My Four Fathers: An Introduction

Recently, I had the privilege of writing a book review for a book entitled "The Sword of the Lord: The Roots Of Fundamentalism In An American Family" by Andrew Himes. While reading the book Andrew and I corresponded numerous times. In our latter correspondences we communicated less about the book and more about...me. Andrew told me how much he enjoyed my blog and watching my video testimony on the blog called "A Story Of Four Fathers". He encouraged me by saying that my story needs to be heard and that he believed a book was in me somewhere. Now, I've thought about writing books before. I have numerous ideas for fiction and historical fiction books. Many of my friends and family have encouraged me to write a book of short stories about the unique and often hilarious things that have happened to me in my life. I've thought a lot about that. I am a published song writer and over the years I have written hundreds of songs. That has been my biggest goal and I am slowly (emphasis on slowly) working on that. For instance, I have a song that I wrote called "Resurrection". When I wrote it I heard Alison Krauss singing it. I think it's a hit (what songwriter doesn't, right?). She just doesn't know it yet! :) Maybe one day. Ah, well. Anyway, I've written a lot of other things going back even to my childhood. I actually still have a short story that I wrote when I was in fourth or fifth grade about an adventure I have in the middle east discovering the 67th book of the Bible. It's pretty funny to read it now. But as far as writing my own personal story, I hadn't thought much about it. I have certainly chronicled a lot of my story in songs, which are their own short stories. And I have shared my personal story dozens of times to children, teens, young adults and church congregations via speaking engagements. But I don't recall ever thinking, "You know, I should write a book about this." I can't say that I have the largest following for my music and my blogging as it is. It's been slow getting both off the ground since it's not my full time gig yet. I continue to plug away. But Andrew's encouragement really resonated with me. Someone of his stature reaching out to me to say that to me. He certainly didn't have to do it and it struck a chord deep within me. So I've decided to start working on it. A few weeks ago I sat down and essentially outlined the book and was shocked to find that I might just have too much material. So I don't know when or how, but I'm going to start writing it. Now when it gets finished is another matter. :)

My story centers very much on the four fathers that I have had in my life and the profound influence they had on me both for good and for evil. As we approach Father's Day, I wanted to practice writing about this through my blog. The ideas will start here and I'll see where they go and grow from here. I could just about put a book together on my blog posts alone anyway, so I decided over the next few days to post a blog entry - five total - centered on the story of "My Four Fathers". This one is the introduction to the Father's Day blogging exercise; and then four others about Father #1, Father #2, Father #3, and Father #4. So here it goes. I hope that my story will strengthen and encourage you. At times it will be sad and difficult I think to read. It certainly will be to write. But it's true. It's real life. And ultimately it is joyful.

Thanks for reading and following my music and my blog.

Grace and Peace,
Lance Brewer
6/14/2011