August 2010

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About a week ago, maybe two, I wrote an article about making plans lightly so that I can be more pliable to God’s leading. This is an area of weakness for me, which is probably why God continually throws me curve balls. I must admit, standing at home plate, bat in hand, it can be hard to know which ones to let pass and which to swing at. I’ve always taken a “swing at everything” approach, trusting God to intercept when necessary.

Until it comes to the day to day, then everything looks like a bad pitch. The other day I received two exciting emails, almost back to back. One was from an editor of a very respected magazine requesting an article I had queried about and another was from an international ministry that seemed so inline with my passion and personality, I just knew it was from God. I was a little concerned about all the responsibilities and ministry obligations I already have scheduled, but I just knew God would work it out. He was the one opening the doors of heaven, so He’d be the one to provide the bucket big enough to catch it all.

Now those are the type of assignments a Christian wants to surrender to. These emails led to a day of praise and prayer. As we drove home from a week-long vacation, I told God that I would surrender my plans, expectations, and goals to Him. I would be completely pliable. (Although, I must admit, I had my weekly to-do list scheduled in my iphone calendar.)

But then I got home and surrender wasn’t quite so glamorous. We returned to a dead sprinkler system, and equally dead lawn, an empty fridge, and pounds of laundry. While my husband attempted to fix our sprinkler, I headed to the store. Not a good idea on a Sunday evening, especially the second to last Sunday before the start of school. Two hours, and two phone calls later (why does everyone call the minute you step inside the grocery store?) I returned home rather frazzled. And I still had quite a bit of unpacking and laundry to do. Along with a very busy week ahead.

It was about to get busier. While I was gone, my husband had determined the cause of our sprinkler problems. Apparently we had blown a fuse, which meant we needed an electrician. Although I would have preferred Monday when I already had a repairman scheduled to fix my new stationary bike, the electrician couldn’t come until Tuesday. The day of our daughter’s thirteenth birthday party, when I’d be taxiing kids to and from our house and juggling a bunch of ravenous, giggling teens.

Okay, so I can handle this. No biggie. A couple hours at the pool, some grilled burgers, and a little Wii and we’re good to go. But then my husband reminded me that his parents were coming in on Friday, which meant that I’d have about three days to shovel whatever mess the girls had made during the party, do some quick meal planning, and hit the grocery store once again. If I was even here. Should my sister go into labor (which she is long overdue for) anytime between now and Sunday, all plans are shot and I’m off to Nebraska to whisk my three year old nephew off her and her husband’s hands, potentially leaving my husband to play host. (I hope my in-laws like fast food.) And if she goes into labor on Saturday night, my husband, daughter, and in-laws are going to have to cover my Sunday school class in the morning. Either that, or I’ll need to drive the three hours back home with my nephew in tow.

Needless to say, I was anything but the cheery housewife I would like to pretend to be. As I stepped over the mounds of post-trip clutter to make dinner while waiting for the load of laundry to get done, I fumed at all the things that were getting in the way of my surrender. I know, many of you are laughing right now, but I was so consumed with self and my “God-given” agenda that I lost my pliability.

Until I happened upon Anne Baxter’s blog post on the kingdom of God. As I read her article on the kingdom of God being within you, I was reminded of the conversation I had had with God on my drive home. How quick I had been to surrender everything to Him–when I thought that meant a writing assignment or ministry opportunity. When it meant folding laundry or waiting for electricians, not so much.

Thanks, Anne, for the much needed heart check your article provided. It reminded me that surrender is not just for the big things, but also for the day to day.

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Last Sunday our youth pastor, Joe Nelson, gave such a powerful message, I asked him if I could share it here. He started with the song, How He Loves, which just happens to be one of my favorite songs. Apparently, it’s one of his, as well. (Below is a shortened version of the original message. To listen to the message in its entirety, click on the link following this article.)

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In the picture: Joe Nelson and his family

I absolutely love that song, it has to be one of my favorites. I think we often forget how God loves us, and that is where I think we should we start this morning. When I sing this song and think about how He loves me, I can’t help but swell up with emotion. What if we lived every moment of our lives like that? My favorite part of the song is when verse two ends and we return to the chorus. We sang, “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves.” I don’t focus on my mistakes, I am consumed by His love.

I have a hard time grasping the extent of God’s love. This is something I have been wrestling with a lot this summer. I was reading in my quiet time this week and I came upon these verses, maybe not new verses for many of us, but they really spoke to me. Ephesians 3:17-19 ”so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (NIV)

I think we lose sight of the love God has for us. We forget the height, depth, and width of His love. We take it for granted.  In the Ephesians passage, Paul is praying for the early church, that they would be able to fully comprehend God’s love. And this is where God has me right now.  I need to pray this very thing for myself and for our church daily. And honestly, I have never even thought to pray like that.

You know how I know we are missing it? If we fully understood or appreciated the Love God has for us, our lives would be radically different than they are.

Listen to what James says in James 2:14-20 “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?”

Some may say that James’ teaching here contradicts the teachings of Paul that we are saved through faith alone, not by works, but that’s not the case. There were essentially two pendulums to the faith/works debate and both men where trying to argue against each side. When Paul talked about works, he was addressing legalism. James is referring to the works that are a natural outpour of faith in Christ. Some people were twisting faith in Christ to say that no expression of works was necessary. I think many Christians in our culture would swing to this side of the pendulum, which is why I’m addressing it.

We are quick to argue that salvation comes through faith alone, and usually want to stop right there. But as James points out, faith alone, without outward expression, is dead, useless, and incomplete. Love and action work together.

As I prepared this sermon, I thought of a little friend we made this year in Mexico. Her name is Emily, and we think she has bad allergies and maybe asthma. She has had trouble breathing and has even passed out a couple of times. One time for several minutes. While visiting with her and her family, they showed us the medicine they needed to get for her. It’s Singulair, but they didn’t have the money. They knew their little girl could pass out one of day and never wake up. But there was nothing they could do. If Renee and I had said, “We hope you find the money,” we would have been useless.

Jesus told us to love others as we love ourselves, and if it had been our children in need of medicine, we would do whatever it took to get it for them. We knew what we needed to do. It meant we would have less cash to buy junk at the market. We gave them the money the next morning and that afternoon they brought us the receipt and showed us the medicine. Before we left, our entire team had pitched in and Emily had four months worth of life-saving medicine.

This is love followed by action. It is useful; it is helpful.

If our team would have known about the need, had the power to help, and not helped it would have been useless right? So is our faith without deeds–when people say they have faith but don’t back it up with their action. Is that you? Are you guilty of claiming to have Christ in your life, but not really living it?

Click here to listen to the sermon in its entirety.

Joe Nelson holds a B.A. in psychology from Southwest Baptist and a Masters in Counseling from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He currently serves as youth pastor at Northland Baptist Church in Kansas City, MO.

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Warning: For those of you looking solely for information on improving your craft, this article has dashes of Christianity sprinkled in. But this topic reminds me so much of the creativity of my Heavenly Father, I couldn’t resist.

I love using symbolism in my writing. Especially in dreams. Although I really don’t put much stock in the whole Jung archetype theory, I like the imagery that dreams can evoke in my reader. In my latest novel, Impossible Choices, Alice, my heroine, is stuck between a rock and a hard place–to totally over-cliche her life. Married to an alcoholic gambler who’s destroying her two teenage boys, sinking their family into debt, and instigating the wrath of a couple of knuckle-scraping thugs, she’s forced to make a choice. An impossible choice, really. And as she tries to navigate her way through this no win situation, initially by hiding behind a facade, we see her subconscious poke through. A dandelion here, a fox’s tail there, the faint music of a piano playing just beyond her reach. All of theses details paint a picture of Alice as she really is.

As a side note, last spring I took a hermeneutics class, which is basically a Bible study class. It taught me to read the Bible in context, both historical and literal, and to pay attention to the seemingly insignificant details. I must say, it was the best class I’d ever taken! And as a writer, looking for those details that I may have otherwise overlooked really had an impact on me, because I think every one held purpose. If you’re a writer, you know what I mean. We’re constantly looking over our manuscripts, editing out those “weasel” words, choosing the best verb, most fragrant flower, or perfect hairstyle that will convey an entire paragraph of language. Wouldn’t God do the same? I believe every last detail of the Bible is ripe with meaning and purpose. (Why do I always feel like I have to add a disclaimer? Probably because we all read articles, and perhaps even the Bible, through our own experience-tainted lenses. But please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying the Bible is symbolic. I believe it conveys real historical events. What I am saying is that in providing the Bible, God often wove symbolic imagery into the text to deepen our understanding. The parables are a perfect example.) Writers, if that is not a reason in and of itself to read the Bible–to see how the Creator of the universe uses symbolism, metaphors, and analogies to convey truth–than I don’t know what is.

So how can you use symbolism in your writing? In my opinion, we need to start with prayer, but then again, I’m an inspirational author which means my first priority is not to tell the story but to use the story to convey truth or in some way draw the reader to their Creator. After I’ve prayed asking God to reveal His heart to me, I brainstorm using the following, or similar, questions.

When using symbolism to reveal the inner struggles of one of my characters:

1. What are they most afraid of?

In Impossible Choices, Alice is most afraid of rejection, rejection she knows will come if anyone really knew her. So she hides behind a “socially acceptable” facade, preferring superficiality to isolation. Unfortunately, her image-keeping is exactly what keeps her in isolation.

2. What types of things could represent a false presentation of self?

A lot of objects could serve this purpose. In one of my scenes, I chose a flower bed full of tulips because tulips symbolize elegance and grace. And by using them in my story, I am hoping to convey the idea that Alice is trying to portray an image of elegance and grace. But hidden among the flowers is a deceptively cheery dandelion–a weed. So what does she do? She quickly pulls it up and tosses it aside in the mulch to be dealt with later. Anyone whose tried to uproot a dandelion understand the futility of her actions. With the root intact deep beneath the soil, her superficial weeding produces temporary results. To get real results, she needs to deal with the root.

Now to Trent, Alice’s alcoholic gambler of a husband. He’s trying so hard to hold on. To perform, to climb up that next rung on the ladder of success, only to find himself falling deeper and deeper into the pit. Fairly early on, he notices a homeless man sitting on a street corner. This man and Trent make eye-contact. Ah, a telling seen. Using that one extended glance, I can avoid an entire paragraph of telling.

Weather is also a very effective tool. Storm clouds can represent a chaotic life. Windblown leaves a love lost. An abandoned tricycle the loss of childhood or innocence. And on a happier note–a fluttering bird can represent hope or the start of a new chapter in a characters life. A gentle breeze, also hope. Later on in my story, I used the dandelion again, but in a different sense. As Alice takes a step forward, she pauses to pluck a seeded dandelion from Beth’s yard.  Closing her eyes, she  blows. I’m sure you understand the symbolism in that. If you don’t, ask to borrow a friend’s preschool-aged child for a day and take them through a dandelion-filled meadow.

Exercise:

Scene: A young lady about to go on a first date with the man she has long admired. She is just about to graduate from college, stepping from the world of dependence to that of adulthood. She fears the unknown, and her ability to stand on her own two feet. She also doesn’t want to be alone but at the same time, she doesn’t want her love for this man to be clouded by her need for companionship. In addition, she and her mother have always had a slightly unhealthy relationship. As an only child, she has become the center of her mother’s life. As a result, she feels very responsible for her mother’s feelings, but resents this relationship at the same time. She longs to break free.

What images could you add to the story to reveal her sense of loyalty? I’m going to add a few here to get your creative juices flowing: (Obviously, some would need to be developed in the story. For example, maybe there is a song book lying on the dresser. For that to have significance, we’d need to know that her mother wanted her to play the piano.)

Perhaps a golden retriever or greyhound sits at her feet. (I know, rather cliche.) Or even more telling, it could be a mutt curled in a corner. This would convey multiple messages, wouldn’t it? And if the reader knew the mutt was disabled with age, that would add even another paragraph or two worth of meaning.

Since she’s caught between the world of dependance and adulthood, what items could symbolize childhood or a lingering of childlike emotions? This one seems pretty easy, but again, I’ll give an example to start things off.

A Raggedy Ann doll, tattered and torn, sewn by her mother (ouch!), sitting slumped over on a shelf. Did you catch all I threw in here? The most telling, I think, being the fact that the doll is slumped. Even though most dolls slacken when not supported, purposefully mentioning this fact conveys a lot of meaning. And why did I choose a Raggedy Ann doll instead of an American Girl doll or a Barbie? Brainstorm that one, and the different images that the various dolls might convey, and you’ll likely get a page full of appropriate symbolism that could be used in future writings.

Our character also has hope–hope in her future, not only with this man she has fallen for, but also in her journey to adulthood. What imagery could you use to show hope? My mind automatically jumps to her window, and no, not to a rainbow. That is probably way too overdone and obvious to be effective. How about a baby bird emerging from it’s nest? Or a butterfly resting on a leaf? Or maybe a neighbor girl soaring high on a swing.

I’d love to read your ideas. And as always, you can email them to me, add them as a comment or post them to my facebook page.

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Most of the time when you hear people talk about Christianity and their new life in Christ, you hear a lot about outward behavioral changes. Maybe they’ve given up drinking, or stopped swearing, or maybe they spend more time with their kids when they used to camp out at work. And those are all good things. But by themselves, they’re nothing more than behavior modification. Before each change took place–each genuine change–there was a change of heart. A healing. A restoration. A breaking free from bondage.

The Bible says that Jesus Christ came to set us free.  Free to live authentic lives. Joyful lives. Peaceful lives. As I look back over all the things God has done for me, that is what I value most of all–the emotional freedom. The soul-soaking peace that comes from knowing you are deeply loved. I’m often amused as I think of all the creative ways He’s changed me. Although, not all of them were pleasant. In fact, the ones that penetrated the deepest and brought about the most healing were painful. But looking back, I wouldn’t change a moment. I wouldn’t take back a single tear.

The biggest change in me, and in my marriage, occurred about four years ago when my husband and I found ourselves without a job living in a five hundred square foot temporary apartment. At the time, my heart broke. In under a year, we’d moved from California to Louisiana to Texas then to Missouri. This may sound insignificant to some, especially those who love to move, but it shattered me. Not just because of all the relationships I would be leaving–attaching to one church, only to say goodbye once again. Watching close friendships dwindle to an occasional email. Watching my daughter long for close peer relationships only to move again the moment they were formed.–The majority of my pain came from the emotional garbage each move stirred up. And perhaps if I hadn’t been a Christian, that painful time would have made me bitter, but it didn’t. To be honest, I’m grateful for every single tear I shed. Because looking back, God did so much in my heart during that time, I’ll never be the same. My marriage will never be the same. Our family will never be the same. And I thank God for that.

Prior to this time, I had quite the collection of baggage I lugged around. It colored my marriage, my friendships, even my day to day. I think fear was my dominant trait. Trying desperately to avoid experiences from the past, I had everything down to an agenda. A plan. As long as we had x amount of money in the bank, went on x amount of dates, and had x amount of family time, everything would be okay.

And my husband had his own baggage he lugged around. As you can imagine, our closets were jam packed! And his driving trait? Fear. Same as mine, only instead of running from his past, he was dodging his future. As long as he worked enough hours, got that next promotion, and came up with enough innovative ideas, he was great.

Everything was just peachy.

And most onlookers probably would have agreed with our superficial assessment. But God wasn’t fooled. As the Bible says, man looks on the outside but God looks at the heart, (1 Samuel 16:7) and no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t hide the dark shadows, the thick cobwebs, and gigantic tears. So what did He do? Like a loving, gentle Father, He began to clear those things away, broom sweep by broom sweep.

If He would have asked me how I’d best like to deal with everything, I probably would have asked for a band-aid. Maybe I’d tidy things up a bit, stack all my luggage in one corner, splashed an extra coat of paint on the walls to go with the smile painted on my lips, and call it good. But God wanted more. God wanted me to be free.

The Bible tells us that Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full. (John 10:10) I’m not sure if we really understand what that means, but I do know this: A full life is not one clouded with past hurts. A full life is not controlled by fear. A full life is not tainted with bitterness or anger. A full life–a spirit-filled life, a grace-changed life, is a life of freedom, of peace, and joy. That, my friends, is the life Jesus came to offer us.

But sometimes the getting there is hard. I think if we were honest with ourselves, we have this vision of God sitting up in heaven magically twinkling his nose, instantly zapping our heart to wellness. Now, I’m not saying that instantaneous emotional healing doesn’t occur. I’m just saying I’ve never experienced it. My healing has always been the sweat and tears kind–the result of God bringing me to a place where I would experience anew my greatest fears and deepest pains, but with a twist. A twist of grace. Like He did with our four moves. When all else was taken away, and God showed up and held our family together–actually made us stronger, I realized that I no longer had to. And when my husband’s worst fear, unemployment, occurred, and God stepped up and provided for his family, he realized that he no longer had to. Now please don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that a husband should not provide and I am certainly not saying that a woman should not maintain her home. What I am saying is that the responsibility ultimately lands on God. We are called to obey. He has promised to take care of the rest. And sometimes it takes Him stripping everything away, bringing us to the place we fear the most, so that we can see His hand.