On my kitchen counter is a stone bowl on a stem–a fruit and vegetable compote that once belonged to my mother, and her mother before her. In it, I keep bananas and tomatoes, same as my mother did.
Some of the tomatoes are still green when I put them in the bowl, but that’s okay because the bananas have a way of ripening them. My mother likened it to friendship and love. “One ripens first and then helps the other along.”
And like her, I cannot waste the uneaten bananas. I simply cannot bring myself to discard a banana only because it’s past its prime for peeling and eating. I have to make something else out of it. Banana nut bread, muffins, cake—something!
Naturally, my children always liked this family quirk, when an aging fruit they might have discarded is changed into something fresh, new–and edible.
A couple of days ago, I noticed three spotted bananas snuggled against my home-grown, reddening tomatoes. I took the bananas and mashed them. I added flour, sugar, milk, egg, baking powder and pecans.
When I took the loaf from the oven, I set it beside the stone compote where the bananas had once influenced the green tomatoes to turn red. It smelled so good. It looked so good. And in half an hour, it would probably be eaten and gone.
There is nothing that’s useless, or past its prime. There is no experience, no matter how painful that we cannot learn from. There is no seemingly spoiled situation that cannot be benefitted from or perhaps even changed. Everything holds the potential of something new and fresh within it. Something we can pass on to those we love.
When she died, my mother’s closets and drawers were filled with “stuff.” ‘Stuff” she saw value in. Value in an old, torn school picture. Value in a hand-drawn birthday card, or a baby shoe, or a high school scrap book. Value in a postcard, and a menu from the old Dixie Sherman Hotel in Panama City, FL where she and my father spent their wedding night before he left for the Pacific in WWII. All those seemingly unimportant things held memory and a story that went with it
But how does all that “stuff” get transformed into something new?
All those timeworn things are now in my closets and drawers, in my trunks and cabinets, even shoved under my beds. Those old keepsakes now pass memory to me. They create something new in me, not about a past reality, but a fresh way of seeing reality in the present and the future. And so, as a mother and grandmother, I pass it down — in stories, in a touch or a hug, in a word of confidence.
This is in the essence of every human being: that he is capable of passing down intelligence, imagination, and emotion to other human beings. A reminder though—the passing can be for better, or worse.
Often, we’re unaware of this, but we should give it attention because it’s how we can spur the better parts of our culture and beliefs to our children and their children, and not the worst ones. Hopefully, “the something new” we pass onto them is bound up in love.
Everyone wants to be Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day. But did you know Saint Patrick was a slave? Here’s the story from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Patrick was born around 385 in Scotland, probably Kilpatrick. His parents were Calpurnius and Conchessa, who were Romans living in Britian in charge of the colonies.
As a boy of fourteen or so, he was captured during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. Ireland at this time was a land of Druids and pagans. He learned the language and practices of the people who held him.
During his captivity, he turned to God in prayer. He wrote
“The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same.” “I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain.”
Patrick’s captivity lasted until he was twenty, when he escaped after having a dream from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. There he found some sailors who took him back to Britian, where he reunited with his family.
He had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling out to him “We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.”
He began his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained by St. Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre, whom he had studied under for years.
Later, Patrick was ordained a bishop, and was sent to take the Gospel to Ireland. He arrived in Ireland March 25, 433, at Slane. One legend says that he met a chieftain of one of the tribes, who tried to kill Patrick. Patrick converted Dichu (the chieftain) after he was unable to move his arm until he became friendly to Patrick.
Patrick began preaching the Gospel throughout Ireland, converting many. He and his disciples preached and converted thousands and began building churches all over the country. Kings, their families, and entire kingdoms converted to Christianity when hearing Patrick’s message.
Patrick by now had many disciples, among them Beningnus, Auxilius, Iserninus, and Fiaac, (all later canonized as well).
Patrick preached and converted all of Ireland for 40 years. He worked many miracles and wrote of his love for God in Confessions. After years of living in poverty, traveling and enduring much suffering he died March 17, 461.
He died at Saul, where he had built the first church.
Why a shamrock on Saint Patrick’s day?
Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and has been associated with him and the Irish since that time.
Patrick was a humble, pious, gentle man, whose love and total devotion to and trust in God can be a shining example to each of us. He feared nothing, not even death, so complete was his trust in God, and of the importance of his mission.
HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY!!!
“Danny Boy” is a ballad set to an ancient Irish melody. The words were written over a hundred years ago by English songwriter Frederic Weatherly and usually set to the Irish tune of the “Londonderry Air.” It was published in 1913, a year before millions of people were finding themselves having to say goodbye to people who they hoped against hope that they might one day see again due to World War I.
The theme of longing also struck a chord with many Irish emigrants who headed to America to escape the famine back home. Through the decades, the song became woven into the cultural fabric of the U.S. and beyond, often as a final farewell.
Elvis said he thought “Danny Boy” was written by angels and asked for it to be played at his funeral. At Princess Diana’s church service, the words were different, but the haunting melody of “The Londonderry Aire,” the same.
And after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the strains of “Danny Boy” rose from the memorial services of so many Irish-American police and firefighters who were among the victims.–CBS news, 2013
In good Catholic fiction, characters live in a broken world, like ours today, and they are fallible people, as we are. What’s key though is that real Truths shine through the fictional story–Truths about the beauty and mystery of God and His presence. God is now, and always will be, present to characters in Catholic Fiction, just as He is for us in real life even when we sin.
There are plenty of sinners in my novels, plenty of broken people. One of my favorites is Sarah Neal Bridgeman , a main character in A Hunger in the Heart. I’d like to talk about her today, and to point out that God never leaves this character alone, even in her sinfulness—just as he never leaves you and I alone.
Sarah Neal Bridgeman is an alcoholic, a vindictive mother and wife. This is a woman who’s lost a lot. And because she’s prideful and somewhat narcissistic, she can’t handle that loss. She’d like to, but she just can’t let go of her own self-importance and prejudices. Yet, she doesn’t let God go either.
Her greatest loss is in the deficiency of the perfect husband she used to have before he was wounded and left with PTSD from World War II. Sarah Neal wants her husband to be like he was. She prays for it. She surrounds herself with symbols of God. She wears a crucifix around her neck and hangs one in every room of her house. But Sarah Neal is a person, like many of us, who want to blame someone else for her sorrows.
Surprisingly, she doesn’t blame God. She never says, “Why did God do this to me!” Instead, she blames the soldier her husband saved in the war. She even blames her alcoholism on this soldier.
And her drinking affects everyone around her, especially her son, Coleman. Her sin changes her, just as sin changes us. God still loves her, but she can’t love him as she ought to because whiskey has become her primary love. Addictions do that. They take over our lives.
God’s grace is available to Sarah Neal, as it is for all of us. He waits for us to take it. The problem is, until we lose our pride and see ourselves as the sinner—-until we notice we’re the only one in the room responsible for our sins—-we can’t recognize that Grace so we don’t reach for it. And just like Sarah Neal, if we don’t recognize and reach for grace, how can we use it in our lives?
In real life, if we take a truthful look at ourselves, we will see our sins and how they affect others. That truthful look at ourselves can cause us to change our behaviors and return to the God who loves us. The God who waits for us with open arms may use the most common places to get our attention. He may speak to us through people we love or even those we’d never expect to care. He is, after all, a God of surprises.
Belief: a feeling of being sure that someone or something exists or that something is true.
Where do your personal beliefs come from? Can you really trust the source?
I grew up in a small town where neighbors knew neighbors, children were taught manners and held to them, and families went to church. There were role models in my town, people we trusted and loved, not people made up for some sort of performance. Real people.
Many of today’s role models are those who’ve made names for themselves in sports, movies, television, social media, and politics. They live lives that we envy–money, notoriety, control of others. Somehow the idea pervades our society that these sorts of people are better than most, better than we are because they are so important.
Well, this is sonot true. The importance of a person lies in his heart, not in a newspaper headline.
I think of a seemingly unimportant woman who spends her entire life unknown by any but a few close friends, a woman devoted to her children and husband, a woman who cares for others when they are sick or depressed or in trouble. I think of a person whose only claim to fame is that she loves. A woman who believes that loving is her mission, and has a will strong enough to commit to it. A woman who can overcome anything because she believes this world is not all there is.
I think of a seemingly unimportant man who works for his family, provides for his children, is honest in his job. A man who prays. A man who does not let go of his convictions for something less important. I think of a person whose only claim to fame is that he loves. A man who believes that loving is his mission, and has a will strong enough to commit to it. A man who can overcome anything because he believes this world is not all there is.
I think of a seemingly unimportant priest committed to his parish, or his order; a man whose vocation has been demeaned by some, yet he continues in the holiness of it. A priest for others no matter their often gross imperfections. I think of a priest whose only claim to fame is that he loves. A priest who believes that loving is his mission, and has a will strong enough to commit to it. A priest who can overcome anything because he believes this world is not all there is.
And here is something else I think. When we stand at Heaven’s Gate, we will have no notoriety except the love we’ve shown others. Because God does not read headlines. God reads hearts.
For Catholics, Ash Wednesday (the day after Mardi Gras) is the beginning of Lent, which lasts for forty days. For every Catholic, it is a day to confront the inevitability of his or her death, and for that day, we wear the sign of that inevitability on our foreheads in ashes.
The ashes we receive on our forehead in the shape of a cross serve as an outward sign of our sinfulness and need for penance. The ashes also symbolize our mortality, a reminder that one day we will die and our bodies will return to dust. Traditional words when we receive the ashes are: Remember that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.
So, Ash Wednesday is a time of self-examination, and of our faith in the promise of eternal life. Can we turn down the noise in our lives for forty days and listen to what God wants to tell us? Because if we don’t listen, we won’t hear him call us by name–our name. We won’t hear that we should not be afraid. We won’t hear that God is madly in love with each one of us. We won’t hear what we can do to change ourselves.
Is there something in our lives that might prevent eternal life? If there is, we have an opportunity to change it. We know who we are. We know we’ve done. Shouldn’t we examine ourselves and work on the problems we may have?
Forgive those things we have done
which have caused you sadness,
and those things we should have done
that would have brought you joy.
In both we have failed
ourselves,
and you.
Bring us back to that place
where our journey began,
when we said that we would follow
the way that you first trod.
Lead us to the Cross
and meet
us there.
DEAR MAMAS, You are the wives. You are the mothers. You are the nannies. You are the teachers. You are the cooks–no, the gourmets! You are the washerwomen and the scrubbers. You are the taxi drivers. You are the gardeners. You are the counselors You are the peace-makers. You are the judges. You are the juries. You are the nesters. You are the consolers. You are the planners. You are the confessors. You are the dream-makers. You are the caterers. You are the celebrators. You are the lovers. You are the listeners.
YOU ARE THE GLUE.
YOURS IS THE HEART THAT TEACHES A CHILD TO LOVE.
YOURS ARE THE HANDS THAT PUT THE PUZZLE OF FAMILY TOGETHER.
YOU ARE IMPORTANT.
YOU ARE NECESSARY, NOT ONLY TO YOUR FAMILY,
BUT TO HUMANITY.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World–William Ross Wallace
The next time you’re feeling down, instead of being swept along by an ocean of stress, you might try sharing your problems with a trusted friend.
Talking about our problems and sharing our negative emotions with someone we trust can be profoundly healing—reducing stress, strengthening our immune system, and reducing physical and emotional distress (Pennebaker, Kiecolt-Glaser, & Glaser, 1988).
For Christians, the most trusted friend is God, and God is who they first go to for help. Absolutely anyone can talk directly to God through prayer. Our prayers are conversations with God. But God can speak to our minds and hearts through anything — books, television, movies, music, other people. Yet for some people, the idea of talking to God is ridiculous because they insist they do not believe in Him.
Belief in God
Belief in God has fallen the most in recent years among young adults and people on the left of the political spectrum (liberals and Democrats). These groups show drops of 10 or more percentage points comparing the 2022 figures to an average of the 2013-2017 polls.
Most other key subgroups have experienced at least a modest decline, although conservatives and married adults have had essentially no change.
The groups with the largest declines are also the groups that are currently least likely to believe in God, including liberals (62%), young adults (68%) and Democrats (72%). Belief in God is highest among political conservatives (94%) and Republicans (92%), reflecting that religiosity is a major determinant of political divisions in the U.S.
Nearly three-quarters of the most religious Americans, defined as those who attend religious services every week, say they believe God hears prayers and can intervene, as do slightly more than half of conservatives and Republicans, as well as 25% of liberals and 32% of Democrats. Thirty percent of young adults believe God hears prayers and can intervene.
Hearing God
Recently, I read the delightful account of a kindergarten teacher in a Catholic school–when one of her students, a little boy, came up to her desk and proudly announced that he knew the Our Father by heart. She asked him to show her, and every word of his prayer was perfect — until the little boy ended the prayer with: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us some E-mail, Amen.”
Maybe He won’t send us an email, but God is speaking to us all the time. We only have to listen. Hearing God is essential to building an intimate relationship with Him and learning to clearly distinguish God’s voice is invaluable. The “still, small voice” inside our heads called conscience is often God attempting to speak to us. Maybe we don’t listen. Maybe we tune God out because we don’t like what He’s saying. We may tune Him out so often (to do what we want, instead of what we know He wants) that we lose all contact with Him.
Still, God does not lose contact with us — ever. He loves us. God is always near enough to hear us call to him throughout our life on Earth. Because, in the end, absolutely everybody will talk to God.
“What I wanna know is who’s in charge?” one woman says to the other. She is shaking her head as if speaking of something too horrible to be believed. “Well, today it’s a scary world. Who is in charge of anything these days? You can take all the precautions you want, but things still happen,” the other comments. “Mama said she heard on Big Bam radio the guy went crazy and started shooting at everybody in the clinic. People killed for no reason at all. You can’t predict something like that.” “Yeah, just innocent bystanders doing their jobs, and some nut-case in a face-mask walks in with a gun.” “What’s worse, he got away! Who knows if they’ll ever find him?” She gives a depressing sigh. “We live in a dangerous world.”
How could it happen?
In An Age of Mass Shootings, This Psychological, Southern Gothic Novel, Considers the Answers.
I thought about writing this novel, “Shooting at Heaven’s Gate,” several years ago after being shocked that in a small town near mine, a disillusioned and angry young man took up his shotgun and killed many of his family and co-workers. Why had he done it? Jealousy, greed, revenge, drugs, or some mental disfunction? Why had he destroyed the people he most cared for? Seemingly senseless shootings/murders like these seem to be becoming more prevalent. But the reasons behind them are ancient.
Most of us can retell the story of Cain and Abel, a story of one brother murdering the other. Genesis 4. When the Father (God) favored Abel’s gift over Cain’s, a few narcissistic traits began to itch in Cain, and then finally took him over — jealousy, greed, anger, and revenge, leading to Cain’s murder of Abel. Did God love Cain? Of course. But the sin of Cain separated him from God, just as sin separates us today from God.
Jealousy, Greed, Anger, and Revenge
I have no idea what caused the shootings in this nearby small town, but I suspect some of the above narcissistic traits were involved.
Our life is an ongoing drama between God and each of us. Whether we accept it or not, no matter who we are or what we do, each of us has an inborn, spiritual relationship with the God who created us, the God who loves us infinitely. We can deny it or shout our disagreement. We can act out in reprehensible ways to destroy God’s sovereignty over us. Our God-given free will allows that behavior. But truth cannot be altered. We were made to be good. We live in a world that God made to be good. And yet moral and physical evil exists in spite of the goodness — and therefore, human suffering exists. Yet, God is still merciful.
Goodness Left Behind
In the novel, “Shooting at Heaven’s Gate, goodness is left behind for a time, and evil runs rampart in Bethel, Alabama. Dr. Malcolm J. Hawkins, III, narcissistic, arrogant head of psychology at Bethel University feels his position and his credibility threatened by the impressive, up-and-coming English professor, Ginnie Gillan, because that is the way of narcissists.
“Good and evil do not exist when searching for the best way to scratch an itch. The only question is, Can I get away with it? “says Dr. Malcolm J. Hawkins, PH. D.
If someone threatens Mal’s narcissist’s ego, he shifts into a war-like predator mode and scratches that ‘itch.’ Jealousy, greed, anger and revenge take over him, and Mal decides to use Ginnie’s husband Edmund’s fear and weakness against her. Feeding Edmund a steady diet of drugs and manipulation, Mal then lights the fuse of the greatest tragedy Bethel has ever known. Beyond understanding? Yes!
And yet there are explanations.
Though Edmund acts from a motive of jealousy and anger, he is not a ruthless man, but a victim of Hawkins, and of his own sad life story. Out of an impotence that leads to drugs and the easy way out, Edmund K. Gillan gives himself over to Dr. Hawkins’s control in an effort to relieve his debilitating headaches, stemming from his childhood.
An extremely envious and narcissistic man, Mal Hawkins sees every situation and person as a threat; so when he hears that Edmund’s wife, Ginnie, is seen as an upcoming superstar at the college, and may soon be a department head, Mal views her as deadly competition, and decides to bring her down, using her own husband as his pawn. Edmund loves his wife, but he also loves the drugs Mal gives him. The drugs, his headaches, and the voice of his grandfather, keep Edmund in constant conflict.
Opposition to Wickedness
Just as in a novel, there are real-life compassionate and loving people that shine in opposition to wickedness. Loving teenager, Alma Broussard, lives with her quirky mother Moline, who works in a dental office, and her feisty Aunt Pauline, who runs the chicken farm on which they live with Jose Alvarez and his teenaged daughter, Angelina who has leukemia. Their lives seem wholly separate from the feuds of academia—but again, revelations emerge, and dark secrets lurk in Moline’s past that will bring the people she loves straight into the path of a murderous madman.
Mercy
Even after Cain’s murder of his brother, God showed him mercy. The same mercy He shows not only in this novel, but upon repentance, to us as well. After Cain killed his brother Abel, God declared to Cain, “Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth” (Genesis 4:11-12). In response, Cain lamented, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me” (Genesis 4:13-14). God responded, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him” (Genesis 4:15-16).
Shooting at Heaven’s Gate is a “Theology of the Cross” novel, a battle between good and evil. A bona fide WAR, in which genuine goodness and grace are confronted by wickedness. In the wake of death and destruction, Bethel, the town that used to be called Heaven’s Gate, will find no easy answers, but always, there is hope for mercy and redemption.
PRIORPRAISE forShooting at Heaven’s Gate:
Family relations and lifelong secrets, human brokenness and the grace of transformation, mass shootings, deception, sin and forgiveness. These fundamental themes of the human search for meaning, of the challenge of faith, reconciliation and conversion, are woven throughout this story of a small town in rural Alabama. The complexities of each character, from university professors to farm hands, become the stage for an exploration of the human condition, in the style of C.S. Lewis, with echoes of T.S. Eliot, Geoffrey Chaucer, Macbeth and many others. The novel is followed by a list of themes, questions for book discussions and selected quotes, making it all the easier for study groups of any kind. — Fr. Christopher Viscardi, SJ, Chair and Professor of Theology at Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama
Kaye Hinckley has more than earned her keep as a significant contender vying for a living Catholic literature. —Joshua Hren, How to Read (and Write) Like a Catholic, Co-Founder of the MFA at University of St. Thomas, Houston
With a brisk narrative pace, Shooting at Heaven’s Gate by Kaye Park Hinckley invites readers to explore the complicated lives of characters suffering with loss, illness, addiction, and deception. The plot twists make this novel both entertaining and thought provoking with the reassurance that good does win. — Johnnie Bernhard, award-winning author of Sisters of the Undertow and Hannah and Ariela.
Faith and faithlessness do battle in Kaye Park Hinckley’s thought-provoking, unsparing new novel. She reveals the hellish torments … and heavenly convictions … of everyday people in a small Alabama town in an age of mass shootings. Bring faith as you enter Heaven’s Gate. — Charles McNair, author of The Epicureans
Don’t be lulled by the easy, descriptive manner of the beginning chapters. They introduce opposing characters whose thoughts and actions display the good and bad of human nature. Soon, you’ll be put on high alert, and move at lightning speed to satisfy a need to know how these characters interplay with each other. Mal, the manipulator and Edmund’s muddled loss of reality, cause the reader to begin to question, even fear what’s coming, hoping it’s the dream state of a sick, delusional man. Of course, it is no dream. Once the sound of metal is heard, the energy and climax of the book literally explode. Throughout the entire novel, the belief in salvation and forgiveness through confession, suffering, and atonement surfaces as a tenet of Catholic belief, symbolized not only in the characters, but in minute details…about flowers, and guns, geography, and history. Topics of current world concern are touched upon and mentioned briefly, without political overtones, but enough to generate reflection about good and evil, and how they come to be in the human person. A great read. – Terry Lonergan, Longtime Educator, Principal, and reader, Atlanta, Georgia
“Shooting at Heaven’ Gate is different from Hinckley’s other books as the moral themes are explicit and upfront, rather than subtle. I believe this work is a masterpiece. But then I love Kaye’s books because of how she writes (with the eloquence of angels) and for her choice of gritty topics (life is messy). “Shooting at Heaven’s Gate is not Pollyanna and cotton candy. Rather it is filled with real-world brokenness and the need for redemption, accurately painting the struggles on this side of the grave. — Denise-Marie Martin, author of “Tangled Violets.”
A human characteristic is the ability to speak, to converse, to give instruction, to make our opinions known. We talk. We use our tongues–sometimes without thinking, and sometimes very intentionally.
Our speech is directed to another, a listener. The listener may be a child, a friend, a family member, or a stranger in the grocery store. Regardless of who or where, what we say to each other matters. Speech is a gift to be used with care. I would suggest loving care, though I’m often guilty of overlooking that.
Are you certain what you say is the Truth? If you are not certain, then Do Not Speak. That’s more than just common sense, it’s a human being’s responsibility toward others.
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” — Matthew 12:36
Wow! That’s a lot of personal responsibility.
Yet what we say to each other is not always done with words. Our actions speak for us as well. How do our actions speak to our vulnerable children, or the friends and family who learn from us? Aren’t we especially responsible for our actions as parents and teachers, leaders and co-workers? Do we practice what we preach? Again, many of us often fall far short of that. It’s a good thing we have personal control over what we do, and if needed, the ability to correct ourselves.
There are times though, when we’re not the ‘speakers’ or the ‘doers,’ but the receivers, the targets of speech and action. Over this, we have little control, and no doubt the voices and actions are loud from those with agendas which they will lie to preserve. This includes the news media, and of course, politicians. If they are liars, are they worthy of their high positions?
The new media and politicians are made up of individuals like us. Are these individuals any less responsible than us for what they say in today’s world? Shouldn’t they be TRUTHFUL? Don’t they, too, have the ability to correct themselves? Or have the two prime motivators for LYING — greed and power — overtaken them completely?
Words and actions by those in prominent places can make or break this country. Will the words and actions they use as weapons against others be ignored, or inevitably condemned by those they are supposed to serve?
Beware. The devil, the most famous liar, is on our doorstep now.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. — John 8:44
Our leaders ought to be telling us the Truth, yet a majority of those in charge are not. And if we do not challenge them, we will lose our American way of life. A serious danger. Really serious.
Every person we meet has what it takes to be a character in a novel.
Every person we meet has a propensity to do certain things, and because of this, his/her intellect judges those things as good for them or not good for them, depending upon what their goal is.
Every person, including ourselves, makes choices, knowing what we should do, or should not do; then we play out our choice through action that in some way, always involves another person.
Oh yes, in real life, each of us has a story, too! And that story–our own story–follows us to the end of our days on Earth, taking us to eternal life, or eternal damnation, depending upon the choices we make and the actions we take.
The main characters in novels must change, one way or the other, or there is no novel. Each of us on Earth has the same capability of change in order to achieve our highest end. But not every novel has a happy ending. Not every protagonist wins, same as in human life. However, a novel is based on an author’s chosen standard with which the characters are charged. The world’s greatest novels point to the higher standard, though the characters may never achieve it.
It is the same for us. As human beings, we are charged with certain standards. We are not meant to hate, but to love. We are not meant to lie, but to speak the truth. We are not meant to steal, but to share what we have. We are not meant to kill–not an innocent child in the womb, an enemy, or a neighbor. We know within ourselves what is right and just, but sometimes we do the opposite. Why? Because we choose wrongly when we forget who we are. This is so obvious today.
In the words of one great novelist: If we Americans are to survive it will have to be because we choose and elect and defend to be first of all Americans; to present to the world one homogeneous and unbroken front, whether of white Americans or black ones or purple or blue or green… If we in America have reached that point in our desperate culture when we must murder children, no matter for what reason or what color, we don’t deserve to survive, and probably won’t.– William Faulkner
In a novel, the actions of evil often shine out the good. Struggle or suffering by the protagonist often shows him or her a way to the good because he chooses to make his way through the struggle. Struggle is the way of all life; all of life struggles to be born, and then struggles to stay alive. And all of life yearns for love. We can certainly see this in animals, in our pets that want to be stroked or held. It is obvious that every human life needs love because we all aspire to it.
Each of our life stories has been given to us by the loving God who made us, by the Creator who designed us as innocent children, designed us in His likeness with free will, the ability to imagine, the ability to remember and act on those memories, the capability of loving and accepting love from others, and most of all, the capability of showing mercy, even to those who have hurt us.
A great novelist puts purpose into the words he/she writes. Characters have purpose, settings have purpose, everyday actions and words have purpose. Nothing is insignificant or unimportant to the ultimate novelist. Therefore, I see God as the most perfect and greatest novelist, giving each of His characters everything they need to achieve their end in this great scheme of life, but also the freedom to choose or not to choose HIM. We are all writing the novel of our lives, the only novel for which we alone will be responsible. If presently, it seems to be a novel we are not proud of, we still have time to change it into one that will be pleasing to ourselves, and to God.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. –Psalm 139: 13-18
Translating a World on the Edge 