A reworking of Why I Wrote "Walkout"

Why did I write “Walkout”?

            A great deal of what I have shared in the book resulted from watching, listening to, and interacting with those in several Christian communities over the period of years since rededicating my life to the Lord in 1985. I have seen how things work and don’t work depending on their focus, and how people walkout of situations rather than helping to make things better.

            The motivation, in many cases, for writing a book is either for financial rewards or for ego satisfaction. However, my close associations with the Christian authors in our local writers guild have helped to give me an eternal focus instead of a worldly one. There are times when a person feels so strongly about a situation that he or she is compelled to bring the subject to the audience needing to read it.

            I wanted to make it obvious to those reading this book that there have been several religious leaders who have fallen from grace and how many of those in their congregations walked out on them, never to return. My intention for writing the story was not to dwell on the fall, but on the restoration process. I wanted to show how God used those who listened to His voice, especially after the fall, to tell the love story of grace, mercy, redeeming love and passion for His children. I wanted to show how God can work on hearts and minds to bring about change. I also believed it would help those who are struggling with becoming critical and keeping their focus on the cross.           

            I firmly believe that God’s kingdom does not consist of words, but of power. In order for His church, His people, to go forward with the gospel to the ends of the earth, we must have His power. If we want this power in our daily lives, then we must focus on the cross daily. God’s power in us will be great only if we embrace the cross of Jesus Christ. With my writing as a tool, I want to motivate born-again Christians to not move forward alone, but to join hearts together, as did the characters who walked out of the author’s story, and continue the journey God has planned and wants written.

I have written Walkout not as a template and format to follow, but more to present ideas and concepts to think about and hopefully to provide more hope to a hurting world.

            In writing the story, and making sure all fact had been turned into fiction, I began to realize that it was not my story, but the story of those whom it is based on, which for the most part is nonfiction. I wanted to write the truth, as I knew, or understood it, so the book is based on fact. However, the fiction characters retell the story of the nonfiction characters with elements of my creativity and imagination in order to make what I felt needed to be stronger points at times.

            One of the most important elements I wanted to cover in the story was to try and get readers, especially the younger generation, to understand what “religion” should be about—helping, serving, and getting out of one’s comfort zone.

            I also wanted my writing of the story to bring not only me joy, but joy to others by seeing how, in dealing with spiritual matters God’s way, things work out better. My wife and I have been shown that God reveals who He is by how He works things out. I wanted to share, through my writing, how He wants us to step out in faith so that we can see Him as a miracle-working God and not be surprised by anything He does.

            During the past twenty-five plus years, I have been aware of many who have lost trust and faith as a result of turmoil within the body of Christ and walked out. So a great part of my motivation for wanting to tell this story is to have an opportunity to encourage others to have their trust placed solidly in God, not man. I wanted to make it clear that you must also have a merciful and forgiving heart during the time of turmoil and testing, lest you become critical and fall in sin yourself. I wanted to remind us that God has shown us mercy, and mercy needs to triumph over a judgmental heart. I wanted to encourage us that, as the stars continue to fall, we need to remember to keep our focus on God. We need to let the love He has for us control our thoughts and actions.

            The bottom line as to why I wrote the story is the fact that love and forgiveness is our most important legacy. It’s not what you do, but how much love you put in to it that matters. I hope readers of Walkout will see God’s love through my efforts to convert fact to fiction as part of my love for writing.