my thing. it's the absolutely. thank you very much for having me. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] next on booktv joshua dubois former executive director of the white house office of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships. he talks about the devotional e-mails he has been sending president obama. this is a half-hour. [applause] >> hello everyone. it's great to be with you this evening. there has been a little bit of a change in plans.

i shall be cooking dishes for michelle obama. we will get to that after the devotional. thank you all for being here. it's wonderful to see so many friends old and new. it's like a family reunion a little bit in here so thank you so much and i'm excited to share this book with you but i wanted knowledge my wonderful wife michelle. [applause] we have been married for precisely 82 days now so you see the glow on my face. anyhow thank you all so much for being here. when i first started working for barack obama had no idea who's going to be sending him at devotional every morning and become his spiritual advisor. i was a young kid from nashville teen in tennessee a preacher's kid working on the 2008 campaign. i didn't know him all that well so i did outreach around the country in so many others including many folks in this

room that i see. just privately and alone i would pray for that young senator that he would wake up every day and have a perfect join his student student -- a i just felt this nudge in my spirit that this is a guy that has so many different supports around him policy advisers and political support but i wondered who would think about his soul and who is looking after that aspect of his life. i decided i should send them an e-mail to leave enough to start his morning. i did know but would be a good idea for would be well received or if i was going to get fired for sending it. i went to my friend reggie love and i asked him if he thought it was a good idea. he said he wasn't sure that he thought it was a good idea. [laughter] i could try it and see what happens but he did give me his e-mail address which was progress. i sent him a short note one morning the first reflection on the 23rd psalm and the palm that i wrote based on the wild

things are by wendell berry and i held my breath to see what the response is going to be. i waited a couple of minutes and no reply and a couple more minutes and no reply and i started thinking maybe i got fired for e-mailing a senator. in another minute or two he wrote me back and he said joshua this is exactly what i needed this morning and would you mind sending me these every day? six years later i'm still doing it. along with many colleagues and friends in the room tonight every morning we have this quiet tradition of communing together in a moment of rare and we are disconnected from politics and the busyness of the day and trying to focus on principles that are eternal. a year ago i saw the present and asked him what he thought about me putting this together for the people. he said if it was helpful for him maybe they could help other

people as as well and he thought was a wonderful idea. this was in grad school like seven or eight years ago. i started putting them together and that is this book, "the president's devotional. it includes 12 stories about faith and the white house, the challenges along the way and lessons that i learned introspection of religion in politics and a different side of a president that a lot of folks don't see. sometimes we just see him as an avatar in a television screen -- screened. i and some others have gotten to know him as a man someone who has vulnerabilities and his compassionate and has his own flaws but at the end of the day a truly decent human being and i'm able to show a little bit of that side of him in the book, "the president's devotional. i would love to read a little bit of it for you if you don't mind to give you a taste of what his devotionals are about and

opened it up to a couple of questions and then i will sign some books. one other thing that i came back to in "the president's devotional is really helping the president find a sense of joy and laughter and gladness through some difficult, deep and serious times. he's a pretty serious guy himself than i wanted to use the devotionals to allow him to release a little bit and to get to a place of joy. one of the devotionals focused on that on january 6. it's called he danced. to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, silhouetted by the sea circled by the circus dance with all memory and faith driven beneath the waves let me forget about today until tomorrow. that's bob dylan, mr. tambourine man. david was dancing before the lord with all his might.

second samuel 6:14. then it goes into a reflection david the king, the ruler of the nation of israel, the man on whom the mantle of god rested and from whose lineage would emerge the savior of all humankind. that david in wild abandon danced. he danced because the lord has been good. he danced because in spite of unspeakable trials he was still alive. he danced because he gave glory and honor to the god who formed him in his mother's womb. he danced because the weight of the sin had been lifted off of him. he danced and danced and then danced some more withal that he had with all his might. let's pray for some of david's joyful abandon today. let's seek out the moments when the seriousness might melt away in the heat of god's glory and we are free to let loose and shout and glorify god and dance. it into the prayer dear god let

me never be too serious to experience pure joy, to appreciate all you done and even when the time is right to dance. amen. i see a lot of good dancers here by the way especially over in this corner. [laughter] are you ready to go? you guys can take over for us. to give you another sense of some of the devotionals. this is one i like it refers to a guy who is dear to me. it's on the topic of wisdom. there are so many tough decisions that we all have to face each day and certainly certainly the president of the united states but all of us and we really need a healthy dose of wisdom. when we don't have wisdom we need to be reminded to not rush into a decision until we have thought them through. this devotional focused on that topic from march 1 and it's called slowly. it starts with the scripture. the heart of the righteous studies the answer. the mouth of the wicked -- proverbs 15:28.

quote top globe, talk slow and don't say too much. [laughter] that's john wayne. the message is, as a child i was wondered why it my grandfather homer roberson from nashville tennessee spoke so slowly. it seemed to me that by the time he answered my first question i had five more ready for him. for frequently impatient 8-year-old it was almost too much to bear. monday i asked him, granddaddy like you talk so slow? it wasn't until i read proverbs 16:28 years later that his answer made sense. he said to me, joshua i speak slowly because i don't want them out to run laps around my brain did a have rather my brain finish first. he was saying that a problem never went unsolved or a dispute unresolved because of an answer delivered to slowly. so let's study how to answer

before we speak so that our replies will be godly unwise. it concludes with a prayer dear god let me not move in front of your wisdom and let my language reflect study and care. amen. another sense of the devotionals and that one on wisdom. in addition to the devotionals as i said each month begins with a bit of an essay. there are some tough topics like how we navigate difference in disagreement in the white house and that's one of the devotionals that is in the book. there are some poignant moments and some sad moments including the president was there for me and some tough times and that's in the book is well in moments like when we traveled up to the side of the mountain to visit billy graham in north carolina and that is described as well. there are also some lighter essays too. one of the ones that is a particular favorite of mine both because my wife and our quasi-will wedding planner are here, it's the essay on marriage and how president obama

encouraged me down the path towards marriage. i won't read the whole thing but i will read part of it to give you a sense of that essay including how the president harassed me a little bit as well. this is from september. it's the beginning of the month in september. it started on the campaign trail in 2008. we were in the back of the lack suv heading to the saddleback civil form an orange counties california. after quizzing me on the 10 commandments in poking fun at reggie love for not knowing all of the instructions senator obama looked at me with a wry smile and said you know you really should get married. i'm working on a senator i really am i said. things are going well with my danticat me off and he said it's time for you to settle down. it was the first of several inquisitions through there was a time we gathered in the oval office with a dozen faith leaders in a formal ceremony and the advisory council when

president obama interrupted the proceedings to ask me are you engaged at? [laughter] there was father's day 2010 will make visited a mt. profit and backstage tours tours marks the president was introducing me to a group of fathers and their kids by saying this is joshua my faith-based rector pays a great guy but is not a dad himself. he will get there up we can only get him married. the afternoon before picnic on the white house lawn we invited teenage boys from local high schools to the white house along with some famous adult mentors. i was sitting in the foyer call the diplomatic reception room with president obama walked him through before it began briefing him on the event he interrupted me and said, really man, what is the holdup? why haven't you popped the question? surprised by that the grateful for the opportunity to have a longer conversation i started with a range of excuses. i'm saving money for a ring and a wedding and waiting for my job to slow down a little bit so we can spend more time to get in the president interrupted me again. listen joshua, do you love her? do you think she'll be a great wife?

yes sir i do. you can't let that other stuff stop you. marriage is the best decision you can make it sounds trite but it does complete person and it rounds out. if you have made up your mind you want her to be a wife and mother to children than that's all you need to know. you really should think about popping the question. you need to get married. i knew then that marriage ran deep for president president obama. in fact i came to know it as a enforcement and likely growing up with his grandparents and sing their relationship first-hand the future president embraced the marriage is an island of stability and often tumultuous shouting and then when this globetrotting big thinking ambitious young man met michelle robinson in chicago in the summer of 1989 his itinerant legs grew roots and grew strong. at the end of a full day navigating the world and its challenges michelle is a way of reminding rock of what's most important. in photos and joint interviews she had lied on their private moments we see the presently known as life physically and in spirit. she is his place for punishment for grounding, for rest and for joy.

i remember being on the first lady's airplane sometime and correctly referred to as they're forced to heading to nashville tennessee where she was giving a speech for church given. it was the day the united states to cream -- up in court was going to rule on the constitutionality of the aca. it was the caller calling to tell the first lady that the court had ruled in favor of the government and obamacare is was upheld. who is ringing to share the news and celebrate? the present on line calling to rejoice with his wife. i realized after a conversation in the foyer after witnessing moments like that on the plane when it came to marriage president obama wasn't just chiding me. instead he wanted me to have what he had something so are defined in the world of politics. i love that doesn't fade based on circumstance and an anchor for my days. it goes on talks about the story of when we got engaged but it's a different side of our president then we often get to

see. the last essay that i will read before you wrap up is really probably about my most difficult day in the white house and my date pales in comparison to the difficult day other people had particularly in newtown connecticut on this day. but again it shows i think important side of our president and our country as well. i want to read this essay from me and is called done in secret. the white house is not supposed to be a place for brokenness. sheer shattered brokenness. but that is what we experienced on the weekend of december 14, 2012 read it was sitting at my desk around midday on friday the 14th when i saw the images flash on cnn. a school, a gunman, children fleeing and crying.

we have grown so accustomed to these types of scenes of my first thought was that i hope there were no deaths just injuries and it wasn't your run-of-the-mill scare. in the news from sandy hook ellman to school a small school in the tiny hamlet of newtown connecticut began pouring in. the public details were her thick enough. 20 children murdered, six deatha gymnasium for signs of their kids. the private facts we receive from the f. e. i were even worse were some i won't go into them. that news began a weekend of prayer and numbness which i awoke from on saturday only to receive word that the president would like to accompany him to newtown. you want to meet with the families of the victims and offer words of comfort to the families at an interfaith memorial service for a left early to help the hard-working folks who handle logistics for

the event to set things up in iraq at the local high school where the meetings are memorial service would take place. be prepared 78 classrooms for the families of the slain children and put two or three families in each classroom and place water and tissues and snacks in each one. honestly we had no idea how to prepare but that was the best we could think of. the families came in and gather together room by room. many struggle to offer a weak smile when we whispered the president will be here soon. a few of them were visibly angry so understandable that it barely needs to be said. they were looking for someone, anyone to blame. but mostly they sat in silence. i went downstairs to greet president obama when he arrived and i provided an overview the situation i told him to families or classroom in the first is and i would say that families name and their child was than the deceased child's name and the second is that i would say that families name and who their child was and i said we would

tell them the rest as we went along. the president took a deep wrath and stilled himself and went into the first classroom. what happened next i will never forget. person after person received an engulfing hug from our commander-in-chief. he would say, tell me about your son, tell me about your daughter and he would hold up pictures as their parents describe their favorite foods and television shows and the sound of their laughter. for the younger siblings for those who passed away many of them two, three or four years old to young to understand what was happening. the president would grab them and talk -- toss them into their laughing and then hand them a box of white house announced that he kept in his pocket. in each room i saw his eyes water but he did not break. the crazy thing was the entire scene would repeat itself over and over again for what felt like hours for well over 100 relatives each one equally

broken and wrecked by the loss. after each classroom we would go back into the hallways and walk through the names of the coming families in the present would dive back in like a soldier returning to her tour of duty in a worthy but wearing war. we spent what felt like a lifetime in those classrooms and every single person received the same tender treatment, the same hugs, the same look directly in their eyes, the same sincere offers of support and prayer. the staff to the preppers work with the comfort and healing were all in president obama that i remember worrying about the toll was taking on him and of course even the presence comfort was woefully inadequate for these families in the face of this particularly unspeakable loss. but it became some small measure of love on a weekend when the evil reigned. the funny thing is president obama has never spoken about these meetings. yes he addressed the shooting in newtown and the gun violence in

general and the subsequent speech but he didn't speak about those private gatherings. in fact he was nearly silent on air force one as we rode back to washington. he said are a little about his time with those family cents. it must have been one of his defining moments of his presidency, those quiet hours in the solemn classrooms extending as much healing within his power to extend but he kept it to himself never seeking to teach a lesson based on those mournful conversations by opening them up to public view. you know jesus teaches us that some things, the holiest things, the most painful and important and cherished things we are to do in secret. not for public consumption or display it as acts of service to each other and worship to god. for bend scripture tells us her father who is seen what is done in secret war board you. perhaps not now but certainly an eternity. i learned many lessons in newtown that day.

that is what i have kept close to god. that's the end of that essay. [applause] sofer and that's a little taste of what is in the "the president's devotional and hopefully some inspiration to start your day in a little warmth in a different side of the president than you normally get to see and some sad moments as well but i hope there are things we can learn from. it's shining a new light on the president having devotional morning is a bit of testament to what happens when we shout down the doubts and fears and insecurities in our brain and step out and try to do a new great thing. there's no great reason why a kid wet behind the ears from nashville tennessee should be e-mailing the president of the united states every morning. i didn't go to seminary, just had an idea and wanted to do new thing. i just kind of stepped out there. the same is the case for a guy with a name like rocco, who had the audacity of being president

of the united states but he didn't let those doubts and fears and naysayers -- and that's the case for all of us want to have that little germ of a seed in our brain of an idea we want to pursue but we find every reason in the world not to do it. let's find the reasons to do it and leap and i think the heavens will open. on that note the final words i will speak from the book. just a little bit of that same letter about stepping out and doing anything. it's a last devotional on january 11. i will read this one to you and if you don't mind if you're open to it just close your eyes and think this one through spiritually. it's the passage of scripture poem. second samuel 22:11. he mounted the dash and flu. he soared on the wings of the wind. then a poem. something started in my soul.

or forgotten wings. i made my own way deciphering that fire and i wrote the first without substance, pure nonsense who knows nothing and i suddenly saw the heavens unfastened and opened. isn't that what faith is? walking right up to the edge of our present circumstances, closing our eyes, seeing the bright red sparks of possibility dance beneath our lives, feeling the warm embrace of a god who wants ever greater and greater things for us whispering a silent prayer and then we leap. and the heavens will open. your god let me write the first line makes the first move, take the first step.

>> the first word and let me love newly, radically. let me leave and let the heavens unpack and open. amen. thank you all. god bless you. [applause] >> do you want to take a couple of questions, any questions at all? >> my name is walter millette and first of all it's humbling for you to say that you were the informal spiritual advisor to the mall's powerful man in the world when obviously you were the shepherd for his spiritual advisor. how was it that you with your humility, you stepped in through jeremiah wright who was an african liberation theologist along with dr. wilmore and recommend desmond tutu and the young man like you who moved into their and if i'm not wrong

i think you are. >> like 12. [laughter] >> it's a fascination i think any moved in there and not just into their into being i don't want to say the but the shepherd. that's the best way to say it, a man who at that time was senator and he went from being his -- he went from being a senator in a program called the faith-based initiative which had a goal. it's built into a stronger organization through your leadership. throughout that period what did you see that man who you are closest to let one point was this senator and his faith to go from senator from being a lot did as president and then you were still there when he was in the second term which is now, i

guess is what you would call a legacy. the second was to build your legacy. throughout that period, what type of movement, what have you seen so far as faith in barack obama. see i think his faith deepened. it's a great question. he said that himself. there's something about a constant stream of trials and different things you have to overcome. it slows you down a bit and gives you a sense of perspective. president obama's the last person in the room to panic in the first person to say hold on, let's just put a strategy together and people get through this. that's the perspective that god would have all of us do. it's so easy to look at the challenge is right in front of us and think that they are absolutely going to be the end of the world and yet we serve a god