Oh, and welcome back.

Paul S.

Okay, I’ll grant Augustine’s Confessions and C. S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy. But that’s about it. Great writers go outside of themselves to find greatness and then lead others to it. The author’s personal life is almost completely irrelevant if he can do that well.

One major error or public sin can “make” a person or create a NYT bestseller. But it takes a far, far longer stretch of faithfulness to get others to take notice. Celebrity can be built in a few months or manufactured overnight, but quickly fades into the, um, Twilight; legacy is built over decades. (Your father–and your tribute to him in February–comes to mind here.) Give me the legacy of Roger Ellsworth over the razzle, dazzle and fizzle of ______ any day.

BTW, I thought the note you put on FB after your dog Suzy died was one of the best things I’ve read in a long time–and not just because I love dogs. That, along with some of your other pieces I’m recalling, makes me think that one of your great strengths as a writer (other than the ability to use good grammar and punctuation and produce coherent thought–no given in 2010) is to be personal and engaging and at the same time judicious and dignified; a lot of wisdom shown there.

Stay faithful, brother, and your writing will always be a great instrument in the Redeemer’s hands for encouraging others. I appreciate you and your labors.

You are a very, very good writer, Tim, and perhaps one of the most important aspects of your writing is that you WRITE. You work at it. I happen to believe your talent for writing was given to you by God, as was your desire to be the best writer you can be.

I know you’re being (somewhat) tongue in cheek in wondering whether your life is too “peaceful” for you to be a best-selling writer. Obviously, that peace is the result of the blessings you have been given, along with the decisions you have made toward having as peaceful a life as possible. (I often wondered if my own life was too “boring” for me to be a good writer … until my life got very UN-boring, at which point I realized that it is MUCH easier to concentrate on writing when you feel at peace with yourself — and the world!)

I read a quote one time, somewhere, written or said by someone — I don’t remember who said it, but I do believe it was someone who would qualify as a writer who had “made it” — that anyone who survives his or her own childhood is qualified to write a book. Granted, it might not be a book you or I or anyone we know would want to read, but perhaps that is beside the point.

I’m rambling a bit, but what I really wanted to say is I enjoy your writing — even or perhaps especially when I don’t necessarily agree with what you’ve written — and I am proud to see how much you have grown as a writer and as a human being in the years I have known you.

Here are my two cents: I’m sure this is the way you view it already, as it is echoed by your entry. Your success as a writer will not be measured by numbers. Book sales, money – it is all trivial. It is the impact that those book sales, and the impact that the money has, that is important – regardless of quantity.

I wish you the best! You are a very successful writer in my view. You’ve been able to keep me as an RSS subscriber for five or so years now!

I have learned that it takes an incredible amount of work to sell a book once it is published.

Maybe less so with a book about Albert Pujols than one about secularism!