A Few Thoughts on Writing

The more I immerse myself in the publishing world, the more I realize that the best books are never written. They sit dormant in someone’s mind, occasionally emerging here and there, but never solidify into a manuscript. Rarely do writers find enough encouragement to put their thoughts into a proposal, and if they do, the odds of that proposal making it through the publishing process are slim to none.

Someone once told me that one out of every forty-six thousand proposals are accepted for publication. Subsequently, these great ideas wither into oblivion. Even at this very moment, there are writers out there who have something good to say, perhaps even crucial to say, who will never get an audience with a publishing house because of the marketing demands imposed by our consumeristic culture.

If you are one of these writers, don’t give up! Keep on keeping on. Wake up early and make it happen. Publishing is a crazy awesome way to communicate yourself. And long after death does what death does best, your book will still touch lives. You don’t have to feed a book to keep it alive. You don’t have to clean it or keep up after it. Some of the most influential individuals in my life died over a hundred years ago. Charles Spurgeon, for example, still ignites my appetite for God with his earthy, digestible words. Richard Baxter, Jeremiah Burroughes, and Jonathan Edwards urge me to take my calling as a Christian seriously and live as though I’ll live again.

All this to say–books will never go out of style. Sure, blogs will always be around and I’m destined to buy anything Apple makes that gives me quicker access to the internet, but there’s something incarnational about opening a book and flipping through the pages with our fingers. There’s something down right gospel about it. John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh. It became hot, smelly, sweaty flesh. So when we read a book, we remember the divine condensation that occurred in Bethlehem when the Shepherd became the sheep in order to draw the sheep to the Shepherd. (shameless plug–check out my new book Sex, Sushi, and Salvation )

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