Sacred Compass 3: How do you know you're meant to write a book?

This is part 3 of the “interview” I conducted with J. Brent Bill, author of Sacred Compass: The Way of Spiritual Discernment.

I have listed the question, as I sent it to him, in italics with an R. Then I have given his answer, marked with a B, and then my reply marked with an R but not in italics. Brent hasn’t seen this third part yet, but I hope to open up the conversation to you, my dear blog reader, to be part of this dialogue too. I can not promise that Brent Bill himself will answer your questions here – or even read them here – but I will try to continue the discussion if you’re interested.

As a final point to this introduction, I want to be clear that I’ve already read the whole book and I really liked it. I’ve already started recommending it to people in San Francisco. I commend it to your attention.

R: Why did you think or how did you know you were the right person to write this book?

B: Well, Robin, that's a question that I asked myself a number of times while considering doing this book and while writing it. Who am I who am far from a spiritual "expert" to write this book? But I had no choice. This was a book I felt called to write. It's that simple -- and that profound. I find that the books that help me the most are not written by the people who "have it all together" -- but rather by the people who are trying to "get it all together" and realizing that, short of eternity, they probably never will. Still they follow the Spirit and grow in grace. I hope I'm one of those people and so offer this book as words from a fellow pilgrim who, hopefully, has learned a thing or two along the way.

R: I really hoped Brent wouldn’t take this question badly. I didn’t mean to question his authority to write this book. I was more interested in how do you know which books you should write and which are just nice ideas, but maybe better for someone else? This is a good answer.