This book celebrates the devoted life and gives us glimpses of what the devoted life actually is, what it looks like, how it behaves, the possibility of attaining it, and what little work it has to be.

Using dogs as a common and playful metaphor, this book examines worship, not as an isolated event, but as a vision of life. Balanced between the playful and the poignant, AND THEREBY HANGS A TALE instructs, even as it entertains, and uses our canine hosts to do both.

This book also employs scripture, amusing sidebars, and quotes from other sources to achieve its end. In the tradition of TO LOVE IS CHRIST (Nelson 2005), each chapter ends with an original prayer and a benediction.

"Always adventurous, love approaches the heart of its beloved as if it were the last remaining frontier." p. 65

"I remember preaching once to Savannah. She loved the sound of my voice, the rise and fall of emotion, the dynamic shifts, the lyrical spew, but in the end all I got was a long groan and a side to side shift of her body just before she dozed off to sleep." p. 71