If I Were Writing the Story...

If I were writing a novel, this is not the way it would have gone. The young man intent on murder steps into the church. He is warmly welcomed even though he is white and the church members are black; he is young and most of those present for Bible study are old. 

He fingers the gun in his pocket. He reminds himself of all the reasons he resents these people, trying desperately to hang onto his hate.

The Christians pray. The young man hears their words; he senses their relationship with their heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit is in that room as he promises to be wherever two or three are gathered in his name. The Holy Spirit touches that young man’s wounded heart.

At last he breaks down and confesses his evil intent. He is embraced in love by his former enemies and begins a new life in Christ.

That’s the way I would have written it.  

The Fault in Our Stars or in Ourselves?

I read John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars a couple years ago. (Another author I got to know through Calvin College’s Festival of Faith and Writing. Even if you have never attended, the booklist on their site is a great place to pick up recommendations.) I haven’t yet gotten to the theatre to see the movie everyone is talking about (Christianity Today gives it a 3-star out of 4 review), but I thought you might be interested in what I wrote about the book in 2012:

As I listened to the audio version, I was following Caring Bridge updates on the chronically ill grandson of friends. The Fault in Our Stars gives me new insights into what this family is dealing with and how this child may feel as he grows toward his teen years.

Second Thoughts on a Newberry Honor Book

 I picked up My Brother Sam is Dead because it is a Newbery Honor book and available from my library as an audio book. Tim and Sam’s father is Tory in this tale of the American Revolution. He just wants to be allowed to live his life and continue his business of running a tavern in Reading, Connecticut. He wants his sons to stay out of the rebellion, so we get more than the traditional American of-course-the-revolution-was-a-good-thing viewpoint. Neither the Tories nor Patriots are “the good guys” in this book; the war itself, with its indiscriminate killing and abuses of power, is the ultimate bad guy. The injustice of the ending (Sam is dead) left me incensed and must surely anger young readers. The author asks the question if the goal of freedom and rule by the people could have been accomplished without bloodshed.