Following a Call to Write

I don’t like being in the spotlight.

You’d think that as a preacher, I’d be able to handle attention. But it always makes me nervous. Maybe it’s easier to preach, hoping I’m pointing others toward God and not to myself. But writing publicly feels a bit more intimate, more vulnerable.

And I’ve been avoiding screens lately, trying to avoid the emotional burnout of constantly being worried and stressed out about the suffering of others. Writing on a screen, with the idea that others will be reading this on their screens, feels ironic when I’m trying to cut down on my own screen time.

But I’m writing. Because I feel called to write. Not that I have something to say. But that there is something in the struggle to have something to say that may help others in their struggles.

So I’m putting myself out there. I’m committing to writing once a week as a spiritual discipline. Rather than putting myself in the spotlight, I hope this writing can turn a spotlight onto important issues and ideas and people. In today’s world, there are too few spotlights on what is truly important, and far more flashing lights that blink and sparkle, distract and hypnotize.

I want to be fully awake. And I want to be connected. And so I’m writing.