Behind the Book: From Dreamer to Author (Pt. 1)

The Last Year: From Start to Finish

Photo by Luke Lung on Unsplash

For many years, probably close to a decade now, I have dreamed of one day writing a book. It just always seemed entirely inaccessible. For one, what are the chances that I could actually put that many coherent thoughts into words? Even more, how could I ever gain access to a publisher? Isn’t it all super expensive anyway? The list of problems seemed to clearly outweigh the possible solutions. So the dream remained on the shelf for quite some time.

The Start of a Solution

Then, a few years ago, I heard of Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and the idea of self-publishing for the first time. That seemed to take care of one of the biggest hurdles.

I’ve heard many stories of people being rejected again and again as they sought to find a publisher that would accept their work. Suddenly, it seemed as if this problem was no longer an issue. They would accept your manuscript and print your book without having to go through an approval process fraught with rejection. That meant the onus was now on me to write. I could no longer hide behind excuses that no longer existed.

At that time, I toyed with the idea. I even began working pretty extensively on a book. I got partway through, around 30,000 words in fact. To this day, I am sad to say I have never returned to it. It’s still partially finished in a Word document tucked away in the recesses of my computer’s internal storage:

A Confession

I’m personally notorious for this. I am an expert at getting things partway done and never finishing them. Or, at times, getting things “good enough” and then leaving them sit.

Just ask the myriad of woodworking projects around the house. The coffee bar I built for my wife lacked doors for many months, perhaps more than a year. Then, I added doors, but they have yet to be stained. I had to make sure the fit worked, and it did, and they have stayed put.

In the meantime, I have built a rocking chair for my youngest, a stool for when she helps me cook, a stand for our 30-gallon fish tank, and a rustic wall hanging setup that displays our cast-iron skillets for my wife—all of which remain unstained unto the present.

Will I ever finish them, 100 percent? I hope so. Will I finish my book on the topic of suffering? Maybe. But it remains to be seen.

A New Idea

Then, last year, I preached a series of expository sermons through the book of Ecclesiastes at my local church beginning on January 26th.

I always found the book of Ecclesiastes a very interesting read. Particularly because I am naturally a bit more on the melancholy side of the personality spectrum. So whenever the teacher cried out, “Vanity of vanities!” I consistently found myself saying, “Amen.”

With this, I always held to the prevailing notion that the author was a bit depressed and that vanity was his final conclusion on the matter of life. For some reason, I never caught many of the more positive sections in Ecclesiastes until reading through it in the summer of 2024.

As I began to see a different picture of the book, I determined to preach through it in 2025 after I finished my sermons from Philippians. Along the way, I found that for years I had misunderstood its message. I also found that the content of the book and the study I put into sermon preparation began to slowly but surely change my life. (One of the greatest benefits of pastoral ministry is that you get to preach sermons to yourself in study before they ever arrive at the pulpit. Quite a bit of the time, I know that if the message isn’t for anyone else, it is for me).

As Ecclesiastes began to shape my thoughts a bit more, I really felt that maybe this would be where God would begin my journey towards authorship, who knows—well, God did.

I never knew what it would look like along the way. I never knew if I would write a book. I just felt like one day I could, or rather that I should. Years ago, I had a seminary professor tell me that I was one of the most prolific students he ever had, but I didn’t know if that would ever be book-worthy. However, I think it was at that point that a seed was planted.

Then, later on, I had another professor who really encouraged us to write out manuscripts of our sermons before we preach them. Neither he nor I takes manuscripts to the pulpit. However, writing out every word you hoped to say to the congregation really helps you plan out a message better. For me, it also revealed that I could write a bit more than I had ever realized.

The Journey Begins

This background in mind, after I was a few weeks into my study on Ecclesiastes, I believed God was leading me towards putting this into book format. So I determined to give it a try. In the middle of February 2025, I started a Word document titled “How Ecclesiastes Changed My Life” in Microsoft Word.

Steadily, it grew as I took verses, ideas, and illustrations that I presented to my church family and expanded upon them. Furthermore, I added additional backing from the rest of the Bible. I set a goal to finish it (namely, the rough draft) before my 31st birthday the next year. I worked at it a few times a week for many months, and by the grace of God, I finished the rough draft of my manuscript in July 2025.

But then, like so many things in my life, I set it to the side and didn’t touch it. It was beginning to look like it would be added to the ranks of unstained wood projects and half-finished books.

Next week, I’ll share more about what the journey looked like from there and how I went from an altogether unpolished manuscript to preparing it for publication.

But for now, I want to offer you a short excerpt from my first and soon-to-be-released book, From Vanity to Joy:

Coming Up Empty (Excerpt pp. 36-37)

Not one of us will ever have enough, make enough, be enough, or do enough to finally be satisfied. The teacher has proven through his own life’s experience that pursuing lasting satisfaction and meaning in life apart from God is a failed experiment. He might have lived thousands of years ago, but humanity hasn’t changed.

He might have had vineyards and gardens rather than a beach house. He might’ve had servants rather than followers on social media. He might’ve had livestock rather than a car or a yacht. Nevertheless, he had all that the world of his day would’ve said would make you happy. In our modern world, he would be a trillionaire who likewise attained major celebrity status—he had all the things that money could buy.

The teacher has tried a handful of experiments now. He’s tried understanding the world and figuring things out. He’s successfully lived for himself, enjoying pleasure as his greatest good, and he had it all. When that failed, he then tried to live uprightly and work hard. All of it has been empty and fraught with disappointment. The question is: Will we take his word for it? Or will we have to learn the hard way?

When satisfaction and meaning are pursued in the wrong places, they won’t be found, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. The disillusionment that is found in life under the sun should have us longing and looking for something else. Perhaps that is part of the reason the hardships are there—to drive us away from vanities to the source of true joy.

I hope you stay tuned, as I’m excited to tell you more about how this journey continued and how God brought it to completion. Lord willing, my book will be available for purchase in a little less than two weeks, on February 10th. I’ll know for sure if that date is going to be accurate here in two days or so when my next round of proof copies arrives, so stay tuned for updates.

In the meantime, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for your support, and I pray that my writing and my story will prove to be profitable in your own life and your pursuit of God’s purposes for you. God bless.