Translating a World on the Edge

When we feel the world crashing down upon us, we are fearful and look for answers to our problems. We want to fix them, right here and now, but 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.

God may teach us through another person, a person who in narrow-mindedness, we may have judged too severely by a first impression (how they dressed, how attractive they were, how they spoke, smelled, or walked). That person may be different from our image of who we think a person we could follow should be. Sometimes, we may even see that person as ‘in our way.’ And so, we circumvent them, and never get to discover the answer God had in mind to give us through them. Realize that every human being has something to offer, even a surprising answer to our suffering.

In our life journey, the innocence we were all born with will leave us. We will be broken in some way. There may have already been a time when everything changed for you, too, and your life seemed in ruins. Although, none of us wish for brokenness, all of us will face suffering. What sort of action do we take when that happens? Do we moan and groan about the trouble that has befallen us? Do we strike out at others? Do we wind ourselves up like a tight ball of yarn, wishing the world would go away and leave us wadded up in our misery. I did it all that—until I paid attention to God’s grace and allowed it to unwind inside me with surprising results.

If we give grace a chance. If we have faith, not fear, our inner sight will change. We will make an attempt to understand how much God loves us, and when we understand that, we will see things differently. We will no longer be broken, will be ‘put together,’ able to trust our lives to Him, and to follow Him.

And never should we forget that we may be the answer to what another human being needs. Seeing another’s divinity and honoring it is a sure way to express our own. We are, all of us, intended to be God’s expression of love in this world.

Our earthly life, like a beautiful piece of pottery, is fragile and easily shattered, not only by things outside of our control, but many times by our own sins. And of course, our life does not last forever. The genuine treasure of this life is that it continues beyond the container of our bodies. It is not temporary, but eternal. It is Faith, not fear, that will give us everlasting life.

For this momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.–Corinthians 4:17-18

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 these stories.

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 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.

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 NOVELS and 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.

From the time a human being comes to the age of reason, he or she will be confronted with error and truth. Because we are human we have the ability to weight them both, and to choose between them; all this from a young age — which is why it is so important to teach a set of high values to children, because these choices are what will ultimately form individual character. If at sometime, we glance into the mirror and don’t like the person we see looking back at us, it is still possible to change. Our ability to decide never leaves us. We will live and die with the choices we make.

Our main concern in forming good character for ourselves and our children should first be recognizing the difference between error and Truth. I attempt to address this in my stories; stories that begin in the human heart when Truth is exchanged for the lies of the moment.

It is a human choice when hatred replaces love because my new enemy doesn’t look or think like me.
It is a choice when anger becomes a fist to the face of a wife, or child, or friend.
It is a choice when a hidden hand steals because what it has seems not enough.
It is a choice when every hunger–lust, greed, power–must be satisfied.
It is a choice when my place in the sun is secured by lies and dishonesty toward my fellow human beings.
It is a choice to destroy innocent human life.

It is also a choice to do nothing and allow recognized evil to continue.

As a human being we not only HAVE choices, we are RESPONSIBLE for the choices we make. The way of our created world is not toward an anything goes attitude, or a society without common decency.

Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it’s up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be. — Ayn Rand

If our choices do not make us feel good about ourselves, then by the standard set in our hearts, they are failings. So, after our failings, what is possible? Contrition, forgiveness, and redemption–or a puffed-up pride that will not allow us to admit that we have failed, that we ought to forgive, or that we need to be redeemed?

My stories are Southern Gothic fiction containing those themes–stories about what it means to be an imperfect person living in an imperfect world.

There may be a time in life when one is tired of everything and feels as if all one does is wrong, and there maybe some truth in it- do you think this is a feeling one must try to forget and to banish, or is it ‘the longing for God,’ which one must not fear, but cherish to see if it may bring us some good? Is it ‘the longing for God’ which leads us to make a choice which we never regret? Let us keep courage and try to be patient and gentle. And not mind being eccentric, and make distinction between good and evil. –Vincent van Gogh

The Corona virus has unnerved all of us, mainly because it shows the corruptible nature of our  human bodies. It is a distinct reminder that each of us, without exception, will die. Except, if we are intelligent enough to believe in God, it is also a reminder that we have a soul that will not die, but will have everlasting life.

With whom will we live this everlasting life?–with none other than the loving, immortal God who created each of us for the specific purpose of returning to him. Of course, we can choose NOT to believe in God, or that He created us. And even if we do believe, we can choose NOT to follow Him, which all of us do at one time or another.  Our individual human natures are forever in a constant battle between vice and virtue, evil and good, because we have Free Will.

We cannot blame anyone except ourselves for out choices. It is not someone else who messes up our paths–it is we who choose to mess up our paths through wrong-thinking promoted by our vices: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride. Thankfully, we can also choose to ask forgiveness and change our direction.

Choice is a word thrown around a lot, without looking at the responsibilities that flow from the God-given gift of Free Will that we have. Responsibility is not a ‘happy’ thing to bring up to someone in the throws of corruption, selfishness, and a lack of goodness. When we are acting in this way, and unwilling to change, we do not want to look at ourselves in a truthful light, and so, many of us try to make the wrongs we do seem right. And there are plenty of  people who do this, covering over truth with lies for personal gain.

Corruption (evil) is, at first, a small thing. It may even have a hint of conscience, until it becomes habitual and infectious to everyone around it. Goodness also begins small, becomes habitual, and infectious as well. Except goodness is honorable in the human person, while evil degrades his or her soul.

Of course, corruption happens in politics since it is made up of many people with ambition, people who ignore goodness if it interferes with their political goals. A few examples of ignoring goodness are these: the taking of a human life in the womb, the mistaken confusion that we can change our own gender, or the misrepresentation of what marriage truthfully is. These acts demean us as human beings created by God. And yet, we can choose to do any of them.

This is why the truthful family, based upon the sacrament of marriage, is being negatively affected. This is why the deep responsibility to guide children who come from that marriage is being overlooked. This is why it is imperative to look upward to God for guidance, rather than looking around at the temporary world we live in. Except, goodness isn’t easy, has never been easy, and will never be easy.

So, can we actually do the things that are hard, the things that are truthfully good, and not take the easy way out with wrong behaviors that decay not only ourselves, but also, spreads like a virus to others? The truth is that without delving into the spiritual side of our human nature, we cannot. We will listen to false voices, swallow false precepts, and we will fall into corruption rather than goodness.

But, with courage and faith, we can also do the opposite. We can commit ourselves to the responsibility we have as human beings who actually share in the divinity of God. By looking inward and upward, even those in politics can understand that only our likeness to God (our Spirituality) reveals our true value as people, and that it is He who gives us the final victory, which is everlasting life. We only have to realize that we are His and act upon that.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. — John 3:16-17