When Edward Grinnan—recovering alcoholic, ex-drug addict, a man unsure of his faith— was hired in 1986 as an editor at Guideposts, a Christian inspirational magazine and publisher, he had no interest in writing devotions. It took eight years for his boss to convince him to contribute to their highly popular devotional book, Daily Guideposts, published annually since 1977. Renamed Walking in Grace in 2023, it's written by a long-established team of 50 authors contributing highly personal 350-word stories that offer "glimpses of God in everyday life," he says.
PW talked with Grinnan, now the editor-in-chief of Guideposts and v-p of strategic content, about the impact of writing devotionals and why he now says he "can't imagine stopping."
Why were you so reluctant to write devotionals?
I enjoyed being an editor behind the scenes, I didn't really want to talk publicly about myself, my faith. My mentor at Guideposts suggested instead that I start by helping two others write their devotions. One was David Jacobsen, who had been held hostage in Lebanon for a couple of years, and one was Bill Irwin, who was the first blind man to solo thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. It was fantastic. So, my boss said, "now you're ready to write your own."
Tell me about the first devotional you wrote.
My wife and I were new to marriage and we had a little argument about a guacamole recipe. "Write a story about that," My boss said. What?! You want me to write about guacamole? "No," he said, "I want you to write about your marriage. Use that silly little argument and make something of it." I thought it was absurd but I did it. And it turned into a story about forgiveness. I was off to the races when I realized you can pull a spiritual point out of any everyday event in life. Guidepost devotional writers are storytellers. Our readers don't need a sermon from us. They get that in church. What they like from us is a look into the writer's life.
Among your most popular devotional entries are ones about your dogs. Can you share a dog devotional story?
We had a beautiful cocker spaniel, Sally. One day I rush home on my lunch hour to walk her. It's a cold, blustery Manhattan day and I'm in a hurry when Sally stops to say hello with the most down-and-out homeless person you can imagine, rags and all. He gets down on his haunches and he's petting her and Sally is just in heaven but I'm in a hurry. I finally get her to move on and as we walk away, the homeless man calls out to Sally, "Hey Beautiful, thanks for saying hello." All of a sudden, I thought maybe I should have stopped to say hello, and maybe that's what God wants, that we see each other and greet each other. I learned a lesson and I made a little story about it. It got a lot of response.
What do people write to you?
It's always, "I identify with that," or "I know how you feel." At first, I was afraid if people knew really who I was and some of the struggles I've had that they wouldn't be open to hearing about my life, my faltering faith, my wife's suicide, my mother's Alzheimer's, and how it shook my world. But the audience reacted positively. They understood. They have their own frailties that they deal with. To see me doing it was helpful to them. They can see I can be a failure. I can be a recovering person. I can be an argumentative person. I can need forgiveness. And God still wants to hear my story.
How has writing devotionals all these years affected your own spiritual life?
It's taught me to seek out the divine in daily life, to see the hand of God in the smallest moments.
