The writer Frederick Buechner celebrated his 90th birthday last month (July 11). He is an ordained Presbyterian minister who has never pastored a church and rarely even attends one. But his books and his message on Facebook and on Twitter have had vast influence.

Our interview with Buechner was conducted in 2006:

Frederick Buechner: Listen to your life. Pay attention. Pay attention to what happens to you.

Bob Abernethy: And then what comes from that?

Buechner: Who knows? Who knows? Maybe nothing much, but maybe the secret of all secrets you need to know may come through some event, something that happens or fails to happen. You encounter the holy in various forms which, unless you have your eyes open, you might not even notice.

Abernethy: I asked Buechner what advice he gives to young people seeking a career.

Buechner: The vocation for you is the one in which your deep gladness and the world’s deep need meet—something that not only makes you happy but that the world needs to have done.

ABERNETHY: And his own career?

BUECHNER: I have tried to be as honest as I can be to my own experience—what it’s like to be alive on this planet—with a particular eye cocked to a particular ear cocked to the elusive, ambiguous presence of God.