Why I Write

Why I Write April 25, 2025 I have just been reading about places that pay you to write for them, and I am finding the same situation I encountered 50 years ago or so when I tried getting published in various publications, and this is the situation. None of what they are writing interests me in the slightest. When I was a citizen of the world, I may have been interested in some of it, but it wasn't interesting enough to pour out my heart and soul to craft something similar, and it just wasn't worth my time. This dissonance became more and more striking as years went by, especially after I became a follower of Jesus. I used to write fiction, not a lot, but a little, as a child. Then I didn't write fiction again until I was teaching college in Kentucky and took a creative writing course. For six weeks, I wrote a story a week. The stories just poured out. It was funny, because I never even read that much fiction, but I wanted to write it just because I wanted to find that part of myself again. If I could do it before, why couldn't I do it now? I wrote a Master’s thesis and a Doctoral dissertation, published a couple of articles in professional journals for early childhood educators, and then, after taking three journalism courses, became a staff writer for weekly newspapers in Missouri and Kansas. I wrote several articles for a local free faith and community publication (The Topeka Metro Voice). I wrote paid stories for the real estate insert of the Topeka Capital-Journal for a year. There's a story about how that ended that I won't go into at this time. All of this to say I have done a bit of writing in my life. I was even signed as a songwriter for three years in 2012. The publisher wanted me to sign a longer contract, but I declined. The story about how that ended I won't go into at this time either. I self-published my memoir called "Don't Let the Devil Steal Your Song" that got its title from a song I wrote in the early 80s. I get invitations on a regular basis from people with a similar-sounding accent who want me to pay them to market my book, but I haven’t done that. I also collaborated on a devotional book with a friend called "Weekly Insights for the Workplace: A Devotional for Christian Professionals" (by Agnes Amos Coleman and Carolyn Cogswell). Both of these books were published in 2016. So why am I telling you all this? Maybe I'm just trying to explain myself to myself, but one of my main motivators at the present time is to live a simple life. Why do I write? Because I believe that is something God wants me to do. That is really the only reason. I don't write for money because I am not being paid for any of my writing at the present time. I enjoyed getting paid for my writing. I enjoyed it a great deal, and I wish I could do it now, but that is not what I am doing now. I am writing because I felt like God wanted me to establish a routine that included writing every day, so that is why I write. I don't read what other people read and I don't write what other people write. I don't need to read an article about the ten best books of the month that I should read, any more than I need to read most articles I see online or in magazines at the store. I'm not interested in most of what the world is putting out there, for one thing. I used to have to read Cosmopolitan every month, for heaven's sake. I now see that that is one of the trashiest publications that ever existed. I understand that when it was founded in 1886, it was a family publication, then a literary publication and then became what it is today after Helen Gurley Brown came out with "Sex and the Single Girl" (1964), which roughly coincides with the sexual revolution, the outcome of which we see seeping into and creeping out of every pore of our sick society today. Looking at all the history of my interest in writing from childhood until today, I understand better why I did not become a professional writer as I had aspired to become as long as I can remember. It is because I don't fit into any of the niches currently in existence. And that's okay. I hope to write things that are honest and relevant and uplifting, especially reflecting something I have learned about life from experience and from the Bible. It is clear to me that the further we drift from the Bible as our compass, the more corrupt and scary the world becomes, so I want to represent that (biblical) perspective, worldview, ideology, whatever you want to call it in anything I write. Not that everything I write will be specifically about the Bible, but that is where I am coming from. Most likely, I am not going to convince anybody of anything or change anyone's mind about anything, by something that I write. I had hoped to do that in my memoir (the subtitle is "A Memoir of Recovery from Parental Divorce, With 20 Essentials for Finding Your Sweet Spot"). Maybe I bit off more than I could chew, but there it is. We all want to be an agent of change somehow, any of us who have convictions about anything. It's just one element of our nature, I think. God created us to be agents of change by creating us in his image. We have fallen very far, but if we turn from our self-centered nature and desire to be changed into the person God created us to be, this becomes the journey of the ages. To be honest, today I was thinking (and I think about this a lot) I am ready for all of this to be over, you know? I am tired, I ache all over, and I just want to go to bed. Maybe tomorrow will be better. I don't know if that is depression or not; it probably is, but I know there is no reason for me to stay in that mindset for more than a few minutes. It's amazing to me how a few minutes with God can lift me up and out of depression. I think I understand why depression is such a problem for so many people. If all we have in life is this world to keep us afloat, God help us, literally. I think I understand why suicide is a problem, why people are so broken, because this world is broken, and God provides the way through it without being destroyed. And that is the bottom line of all this. The world is not our home. Here are the first of the lyrics of that old gospel song (written in 1919): This world is not my home I'm just a-passing through My treasures are laid up Somewhere beyond the blue The angels beckon me From heaven's open door And I can't feel at home In this world anymore Albert Brumley (1905-1977) Of course, we are still in this world, it is not our home, we are just passing through, and I am sure someone reading this can find fault with it, so let me just say we are here for a purpose, God put us here and now with a purpose in mind. So I am not saying we should just live thinking, "It will all be over soon, and I'll be out of here." I'm not saying that. I am saying, "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24) and there is a word for you in the Bible if you want to go take a look in there. I have just been sitting here thinking about all these things and writing them because that's what I do. Perhaps the Lord will tell me one day exactly why this has been such a strange journey, but in the meantime, I'm just going to praise him. I just want to be who God created me to be and do what God created me to do, and that's why I do this. I wish you joy and peace and love in Jesus Christ, the bread of life, the light of the world, and I pray that you are blessed now and forever, and that if you have not already, you will give your heart and life to the one who made you, and if you have been downhearted, be lifted up in Jesus' Name. God is taking care of us in more ways than we can possibly imagine. Love to you in Jesus.