends on what God wants me to do next.  I guess we will see.  In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions or if you are ready to get baptized.  I’ll answer your call 24×7, and I will respond to texts when I am awake and not napping like us old people do. 

I love you guys! 

Uncle Bill

Matthew 28:19

‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ‘