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Best of Times, Worst of Times
Mark Steele tells all!
By Rachel Wegner 07
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With his second book slated to hit the stands on April 1, 2008, Mark Steele said that the writing process yielded a great deal of introspection and reflection on a particularly painful season of his life. Titled Half-Life/Die Already (David C. Cook Publishing), the subtitle of the book reads, "How I died and lived to tell about it."
"I know too many Christians, myself included for a long season, whose faith was based on a need for safety or comfort, as opposed to a need to really know the heart of God," Steele said. "The truth is: knowing the heart of God and pursuing His plan does not mean that life is going to be a constant barrage of easy. He promises us that it's going to get hard. There is a way to find Him and that joy, peace and fulfillment right there in the depth of the very worst moments. That is what a Christian walk is really about, and that is a result of dying to yourself."
Steele, who is the CEO of Steelehouse Productions, serves as a college pastor in Tulsa and travels regularly as a speaker and comedian. Orlando-based Relevant Books published his first book, Flashbang, in 2005. Flashbang recounted some of the life experiences that taught him the value of humility and genuineness. With a collection of vulnerable and humorous stories told from a unique approach (and with an innovative layout), Flashbang sold more than 11,000 copies.
When the time came to write his second book, Steele said he knew that it was to draw from a one-and-a-half-year season in his life when he and his family faced dark times laden with challenges in his marriage, his health and his younger son's health. He said he wrestled with revisiting the emotions while writing about that time, often laboring over the manuscript in the wee hours of the morning.
"Flashbang was a gathering of the 'best of' Mark Steele," Steele said. "Right after Flashbang was published, I had a season of 'the worst of' Mark Steele, and I realized that, if I was going to be vulnerable and willing to write about 'the best of,' I really need to be vulnerable and willing to write about 'the worst of.'"
While writing Half-Life/Die Already, Steele was involved in a car accident on a trip to Dallas, Texas. The crash totaled both his car and his computer. For a reason that Steele said escapes him, he had not backed up his work, so he lost everything he'd written for his new book. Fighting the urge to sit down that night and write out everything he could remember, Steele took a few weeks off from writing and then started over. He feels this decision resulted in a much better book.
Looking back at his anything-but-ordinary life, Steele said he has discovered his love and gift for media and production, as is evidenced by his success in pioneering Steelehouse with fellow alumnus Kevin Anderson 90. But aside from the joy he finds in life with his wife and three children, he has come to realize he is most fulfilled while sitting with a cup of coffee at his computer, writing to his heart's content.
"I'm not a theologian, I'm not an expert on spiritual issues," Steele said. "All I know is that I love words and I know my life, and I can be very brutally honest about my life. I think there's spiritual profundity in brutal honesty. Not when it's aimed critically at others, but when the finger points inward."
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Steele said he uses every part of his drama/TV/film degree in his work today and is deeply grateful to the professors and advisers he had at ORU. He added that Laura Holland and Dr. Ray Lewandowski are two professors who made a particular impact on him during his student days.
