They asked me: Why did you write your memoir?

Last night I attended the first meeting of our church’s fall book club, for which they’ve chosen my new memoir, Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger’s Memoir.  I’m happy but also humbled that they chose it.

Among other questions, they asked me: Why did you write your memoir?

Good question.

I took time to answer because a memoir—every memoir—can and should be a gift for its readers. In fact:

I believe God Himself

dreamed up the idea of memoirs.

If you think that’s a stretch, read on!

Last evening, I took the ladies back to the beginning of my passion for memoirs—though originally I didn’t even know the definition of “memoir.”

It started some thirty years ago. I’d been reading Streams in the Desert, a devotional from 1925 (!) by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman (though nowadays they call her L.B. Cowman).

Not only have publishers updated her powerful devotional by letting the dear lady use her own name instead of her husband’s, they’ve also updated the wording and Bible version.

But I’m still using the old-fashioned version, so keep that in mind when you read what L.B. wrote. It’s based on Luke 21:13 which says, “This will give you an opportunity to tell about Me” (ERV).

“Life is a steep climb, and it does the heart good to have somebody ‘call back’ and cheerily beckon us on up the high hill,” she writes. “We are all climbers together, and we must help one another.

“This mountain climbing is serious business, but glorious. It takes strength and steady step to find the summits. The outlook widens with the altitude. If anyone among us has found anything worth while, we ought to ‘call back.’”

And then L.B. Cowman shares with us her poem:

If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back—

‘Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;

And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim, because the [lamp] oil is low,

Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.

Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;

Call back, and say He kept you when the forest’s roots were torn;

That, when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill,

He bore you up and held you where the very air was still.

. . . But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,

And if you’ll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened sky—

If you have gone a little way ahead, oh, friend, call back—

‘Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.

That poem—that thought of cupping our hands around our mouths and cheering on others who are struggling up the steep trails behind us—that thought zinged me. It zapped me. “Yesssss!” I said.

I fought tears when I thought of the people 

who had already battled up life’s steep mountain trails, 

who then turned to me to show by their example 

how to choose courage and faith, 

who shared with me their words, 

who cheered me on and kept praying.

My heart lurches when I think 

how my life’s battles might have turned out 

if those dear souls had not told me their story—

they and their stories kept me pounding one foot in front of the other, 

hoping, believing, refusing to give up 

because if God had helped them, He’d help me, too.

“A Call Back book,” I told myself. “That’s what we need—to share our stories and keep each other fighting the good fight.” 

Reading that poem was a defining moment for me. For years I thought about a Call Back Book. But the idea was raw and tough. It needed to marinate for a few years.

Fast forward twenty years or so. I came upon the following words (words which you know well by now if you’ve been with our SM 101 tribe for a while): “Always remember—and never forget—what you’ve seen God do, and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren” (Deuteronomy 4:9).

When I read those words, they gave me another zing and zap. That was another pivotal moment for me. “That’s it!” I told myself. “That’s what a Call Back Book would accomplish.” My undeveloped concept began to take a more solid form in my mind and heart and vision.

And the fact that God told us to tell our life’s stories to our kids and grandkids—Wow again! He commanded us to tell our stories. 

It's a calling He's given all of us.

It's a ministry, not a hobby.

I remember asking myself, “I wonder what a memoir is.” I looked up the definition and—Wow again. Memoir was a perfect format for telling our stories. (Click here for the definition of memoir.)

And, as they say, the rest is history:

• I started teaching memoir classes for churches and other interested groups,
• in 2010, I published my first memoir, Grandma’s Letters from Africa,
• I started blogging at Spiritual Memoirs 101 to reach others interested in writing their stories,
• three months ago, I published my second memoir, Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger’sMemoir,
• and now I’m preparing to teach my next in-person memoir classes.

Last evening at the Book Club meeting, I was in for a delightful surprise. The ladies started discussing the definition of memoir, and then they realized that each of them has a story. One thing led to another and I think some of them are eager to attend the upcoming memoir classes.

They’ve caught the vision of the importance of telling our stories. I’m excited.

In the words of Lloyd John Ogilvie, “ “. . . we can be God’s tap on a person’s shoulder. . . . It’s awesome to realize that God can use us as His messengers, healers, and helpers. He’s up to exciting things, and all He needs is a willing, receptive, and obedient spirit” (Silent Strength for My Life).

If you’re reading this post,

YOU are those Ogilvie writes about—

YOU are the ones with a willing,

receptive, and obedient spirit.

How awesome to realize that

God is using YOU as His messengers,

healers, and helpers.