I’ve known a few people in life who’ve given up hope. Desperate people who blame themselves, or worse blame others for the demolished state they’re in.
They don’t believe they can be fixed.
Not true.
God can fix anything or anyone.
What is required for that kind of fixing?
Surrender is required.
Acceptance is required.
An emptying of self is required.
EXCUSE: Those are words, and the accomplishing of them isn’t easy.
We all like to think of ourselves as whole and complete people. We like to think of ourselves as good, as doing ‘right’ things. But are we doing those things? Most of us fall far from it. No matter how much we’d like to be good and whole, we live in a world that often tempts us otherwise. And too often we follow it. A following that actually breaks us. But we don’t have to stay broken.
God is truly God of the Broken.
God’s grace is infinitely available. We only have to want it, to take advantage of it. We only have to trust in Him. We only have to turn around and see Him behind us, possibly in the face and actions of a caring human being that He’s called to help us. And even possible in something adverse that happens to us.
Our lives will change then; maybe in ways we never imagined, or maybe in the way we’ve prayed for. Whatever–we will be transformed.
Can you think of a time in your life when you were so down, so miserable, that you couldn’t put one foot in front of the other? Grace is very present in these circumstances. Often, the time we encounter God’s grace is when our life hangs in the balance. Especially in our sins, God encounters us, offering us grace and mercy and redemption.
It is a ‘waiting’ grace, waiting for us to take it. Maybe we have to admit our weaknesses. Maybe we have to give up what is dragging us down. Maybe we need to dig deeper for courage, or patience with others, or let go of our anger, or forgive another. Or unfortunately, maybe we just ignore its presence.
But we should never imagine that God is not present. Instead, we should imagine ourselves reaching out to Him, to realize that being broken at a given moment does not mean being broken forever.
And it is, after all, up to us.
Because we are all broken people yearning to be whole, and that wholeness is within our reach.
My novels and short stories revolve around this, too. Some of the characters don’t realize it at first. They refuse to see themselves as they really are. Others are shattered, or left behind, by someone they’ve loved. But then, as in life, something changes for them, or more specifically in them. Some of my characters, but not all of them, recognize an offer of healing. The recognition comes when GRACE is offered.
I can’t say enough good about the work of Dan Stevers. I’ve used Dan’s videos in several of my presentations because we are on the same page—especially in the following video, God of the Broken.
I have been on this earth for quite a few years, more than I sometimes like to admit. And I have had much joy, happiness, and fulfillment. But these gifts cannot be taken for granted. There have been several times in my life when I thought my happy life might be completely over, times when every day seemed to work against me, when every night was filled with tears and worry. If we are human beings, all of us at one time or another will experience these feelings concerning something negative that has happened to us. How do we get through them?
Well, we don’t/can’t do it on our own. We may be the most powerful person around, but we are not powerful enough to change events that hit us out of the blue, events completely out of our hands, those truly crushing events that cause our hearts to beat wildly in our chests, shaking our very existence. We cannot change these sort of events. They just are. So, do we just lay down and take it? Is there any weapon in the arsenal of our humanity that can help us?
Oh yes! A very crucial one. And without it, we don’t survive. It is called HOPE. It does not come loudly. It does not come uninvited. And it does not come without two friends: strong FAITH and unselfish LOVE.
HOPE is not something we can buy, or that we create in ourselves. It comes only through God, our Creator, who loves us. HOPE is closely related to TRUST—that action that is often hard for us to do. Because to do it we have to let go of control, of trying to manipulate things ourselves. HOPE is when we look up, not down, because the spiritual part of our human nature is calling us to look at higher things.
To let go, to trust, to hope, are not things our society pushes today. We are supposed to be in control of our lives, to be strong, and maybe even to be gods ourselves. Of course, this is falsity, for there is only one God, and not one of us is Him. We will never be able to get rid of our misery and truly hope until we’ve accepted that.
So, if you are going through a trauma in your life, open yourself up to HOPE by returning to the God who made you, and sincerely ask for His gifts of strong Faith and unselfish Love. These are gifts He will never deny you.
God will never, never, never let us down if we have faith and put our trust in Him. –Mother Teresa
“When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock — to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.” ~ Flannery O’Connor
Am I shouting loud enough to be heard through my writing?
I often wonder–because it’s what I want to do.
I want to portray the world I see through a Christian lens, and the world I see is not a sweet and fluffy world. Not anymore, if it ever was. So don’t expect that in my NOVELS.
Ours has become a raw world, on the edge of losing the reality of absolute Truth–which by the way is not defined as our opinion. And each of us is individually guilty of nudging society toward the Lie.
When our goal in life is only whatever makes US feel good. When it’s all about ME. When my ambitions always go ahead of others. My satisfactions. My addictions. My face, and only my face, in front of the crowd, or the camera, or the photographer. When YOUR face doesn’t matter because the goal of MY life is ME. When those we look up to–leaders from every facet of society–do the same; we promote the Lie that says, I am God. It is a Lie that will literally kill us, individually, and as a nation.
My stories reflect these deadly, human attitudes, but I hope they reflect something else, too. That we can re-discover the Truth about who we were created to be. Because we are meant to be more than examples of humanity’s flaws. We are meant to be, and to live, as if we are children of a flawless God. Our attempt to do this–to allow God’s Grace to work within us–can re-spark us, until in Truth, we are alive again.
But when we feel the world crashing down upon us, when we are worried about the future of our families and country, we are fearful. We search for answers to our problems. We want to fix them, right here and now, except we may not be in control of the solution. What a relief it is to allow someone else to lead us, someone we TRUST; and then, with confidence, follow their lead.
The most secure place to put our trust is in God. And when we trust in Him, He will lead us. When we let go, like a frightened child standing on the pool’s edge, and jump into our Father’s arms with faith; he will not only catch us and keep us from drowning, he will teach us to swim.
Of course, it takes courage to overcome fear with faith. Will we jump anyway?
I have seen God’s work in my own life. I have experienced His loving leadership through events I thought I could not possibly survive, physically or emotionally. When I tried to handle everything on my own, I was closing off God’s presence in my life, and couldn’t take advantage of the grace He offered me when I needed it most. And I surely needed that grace!
I found that trusting in God is a continuous mindset–always a first ‘go to’ — that brings a real peace.
Everyone on the earth is born with two, innate possibilities for living out his or her time here. It’s our choice. Will we live out goodness, or evil? My stories are about the choice we all have, and how an individual character handles it. I hope you’ll read them. And if you like, critique them, too.
My husband.
Myself.
Our five children.
In–not a ship–but a blue and white van.
High Tide Coming.
A beach on the coast of Saint Augustine, Florida.
STUCK IN THE SAND!!
Tide comes in. We can’t move.
Funny at first. One of the children teases, “How high’s the water, Mama?”
Except, it becomes serious.
We try everything. But…the wheels keep spinning and that beautiful wet sand won’t let them go.
And then…
A man walks toward us, zigzagging down the beach. Reeking with whiskey.
“Eeeew!” say the children.
The drunk man drawls, “Let the air out of your tires.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” is the unanimous reply.
Follow this man’s advice? No way!
The drunk shrugs his shoulders. Continues his zigzag swagger down the beach.
My husband and I look at each other.
We look at the saltwater swamping the wheels. We could be shipwrecked if we don’t do something.
So, we act…
We let the air out of the tires.
And…well, if you’ve ever had this happen, you know that letting air out of the tires WORKS.
Moral of the story? It doesn’t take a perfect person to give good advice.
In fact, you’ll never get good advice from a perfect person—because there are no perfect people. All of us are broken in some way. This goes for those who would like to be our President, as well.
The flawed man in our very real story knew what was wrong and tried to fix it. If we hadn’t listened, the worst might have happened.
Every imperfect person, every American, knows his/her country, at this very moment, is walking a dangerously sharp razor blade. This is due to the failure of so-called ‘progressive’ politics, which has taken us backward, not forward. Taken us to a place of uncertain safety, of economic disaster, of squashed religious freedom, of no respect for human life. This is a place where only the self rules, where lies are accepted for those with power, but never for those without it, and where the future of our America as a whole is forgotten. What’s in it for me? is the primary concern.
Make no mistake, the dangerous and raging waters intent on destroying America as we know it, are rising higher and higher.
And we are absolutely STUCK in the sand without a leader, a leader who is unafraid, who will speak the truth regardless of political correctness. A leader who’s proven advice we can trust.
There will be no escape from the SAND if we continue with another administration exactly like today’s.
Unless we release the stale hot air that keeps us immobile, and replace it with a strong, fresh–and yes, imperfect– new voice, we will remain stuck in the sand until we drown.
So, I ask, are you ready to act?
Each of you has one vote. Are you willing to cast it on the side of America?
This is not the time to forget or ignore the legacy of the American Revolution. Today, more than ever, it is the time to remember that our forefathers fought and died in a revolution for freedom helping to create and build an America based on The Constitution of the United States. Originally, the Constitution was comprised seven articles delineating the national frame and constraints of government. After 1787, The Constitution became America’s legacy, a legacy which speaks of virtue and morality — a legacy that has been the basis of our government for nearly two hundred and fifty years. And yet, today that legacy is in jeopardy.
What sort of legacy will be left by today’s administration to the people they leave behind–our children, and our grandchildren? How many of America’s present leaders actually realize their purpose is to be an example of virtue to America’s citizens? How many of them ever even speak about VIRTUE? And yet, virtue is essential to what it means to be a real leader and a truly human person. Anyone seeking a role in leadership must have the moral purpose of making our country and her people better, not worse.
Any legacy is built over time, not overnight. It is often thought to be money or property willed to a descendent. But the legacy any of us leave to our descendants will be much more than material; it will be spiritual as well. We will pass to those left behind a legacy built on genuine truth, or a legacy of falsity whereby we have attempted to destroy genuine truth most often out of personal greed.
Our country’s spiritual legacy–its moral virtue–affects many, many, people, not only those related to us. For those who lead our country, this should be of special concern. Why isn’t it?
The moral virtues are attitudes, dispositions, and good habits that govern one’s actions, passions, and conduct according to reason; and are acquired by human effort, which for our leaders means the effort of putting the nation above one’s own selfish purposes. Why don’t they?
The cardinal virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. How are our political leaders–from the top down — showing us those virtues? Where is the prudence, the fortitude, and for heaven sake, where is the temperance?
In 2016, we elected a president who, like each of us, was not a perfect person–but was, and still is, a real leader. He began building a legacy for America built on truth and common sense. And he succeeded where others have failed miserably. But the legacy President Trump built flies in the face of many on the left who have their own selfish, even immoral, agendas, and so they seek to bring him down by division, distraction, and falsifying the facts with astounding hypocrisy–even imprudently employing our Department of Justice to do it. Do we want this type of leadership?
Is this the sort of legacy we want for America, for our children and their children? The present anything goes attitude in society and in government is more than dangerous; it can destroy us. This TIME in which we are living is crucial for each one of us. We must be prudent, we must seek justice with courage and thoughtful self-discipline. Because at this moment in time, we are creating the husk of a legacy we will pass on.
Right now our beautiful country and many of the people who love it are being tarred and feathered by unscrupulous politicians who use their positions in government for their own gain, not ours. They must be stopped.
Soon, we will have a golden opportunity to finally Make America’s Legacy Great Again, but only if the lack of prudence by some of our leaders is outweighed by fortitude from the majority. To re-establish America as the great country she is, the election of a president who is devoted to America and her Constitution cannot come too soon. And we cannot sit back and think it will happen without each of us. We ALL have a part to play in Making America Great Again. So, stand up today and begin.
I know some of you are not Trump supporters, but I know you LOVE your country. You do not want our American rights to be cancelled. You do not want America to have no borders, to have women and children abused on the border in heart-breaking ways, to have alien criminals allowed into every state in our union, bringing their drugs with them to sell throughout out country causing the deaths of so many. You do not want to to be energy-dependent again on the Middle East, to have no right to free speech, to have no right to bear arms. You do not want our American heritage dragged through the mud by lies and hypocrisy. You do not want your religion threatened. You do not want GOD demeaned. You do not want your America to cuddle-up to China like a sick puppy. You do not want your rights as parents to be taken over by the government disguised as a school board. You do not want men to be able to compete in women’s sports. You want TRUTH not LIES from the government and the media. And most specifically you want a government you can TRUST to put the PEOPLE FIRST, and not ITSELF.
Absence belongs to the Southern Gothic tradition because the secrets are dreadful; the stubbornness is perverse; and children play with a human skull in bed. Yes, there is a version of incest too. But if it were possible to reclaim a genre in the tradition of Sidney Lanier—one of whose poems provides both the epigraph and the title of this story—Absence would rightfully be called Southern Poetic. This novel with intense resolve excises every trace of trashiness from its postmodern Alabama countryside. These peanut farmers are poor, but they have a quality not usually ascribed to them: dignity. And because they have dignity, when they fall into evil ways the outcome is not merely horrible, but tragic.
When you close this book, you will feel an anxious impulse to confess your sins, lest they fester and warp the lives of everyone connected to you. More surprisingly, you will have learned to associate the peanut plant with the redemption of man. Kaye Park Hinckley returns to country life what we have long since ceased to expect of it: beauty and meaning. At every level her story reaches roots into the deepest origins of this nation. But apart from explaining a few Creek Indian words, she does not afflict her characters with peculiar dialogue or bizarre impulses. Nor does she try to render local speech patterns into idiosyncratic spelling. Her story utterly rejects every facile trope of a throwaway culture. It hones in on the most important thing this country has trashed: human souls.
James Greene is desperate, but he is not vulgar. His fall into evil is the age-old tragedy of man. He does not do evil because he wants evil, but because he wants the good that has been denied him. Like Adam in the Garden of Eden, he reaches for a fruit that is good in itself, and he does it for the sake of the woman he loves. Like Cain, faced with disappointment, he does not turn toward God in sorrow but away from God in anger. And if you are tempted to shrug off these choices as minor ones, Absence will chill you with the stark reminder that human beings are not just bodies, but souls, whose spiritual influence cannot be suppressed, even when the bodies have gone missing. It’s not just that the ends do not justify the means: the evil means will work their poison through every aspect of your life. So beware, reader. When you enter this terrain of red soil, you leave behind every escape devised by an escapist culture. There are only two alternatives–hell on earth, or redemption through suffering.
One definition of the word “situation” is the way in which something is placed in relation to its surroundings. But often, when people talk about being in a situation, they usually mean that something important has gone bad in some way.
Not every day is a good day. We each have our personal situations. Some are social situations in which we don’t have enough confidence in ourselves. Maybe we are shy about conversing with others, afraid someone might be too critical of us.
Maybe our situation is that we’ve had a financial fall-out, and don’t know how to fix it.
Maybe there’s a person we love, who doesn’t seem to love us. Or maybe we have an addiction, such as drugs or alcohol.
For many, there’s the situation of betrayal by a friend, or spouse.
Or it could be that we’re lonely, or sick, or even dying.
Especially in the turbulence of today, we are confronting so many situations that can harm us! Some are self-imposed, because all of us have choices, and often we choose wrongly. Some are thrust upon us through no fault of our own, and we feel helpless for ourselves, our friends, our families, and our country.
So how do we handle these harmful situations? Can we do it on our own?
Well, the answer to that is that we don’t have to do it on our own. Not if we have God as our partner in life. Not if we turn to him in all those situations listed above and more. Even if they are situations we caused ourselves. God will help us through, if only we ask him.
Will our problems be solved every time in the way we want them to be solved? The answer is not always.
But if God is involved, if we give our situation to Him, if we let Him carry us, we can have peace, trusting that good will come from it in a way we may not anticipate.
I honestly do not know what I would do if I did not have God to turn to, and I’m sure many of you feel the same.
You’re my safe place, my hideaway You’re my anchor, my saving grace You’re my constant, my steadiness You’re my shelter, my oxygen
I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You Thank God I do
I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You I’d probably fall off the edge I don’t know where I’d go if You ever let go So keep me held in Your hands I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You Thank God I do
Translating a World on the Edge 