(upbeat music) - Pastor John, in a recent episode on writing, you said this, quote, "The actual process of writing "is the most important portal by which new light "shines into your mind on a topic," end quote. Now some friends of ours online on Twitter pushed back on your statement and said this may be a personality difference, saying that for them, the process of gaining new light on a topic comes most importantly from conversations that they have with others.

What do you say? Is this a personality difference and does this in any way change your original statement? - One must be so careful. Yes, now I'm trying to think how to make this answer longer than 30 seconds. (laughing) They probably wouldn't be satisfied with yes, would they? I have no authority to tell someone else that starting to write will bring more insight for them than having a conversation with someone, okay?

So to be completely accurate, I could have said the actual process of writing is, for me, okay, for me, the most important portal by which new light shines into your mind on a topic. And as I thought about it, maybe there's another qualification I should have made. Namely, I'm assuming that every strategy of seeking new light on any topic is soaked in prayer for light.

So that in one sense, prayer is the most important portal of new insight. And there may be other qualifications I should have made or should make as well. But, okay, having said that, my aim is to help writers break free from the paralysis of not writing because they don't yet know what they think about an issue.

Okay? And my point is, knowing what you think about an issue with clarity and fullness doesn't precede writing, but comes from writing. That's what I'm gonna stand by. Now, I know, I am sure, that there are some folks whose brains are so amazing in their capacities to hold an idea in place and look at it from 30 different angles and see hundreds of relationships between the idea and those angles and the relationships among the angles themselves that they could think something through and have it clear in their minds before they put anything on paper.

Maybe there's three of those people, like Albert Einstein. And let's just say the vast majority of us, that is not true. Writing is a way the mind can start seeing clearly what was before a fuzzy tangle of thoughts. So God bless conversations. Amen. Conversations. I have had incredibly illumining conversations that got me some important breakthroughs.

But here's reality for me, for me. And I just wanna make sure people whom God is calling to write are giving this its due power. After two or three flashes of insight come from a conversation that you would not have had on your own, praise God for conversations, writing now or not writing, what shall we do?

Now what should we do? Now you've got your flashes of insight. For me, those insights are bursting with possibilities. So I've come away from a conversation, those insights are bursting with possibilities. Those possibilities are going in 10 directions at once. How do those possibilities flowing from those three insights become clear and defined and differentiated and interrelated and coherent?

I know of no answer to that question but writing. For me, and I think I'm really average in this regard, not exceptional, more conversations won't bring me, and I think most people, to this stage of clarity and definition and differentiation and interrelationship and coherence. So sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night after a conversation or after anything and a flash of insight is there.

And I'm lying there in bed with this insight that may or may not have come from a conversation and the implications of it are starting to pour and question after question is starting to come to my mind and I know what I have to do. I have to turn the light on and at least reach for a pad of paper, which I have in the drawer beside my desk, and write enough to preserve that till the next day when I can get writing for clarity on the thought that seed, that seed will not come to fruition of illumination in my mind without that.

So I'll say it again. Yes, we are all wired differently. Different experiences bring light to our minds in different ways, but for those of you who are called to write, I offer you this claim. For the vast majority of you, the confusion you feel over what you are supposed to say or want to say will not go away until you try to say it.

And saying it on paper preserves it and lets you go back and see what you thought five minutes ago. And writing is a great way of thus seeing. So don't let your confusion about what to write keep you from writing the very writing that blows away the confusion. - Very good thoughts, Pastor John, thank you.

And if you have a question to send John Piper, or if you wanna catch up on recent episodes, or if you wanna listen to the most popular episodes of all time in this podcast series, you can do all of that from our landing page. And episode number 582 was the centerpiece of this episode, by the way.

You can find episode number 582 in the archive. And for all of this, go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well, maybe you are a writer, or you are wondering if you are. Has God called you to serve the church with a pen? And how can I know if he has? I wanna ask John Piper this question tomorrow.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)