Update: Some people who live in my house and are mentioned by name in this post wanted me to clarify that this was an honest question, not a “who-do-you-think-you-are” kind of question. I certainly took it that way (the good way), and did not mean it to appear otherwise. In other words, my wife’s not a jerk by any means, and I’m sorry if I made her look like a jerk.

Melissa asked me this weekend why people like me and Annie want to write. Is it because we think we have so much to say that the world needs to hear? Or the desire to get our name out there? With no publishers beating down the door, why spend time and energy trying to come up with good content here?

It’s a good question. If #1 above is the answer, that’s bad news. I mean, I’m 26, and it’s not like I have years and years of experience in much of anything. #2 has obvious problems. So although both of these are true in my worst moments, on a better day I’m doing this because I want to see people excited to learn about God, excited to grow in their knowledge of the Word, which impacts every other area of life. Theology gets a bad rap, and I want to fight that.

I also want to talk about things I like. That’s the thing with the book reviews, and hopefully eventually some album reviews too. I like to think, and I like to watch/listen to/experience other people thinking and creating. The blog just puts that interaction into written form.

But there’s a challenge here, because we’re talking about left brain and right brain type stuff. I mean, I want to maybe be a professor, a theologian, but I also have this sort of artsy thing going too. Those are really different worlds– the difference between the commentary I reviewed last week and the CS Lewis book I’m hoping to start tonight. So an analogy I came up with (because Melissa really likes analogies): As a writer, I’d like to be able to be the principal trumpet in a symphony, but also be able to be Miles Davis. Technical, but lyrical. Sharp, but free. Able to explain infralapsarianism vs. supralapsarianism, but also able to make you feel something. Wiser Time is my effort to get better at both. We’ll see how it goes.