why i write

a manifesto of sorts...

Photo by Freddy Castro on Unsplash

I took this title from Joan Didion much like she took it from George Orwell, and for the same reason: I like the I I I and the way it sounds: Why, I, Write.

And though I cannot hold a candle (much less a matchstick) to these great writers, this is my version of why I write.

George Orwell was known to write to express his political feelings, and Joan Didion to “find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.”

There are countless reasons why one might write, surely, but as a follower of Jesus Christ, I may offer a different perspective.

In The Pursuit of God, theologian, pastor and author A.W. Tozer said it so simply and so well: “Our gifts and talents should be turned over to Him. They should be recognised for what they are, God’s loan to us, and should never be considered in any sense our own.”

We know this to be true in the parable of the talents spoken by Jesus Himself in Matthew 25:14-30.

I have always written stories, essays and poems since I was a child, and then as a profession in my twenties. I’ve always had the desire to write, and as C.S. Lewis once said, “if the impulse to write survives the hope of success, then [a writer] is among these.”

Unfortunately, it’s taken me decades to give back my talents to the Lord, but here it is, and here I am. Why write a blog? Or a newsletter? Who is reading, anyway? It doesn’t really matter. This simple, lowly blog is my offering, my two copper coins. 

And maybe someday I will hear Him say: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

This is why I write.

{This was originally written and published on February 24, 2024 on my personal blog before moving to Substack.}