A few weeks ago, I was invited with several other faculty members from our university to an advance screening of “Hacksaw Ridge,” the sensational film about Medal of Honor winner Desmond Doss that was directed by Mel Gibson and which comes out in November. On the way there and back, I had the pleasure of sharing the car with Ken Shaw, our university president. I learned that he hadn’t read any of my books yet, but was interested in them, particularly my book on End Times entitled, If Tomorrow Comes. So I made it a point to give him an autographed copy of the book a few days later.
Yesterday he sent me an email telling me how much he enjoyed my book and how he felt I had a gift for storytelling. He then went on to tell me that in preparation for our campus radio station’s planned Sharathon this week, he brought drinks over to the station and met a man named Fred. When Fred learned that he was the University president, he asked if I knew me, and then went on about how much one of my books had impressed him.
I’m not getting rich from my book sales, nor do I expect to in days to come. Many of my students don’t know about my books nor have they read them. But I do know that there are those out there that have been touched by the books I have written. It’s kind of like what I wrote one time about evangelistic series: God isn’t interested in numbers. He’s interested in the one person. And He will do whatever it takes to reach that one person.
When we can approach our writing with that kind of mindset, selling tons of books doesn’t become that important. It’s about the one person who does read it and whose life is changed. That’s why we do it.
The Great Adventure 