Why I Write

I am a writer, but not on the basis of training or skill or even natural ability. I'm a writer because I have to write. I tend to only write what burns in me and must be expressed. I write music as well, and though I have written out of the need for a certain type of song, the songs I feel strongly about are usually those that burst, or at least emerge, from somewhere in my life or heart.

Therefore, I write what I can't keep from writing. I may or may not know you, but I have an overwhelming desire to give you what God has, through some great teachers and friends, given to me. That great gift is simply a clear picture of our identity as believers in Jesus.

I lived as a Christian from childhood through my thirties in varying levels of frustration. (At seven, I was not terribly introspective.) I discovered grace in my twenties, and finally, in my early forties, I have discovered who I am. I don't know how I survived, but I know that largely, that's what I did.

My wife and I often say to each other how angry it makes us to think that we lived so long without a clear picture of our identity in Christ. "Why didn't someone tell me this before?" is the cry I hear over and over again as I teach these ideas to people. Well, I don't know why so few people have taught this over the last twenty or so years, but I'm teaching it now through writing.

That's why I write.