Reflections on writing my autobiography, ‘AN UNEXPECTED LIFE.’

When Mary was visiting a friend, she mentioned that I had written an autobiography; her friend’s response was, WHY? It is a good question because I am not somebody who is famous or has done something outstanding. I am an ordinary bloke who was brought up in a charitable institution called the Shaftesbury Homes. After starting my working life in the film industry, I went on to become a church leader for over fifty years. The churches I have been involved in have been small and struggling; none of them during my tenure reached over 140 people, so why write an autobiography?

Having finished a revision of my book, ‘Parenting’, I was thinking about my next project, and the thought entered my mind of how my life had been so blessed after such a poor start in institutions. God had been so wonderful in leading me into his path and the things set out for me if I would respond to his promptings. So I set out to write the story of God’s calling on my life. I was fascinated as memories came flooding back and I could see in hindsight how God had used people and incidents to train me for what he had called me to be, in him. The answer to WHY is that God uses ordinary people with difficult backgrounds to do ordinary things that have a long-term impact. In writing my story, I discovered what my ministry really was, which was something I had not fully grasped while in the thick of day-to-day life. I hope that in reading my story, many will see that God is faithful to his promises; what he has promised he will do. But more than that, he will train us through life’s circumstances to be effective in fulfilling his purposes for us. The secret is that we have to respond to his call and accept his training programme.

It turns out that writing was the easy bit; what came after was both unexpected and emotional. You write about the good things and the times you struggled, your failures as well as when you wanted to give up and run away. Then published it for everyone to read, your life becomes an open book. Now this is grand if it is being read by strangers, but when all your friends are buying it, that was very emotional; I should have expected it, but when it was first put up on the screen to see who wanted to pre-order it, then the emotion hit me. In that moment, I wanted to hide.

Yet it is the right thing to do, because it is the story of how God took a young, introverted and broken young man and changed him, using him for his purposes. My daughter Janet and her family put on a wonderful book launch party, when many friends came to celebrate the publishing of ‘AN UNEXPECTED LIFE.’

Bob Cheesman