Dragging out my files and putting time into this effort has been tough on my wife and daughter. They just want this to be behind us. They don't want to re-live the experience, but every time I decide to jump back into this project, they feel like they have to.

It's tough on me, too. It's kind of like pressing on an old sore just to see if it's still painful. It is. There's been unbelievable healing in our lives, but it's painful.

If that's how my family feels, you might ask yourself why I'm doing this. For one reason: writers write.

Writers work out their experiences in print. In private, they pour out what's inside into a journal, note pad, or computer screen and process what they're thinking, what they've learned, or how they're healing. As much as I hope you reading these words will add something small to your life, this is mostly about me working things out. There. I said it. This is about me. But I think you already knew that.

I learned something from a writer named Frank Schaeffer. I read his book Crazy for God and reviewed it on my blog. The book was fascinating and irreverent and even, in my opinion, disrespectful to his family and the religious tribe Frank's family was a part of (I'm loosely affiliated with the tribe Frank exposes in his book). And I asked the question: "Why would he write this?" He personally responded to my post: "Because I'm a writer."

So here is the fourth post from my book-blogging project. Thanks for taking the time.

Read the fourth post here.