Why I write

By Brad Hicks

I write because I believe I have thoughts and ideas that are worth being read. I write because the act of it centers my thoughts and my spirit, points them in the direction of peace ~ north, you might say. I write because it brings me joy. I write because it reveals that beneath my anger is sorrow. I write because I want to be heard and known. I write because it’s a calling. I write because I’ve been given the talent to do it and I don’t believe I’m being true to myself or to the Giver of the gift if I don’t write. I write because it’s one way that I can glorify God and promote the gospel of Jesus. I write out of hope that I might help comfort readers who are confused, distressed, and in pain. I write because I share their confusion, distress, and pain.

I write as a prayer, a petition to God to renew our vision and purpose and to launch us anew into fresh and alive obedience.

I desire to write from a place of love. I write because I want to influence and challenge readers to hear and obey God. The act of writing helps me hear and obey him. I write because I want to encourage readers who desire to know God and confirm to them that they’re on the right path — and to stay the course. I write to motivate those of us in the American Christian church who have retreated into apathy and complacency — or into a misdirected political cause — in our gospel witness. I write as a prayer, a petition to God to renew our vision and purpose and to launch us anew into fresh and alive obedience.

I write about truth that I believe is revealed in God’s Word and to counter the myriad other voices proliferating the universe that deny God and biblical reality. There is a shadowy, sinister, spiritual void in our world and in many churches — I write in the hope that I might help both expose and fill the dark and deceived places with light, love, and truth. In humility I write, knowing that I see reality through smudgy windows and that my truth changes when a better reality is made clear.

I write because I’ve had over sixty years of life experience (over forty of those pursuing and remaining in Christ) to better qualify me to communicate about our human condition, meaning, purpose, and redemption — more reliably than I could when I was a younger man — with sufficient suffering but even more joy, much sin but even more grace.