This is good for me to remember. I often wish to write a book, at least one before I grow old. But I always think there are so many other people who could do a better job than me, and in fact have already done a better job than anything I could piece together. Not only is their writing better, but the lives seem (from a distance) for in order as well. But there is only one kind of person who writes books, even spiritual ones: really screwed up people. That’s all of us. We are untwisted by God’s grace alone. Don’t buy the myth of “spiritual celebrity”.<\/p>\n
Although I felt like a big nothing, I realized that the thoughtful letters I continued to receive from readers did mean something, and that my work could be considered fraudulent only if I bought into the myth of spiritual celebrity.<\/p>\n
By that I mean the notion that people who write books on spirituality do so because they’ve got it all figured out, and have somehow “succeeded” at the spiritual life. Jesus reminds us, however, that it is not proficiency that heals us, but faith, and faith does not traffic with success or failure.<\/p>\n
-Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me, p.229<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is good for me to remember. I often wish to write a book, at least one before I grow old. But I always think there are so many other people who could do a better job than me, and in fact have already done a better job than anything I could piece together. Not … <\/p>\n