Its The Audience

Sometimes you need to hear a message to turn your thinking.

I just finished reading the book 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper. Since it was another story about a near death experience, I wanted to see what he had to say compared to how I told my story. The lesson I learned was different than I planned.

While Piper and I each faced, sudden, unexpected, certain death, our circumstances were quite different. His body was terribly mangled. He dealt with unimaginable pain for a long time. In contrast, I was physically better after a few weeks.

But what was most interesting was the very different writing styles we chose. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that he gave God 100% credit for his survival. Most of the book talks about how God spoke to him and directed others who saved him. He mentions very few people by name who took care of him other than his wife, two doctors, and a couple pastor friends. Everyone who helped him along the way was guided by God to do what they did. They are nameless figures in the story.

If you have read my book (if you haven’t, buy it!!!!), you know I struggled with the whole idea of “God saved me”. I felt the rescuers, the helicopter crew, and the hospital personnel made deliberate decisions to save me. They were all presented at different moments in their lives opportunities that prepared them for those fateful days where our lives intersected. Their acceptance of the moment was important.

Honoring them, getting to know them as individuals, and learning a little about their backstory was important to me. I felt it was important to share that with readers. God played a part. But individual choices by multiple people was my story line.

As I was reading Piper’s book, I found myself getting more uncomfortable, and at times indignant, that he did not even mention the names and backstories of many people like the EMTs or nurses. They helped him and took care of him. But in my reading of his book, they were simply doing what God told them to do. The lack of recognition of their agency bothered me.

It brought me full circle to a quote written by Tim Urban that inspired me to write my first book.

“I started out basically imagining I was writing for a stadium of replicas of myself – which made things easy because I already knew exactly what topics interested them, what writing style they liked, what their sense of humor was, etc.”

Got it! Piper was writing for the Don Pipers of the world. I was writing for the Dean Waggenspacks of the world. Those are two very different audiences. That’s why each of our books works for the audience we wrote for. Urban’s insight reminded me why Piper and I took different approaches and that both of them were right.

It is the same with whatever we wish to communicate. It is going to resonate with some people (“the stadium of replicas of myself”) and not with others. The message is not wrong. The audience is not the right one for the message. Don’t get discouraged when others “don’t pay attention” to your message or disagree with it. Wrong audience. Other’s acceptance is not a judgement of our worth. It is their interpretation based on their “interests, style, sense of humor, etc.”

Don’t allow how others might accept what you write or say to hold you back if you have something you want to say. Want to reach a broader audience? Sometimes we need to modify how we deliver the message to reach a different audience, if that is important to us.