January 2025 Ask Me (Almost) Anything

Happy Birthday to my baby girl!

Once a month, I publish a post where I encourage people to send in questions about just about anything. It can be sports related. Pop culture related. It can be about my opinions on food. We’ve covered a ton of ground! But often, I get questions about theology and the Bible. And I love those questions.

These posts are for the paying subscribers of The Son Do Move, as their generous support helps make a lot of my creative endeavors possible. However, I’m not ignorant as it pertains to the economic situations many of us are facing. I don’t want money to be the barrier to community. If you’d like to participate in these posts or take advantage of all of the other benefits of a full subscription to The Son Do Move (like accessing the full archive of posts), but a paid subscription isn’t for you right now: send a message to teamtrey05@gmail.com and we can get you plugged in.

Today is my baby’s birthday. Now, I got me a few babies. Me and my dearest baby will celebrate 12 years of mostly holy matrimony next week. My oldest baby baby is an adult now. My middle baby baby is a boy who doesn’t like being referred to as my baby anymore, so he’s my buddy. The baby baby insists upon being referred to and perceived of as my baby until Jesus returns.

But I ain’t talkin’ bout none of them babies right now.

I’m talking about the only baby I went into labor for.

A year ago today, Theologizin’ Bigger: Homilies on Living Freely and Loving Wholly was published.

A smiling author holding his baby.

One year later, I remain a proud father. I remember when publishing a book first seemed like a real possibility for me. People (like you) who’d followed some of my writings or listened to my podcasts kept asking when the book was coming. But I sort of figured that’s just what you do when people keep putting out free stuff. I didn’t figure anyone really expected me to write a book. And then… acquisitions editors started reaching out to me. And that could only mean (at least) one of two things:

1. Someone really believed in something they thought I had to offer.

2. Someone thought they could make some money off of me.

I started taking meetings with some small publishers and some agents who might be able to get me in the door with some larger publishers, and I noticed a trend. People either wanted to mold me into a voice that was less authentic to who I am and they wanted to pay me less than the work I’d have to put in.

I figured that, if other people believed in what I had to offer… and if other people thought they could make money off me… maybe I should believe in what I had to offer and think I could make money off me too. Knowing my limits, I pursued a hybrid publishing agreement that brought me some of the creative freedom of self publishing with the quality control of traditional publishing. (Working with

LakeDriveBooks

was amazing!)

I bet on my community (you all!) by crowdfunding the project. And we made something beautiful together.

A year after I got to see it all come into fruition, I’m just grateful.

So grateful, that I’m going to open up this month’s Ask Me (Almost) Anything to everyone.

Thank you all.

Now, ask away!