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. 

So What Is it That You Really Do?

My friend Stephanie Landsem invited me to participate in this “Writing Process Blog Tour.” Stephanie is a friend and critique partner and author of The Well and The Thief, which I have reviewed previously on this blog. I think I am as excited as she is about her coming book, The Tomb.

For this relay blog tour, I am to answer four questions. You can see Stephanie's answers on her blog last week. Next week I pass the baton to a writer friend you can meet at the end of this post. (Okay, it was supposed to be three writer friends, but all the people I asked except Shirley had either already been tagged or were too busy this week. You will meet some of them in future guest blogs on this site.)

1) What am I working on?

Muslims and Christians in Dialog

This morning I reviewed the book A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue by Badru D. Kateregga and David W. Shenk on Amazon. (Click the link and scroll down to read the review.) The authors are friends, academic colleagues and team-teachers of a comparative religions course at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. I posted my thoughts on Amazon. My review was approved and went live. I started to post a link to a Muslim friend I had thought of frequently as I read. Suddenly some of the things I had said felt harsh. I hadn’t said them in the way I would have said them face-to-face with my friend. 

Fortunately, Amazon has a procedure for editing your review after posting. I went back, cut a few unnecessarily strong words here and added a few clarifying words there and reposted my review before sending Shaleen the link. I didn’t change what I believed, or even what I said; I just found a more gracious way to say it.

The Gospel According to George

I’m considering writing a new book: The Gospel According to George. This would be a short book aimed at music lovers from non-Christian or post-Christian cultures who enjoy Handel’s oratorio The Messiah, but have no idea what it is about.

“Comfort ye. Comfort ye my people,” Handel begins, quoting Isaiah chapter 40. But why do the people need comfort? Why is the cry of one in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” such good news? 

After the air for tenor, “Every Valley Shall be Exalted,” the chorus comes in singing Isaiah 40:5, “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” But who is this Lord? How does Messiah reveal his glory?

Passing of a Statesman

 

Back in the 1980s when my family lived in Mozambique, then a “front-line state” against apartheid South Africa, I thought the South African government was crazy not to release their long-time political prisoner, a fellow named Nelson Mandela. 

“Let the ANC tear itself apart with infighting,” I thought. 

I didn’t know Nelson Mandela. His eventual release from prison in 1990 led, not to infighting, but to reconciliation. After twenty-seven years in jail, this great man spoke words of forgiveness and united a nation. In 1994 he was elected president in the first fully democratic elections in South African history.