When I first considered beginning a teaching ministry, I weighed the possibility of getting more education. I was eager to move ahead at full speed giving seminars and tempted to bypass any further training. I sought the counsel of various people about what to do.
         One afternoon I had lunch with a friend whom I respected and asked his opinion. Not surprisingly, he said that going back to school was the right idea. But he couched his advice in a metaphor: "By doing so you take away a number but you add a multiplier." As basic as his point was, it was the right thought at the right time and it clinched my thinking . . .

When working on my first book, Knowing God’s Will, I labored under the typical apprehensions of a writer--that I might not finish the project or find a suitable publisher if I did. But while my fear of failing was significant, I worried as much about what would happen if I succeeded! Writing a book means casting something of your private life and thought before the public, and that’s scary. Would friends who liked me in my present role still like me in my new one? Did God himself want me to succeed? . . .