As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, hop on over to my pastor Bryan’s blog at http://oneresolve.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-lost-christian-witness-in-art.html.
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Category Archives: Christianity
quality Christian fiction
This issue has been pawing at me for the last week or so.
Here’s my dilemma:
As a fanatic writer, I have a hard time incorporating Jesus Christ into my writing in a way that is not alienating to non-believers.
As a critical reader, I find the number of books that can do this well to be sorely lacking.
Look, I know that there is a vibrant “Christian fiction” genre out there, but if I step into that area of the bookstore, I seem to be surrounded by Amish romances. Really? Amish romances? That is what Christian fiction has boiled down to? I have no– read my lips, NO– interest in reading such a book.
I want books like Perelandra by C.S. Lewis (which was full of dense theological arguments that were presenting in a fascinating and thrilling cosmic duel that draws in all readers), books like Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (which somehow manages to show a believer’s real relationship with Christ without stepping for even one moment into sentimentality).
Even worse than that issue is that I worry that I am contributing to the problem. I’m not writing any poems about how God blessed us with puppies and rainbows or anything, but I am really struggling to find a way to speak to all audiences while still mentioning the name of my Savior.
This was my prayer the other night, which I am showing to you in the hopes that you will join me in praying it:
Jesus Christ, my hope, my love, I BEG THAT YOU WOULD SHOW ME HOW TO WRITE CHRISTIAN FICTION THAT GLORIFIES YOU AND CALLS OUT TO UNBELIEVING HEARTS.
Jesus, I want to do something big for You. Unfortunately, without Your assistance, I can do NOTHING. HA! I even need You just to enable me to worship rightly. I NEED YOU, JESUS. My heart wants this so badly– I so desperately, so deeply want to honor You through my writing and want to draw people to You through story. It seems almost insurmountable to me– the idea of writing incredible, realistic fiction that both honors You and appeals to both believers and non-believers and that will minister to hearts of all kinds. Jesus, I know it is possible with You, but I think that is the ONLY way it is possible. And I plead for it. It’s like my heart is begging for this, Jesus, to honor You in this way, and I need Your guidance and direction just to even come close. Help me to get there. Help me to persist even if it takes so very, very long to get there.
I want what I write to matter; I want it to be infused with meaning and with YOU, and I don’t know how to do that without alienating the very people that I want to have read the book.
May I please throw all this responsibility back on You and ask that You simply use these hands as Your tools? When I sit at my laptop to write, Holy Spirit, I pray that it would be You who guides the words I write.
Amen.
eternal life
Price: “Eternal life is not a substance, it is a Person, and it is enjoyed by knowing the Person. It is knowing God and knowing Christ.”
I remember reading this in college and having something click inside of me. It’s not about Heaven. It’s about JESUS. Which is why my favorite verse is now John 17:3, which says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
It reminds me that my eternal life has already begun, since I know Jesus now and will continue to know him forever.
For someone who has religious-themed OCD and scrupulosity, this is like a rock beneath my feet.
Why Christians Should Write
Jesus Christ is a believer’s gravity; he infuses meaning and purpose into our lives and tethers us to reality through the Body and the Blood. There is no story more fascinating, mysterious, devastating, resplendent, and sanguine than the gospel, and this is the reason we need more Christian writers in the United States to write and be published. Believers have an incredible capacity for story—true story—which is our duty and privilege to share. When we weave gospel truths into our stories—even when we whisper or our voices shake—those stories assume deeper meaning, exactly what the world craves, whether knowingly or not. Tales with no hint of the divine, no rumor of a Savior, may often be a poor investment, a squandering of what might have been.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” Books written by Christians are just such miracles, stories that are able to be held, while the Great Story, instead, holds us.
my favorite paradoxes
1) I lose my life to gain Life.
I love that when I surrender my life entirely to Christ, I gain real, true life in Him.
2) Strength through weakness.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
3) When I give in to my intrusive thoughts, they lose their power over me.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy’s premise is a simple one, and though it seems backward, it works. My life is proof.
stunning realization
I have recently gone through (and am still enduring) a very humiliating experience.
While praying the other night, I believe the Holy Spirit opened up my eyes to see it in a whole new light:
Wow, Jesus, I just LOVE the way that You handled the Pharisees. You are so smart and stunning and clever, and You just OWNED them!
It’s interesting to me that those moments– the ones when You seemed most powerful– would not end up being the cornerstone events of history. Instead it was the CROSS that would– the moment you looked weakest, most defeated, completely ashamed, and beneath the feet of the Pharisees.
HELP ME TO REMEMBER THIS! These days may end up being the days that define me. That is startling a little. God, give me grace, poise, maturity, integrity, favor as I undergo this humiliating experience. God let me use this time to IDENTIFY with Your Son.
Jesus, my shame is nothing compared to what You went through, and yet You endured it sinlessly. Give me the strength to do likewise. Make me humble. How could I forget that it is You who are the Humble Servant? This whole experience may serve to make me LIKE YOU.
You understand my feelings even better and more deeply than I do. Let me be worthy of this humiliation.
triple bypass
It’s been almost one year since my dad underwent triple bypass surgery. Just this weekend, we were reminiscing, saying, “Remember what June was like last year?” Oh man. It was not an easy month. Or summer.
But the surgery was the worst part.
The evening before, people from church had joined our family in the hospital to pray for a successful surgery. It was so strange to be gathered there, Dad perfectly normal, in good spirits although nervous, and thinking, Tomorrow our world could change. We knew that Dad needed the surgery; but it is a terrifying thing to undergo.
Dad stayed alone in the hospital that night, but we were back at 5:30 in the morning, saying goodbye and that we’d see him after surgery. Mom went with him into the OR. Kristin fell apart as they wheeled him away; I did too (but not as much as Kristin– she’s the over-reactor of the family. For example, when she learned Dad needed surgery, she cried and said, “I don’t even know what songs to have at his funeral!!!” Oh Kristin.). Kevin was pretty well put together.
Mom came back to the waiting room in a while (it was a nice waiting room, and we had a private area of it!), and then the waiting game started. There was a computer, so you could see what part of the surgery they were doing at which time. Eventually the nurse came in and told us that he was on bypass now.
Do you know what that means? I didn’t. It meant that my dad’s heart was not beating but that a machine was doing that work for him while they operated. It struck me then how crazy this surgery was.
It was a long day. A long wait. We were all on edge.
But he came out of it just fine, and when we went to see him in the ICU, I saw him lying there, swollen, ashen, chest tubes coming out of him, draining blood, and I about passed out. Was not expecting that.
He had a marvelous recovery. It was tough on him and on my mom, but they did it together, and they are both rockstars. After you have heart surgery, you have a lot you need to cough up, but they break your sternum for the surgery, so it HURTS. A LOT. My poor daddy was in so much pain. The nurse said the more he walked, the better he would feel. At first, Dad’s walks were from the family room, into the kitchen, and around the table. Just that would completely exhaust him. But he kept working on it because he’s dynamite.
And six months later, we were on rides at Disney World!!!! Oh, and P.S. I could not keep up with my dad.
Proverbs
I have been reading the book of Proverbs in my search for wisdom/guidance, and here are some of the things that are standing out to me, over and over again:
1) Foolish people hate feedback; it’s the wise people who like to be corrected– then they learn from it.
2) It’s better to be poor and happy than rich and unhappy.
3) God hates lies and deception and loves righteousness.
Now to put all these things into practice … to truly embrace constructive criticism, to rejoice in happiness, to rid myself of my deceitful ways. I want to be a better, wiser woman.
which view?
The last couple days have not been easy for me. I have some big decisions ahead of me that are causing me HUGE stress, and I’d appreciate your prayers. I am looking for wisdom– actually BEGGING God for wisdom, for direction.
When you look at this picture, what do you see? Some people see an old woman, wrinkles around her eyes, wart on her nose, looking kind but maybe a little sad. Some people see a young lady with a strong jawline and a necklace, looking into the distance.
I am trying to remember during this time of great upheaval in my life (I hope to share more details soon) that this scary, scary time might actually be a huge blessing, a time of positive change. I am hoping that even though today my life looks like an old lady, soon I will look back on these days and realize they were young, vibrant, fresh, and beautiful. It’s all perspective.
Still, I’d appreciate your prayers. I feel heartsick and sad and lonely and distracted. Very shaken and hurt and disappointed in myself and upset and humiliated.
Please, God, use this time to accomplish Your plans for me.
motivation
“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”
Luke 9:51
Christ knows what lies ahead for him: Gethsemane, betrayal, a cat o’ nine tails raking him over, and the crucifixion (from which comes the word excruciating), not to mention the weight of the world’s sin on his shoulders as he becomes a curse and his father looks away.
And yet he set his face to go to Jerusalem. He steeled himself for what was ahead. He determined to move in the direction of these horrors.
It inspires me.
JACKIE LEA SOMMERS 