New Cover

And writing into eternity

Well, there’s another slick draft cover for the book. It’s got a creepy stop-what-you’re-doing and read-this-right-now vibe to it. Also, you’ll notice there’s an endorsement at the top that literally says “Stop what you’re doing and read this book.”

You probably also noticed (good catch, your eyes work) the blurb is by J.R.R. Tolkien. This might have impressed you. If you remember correctly, he’s the one who wrote Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Arkansas.

You might be thinking: “Jonathan, how on earth did you get a recommendation from Tolkien himself? Also, how did you get him to rise from the dead?”

This is something I can’t, for legitimate reasons, go into right now. Just know it is NOT a placeholder. But please do know this really is J.R.R. Tolkien’s name that I typed on the cover, and no one else’s name. If it was someone else, I obviously would have typed a different name, like Stephen King (who also asked me to endorse) or J.K. Rowling (the author of Great Expectations and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), the latter of which or whom hasn’t yet responded to my congratulatory emails that she will be on the cover.

All these and other things aside, and all things around and on top and in circumference, I guess you should know that I am still trudging through finishing the book. You’re probably thinking:

“Jonathan, I don’t care about your book anymore. You started writing it years ago, and I seriously doubt you’re going to publish it.”

First of all, don’t talk to me like that. That’s very offensive, even if you didn’t actually say it.

Second of all, I’ve discovered that writing a book seems like walking that road that Bilbo talked about so long ago; you know, the long and winding one. Oh, wait, that was the Beatles. Bilbo actually said it “goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began.”

That’s how I feel about writing. It goes on and on. And you’re never really sure when the adventure will end. And sometimes it feels as if you might end before the adventure does. But I guess that’s part of the real journey, isn’t it? Not knowing the ending? We don’t get to skip ahead and see what happens.

Maybe you’re walking a road right now that’s much rougher and longer than writing a book. Maybe you wish, like Bilbo often did in his first arduous adventure, for the comfort of your favorite chair and a warm fire to sit and watch with the cares of the outside world far away from you.

But such is the “common fate of all”, as Longfellow told us, “some days must be dark and dreary.”

Some trials are like pinpricks, and others, like the apostle Paul wrote, are “thorns in the flesh” so painful it’s only God’s grace that is sufficient for us. How strange that God uses your temporary pain, pain even sometimes unto death, to remind us that our final home is the one which our mind must be stayed upon; for this life is short, but eternity most certainly is not.

Dear pilgrim, however impossible your current mission seems, eternity is the home you were made for; so “tighten your belts” in the words of Gandalf, and travel light, for “what does it profit a man” if he gains the pleasures of a comfortable home but forsakes his heavenly one?

Keep going. Your pain won’t last forever. Whatever road you’re on, remember that your own story has eternity at the end, so do whatever you can to prepare for it.

Remember that Paul endured stonings, shipwrecks, sleeplessness, imprisonments, betrayal of false friends, and what he called “constant anxiety” all for the constancy of eternity with His savior. All these he lived through with joy and peace, because he abided closely to Christ. You can do the same today, if you turn your gaze to Him.

Our Virtual Reality will be filled Scripture, how to trade digital transience for godly permanence, many strange tales, advice for families navigating screen time, AI relationships; and perhaps most importantly, how to know God in this new age of all things artificial. When will it be finished? Only God knows.

But when that time comes, I hope it’s not my own work, but a reflection of His.

Jonathan Runyan is a senior cyber security engineer and former pastor writing on the intersection of spiritual and virtual reality. You can read more about him here.