Most influential on your writings?

How did you come to understand the things you write about in your articles? Was there one person or something you read, apart from the Bible, that was most influential? Tim

It has been my own life that has been used to reveal what I know. I'm sure I could come up with a list of names of some who have challenged me, encouraged me or stimulated me, but when it comes down to it I have learned more through some of my most embarrassing, depressing, unmotivated, pathetic experiences. I've discovered that it has been Christ in me. It's funny how Christ in me didn't usually seem like it. On the other hand, I've often gotten into the writing only to find that I am being stimulated and driven by what I am writing. For it becomes so doggoned real as I tell of it. I've often had difficulty reading through the article I'm in the process of without getting choked up at the overwhelming sense of reality I'd gained in the writing. You see, even when I don't necessarily refer to myself I am drawing on my own experiences in what I share. If I speak of weakness or failure or insecurity you can be assured it is not some general premise to which I refer, rather there is some actual foundation in me of what I say. As I had learned through the words of Paul, Christ is made known through such things, and so I have learned to "glory in my weakness, in my failings, in my sufferings". There you have it ... my big secret. LOL :)