I have been impressed by the intelligence of the letters I’ve received regarding Chataine’s Guardian from Anita Padgett’s eighth-graders at The King’s Academy. J.P. writes, “I would like to ask you about how you fit Christ into your novels.” Comparing the book to a tapestry with the thread of Christ running through it, J asks, “How do you do it?” When I first started reading the Bible seriously, I was struck by how much it talks about obedience. In the Old Testament, New Testament, Gospels, Epistles—practically every other verse hammers on the necessity of doing what God tells us to do: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and don’t do what I say?” “They claim to know God, but by their actions deny Him”—to cite two of a thousand verses. Why is our obedience so important? It gives tacit permission for God to enter a situation, no matter how awful, and bring glory out of it. So when God enters—watch out. You don’t know what He will do, only that it will be awesome. The stories in the Old Testament are illustrations of this fact, while the letters in the New Testament are the how-to manual. As soon as I discovered the power of obedience, I knew that it would have to apply to my characters. My protagonists MUST act according to the light given them to be authentic Christians. And the strangest thing happened—when my characters bowed to the Lordship of Christ in their circumstances, it seems that He condescended to enter my trivial little books. Don’t take this to mean that I am elevating myself or my books, because “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” One final point: I’ve observed a mirrorlike quality in many books; that is, readers tend to see reflections of what is inside themselves. Spiritual readers will find reflections of God everywhere; shallow readers will see nothing in the greatest works.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:51:06 +0000
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