Lost Crusader #187 The No Win Scenario

 “Is not this the carpenter’s son...Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him.

Matthew 13

 

Socrates thought he was the most intelligent fellow in town. He thought that because he realized that he knew nothing. Knowing nothing and asking questions that provoked thought got him sentenced to drink hemlock, so there is that. Realizing a long time ago that I know nothing. I have spent years collecting testimony to that realization.

However, there once was a time when like most young, indestructible, and incredibly good-looking men, I knew everything. I knew there was no God. I knew that every man was subject to the whims of chance. I knew that if you worked hard, did your duty, and were willing to stand against the crowd, respect and success would be yours. How I came to my present state of ignorance in just fifty years is just one more thing for which I have no answer.

I seemed to be doing fine until I ran into God. That confrontation really blew my no God, and everything is chance theories out of the water. I have to admit I breathed a sigh of relief to know God was all about working hard, duty, and standing up. Now, I’m not saying that God is against any of those things. I am here to tell you that it is no secret that these things bring neither respect nor success in this world.

Now, no matter what stage of life you are in, those outside of Christianity will question your sanity, service, and sincerity. That’s a given. It’s part of the price of peace with God. So be it. I walked away from that years ago.

What I suspect is true has changed very little in the last forty-eight years. It is not because I am resistant to change or know anything at all. It is that I’ve found that at any given moment my faith in God is too liberal, too conservative, too quiet, too vocal, too modern, too old fashioned, too literal, and too figurative. In other words, I know nothing as I ought.

That is as it should be. I am nobody, the son of a man who built houses and roads. I am without a university education and of no reputation.

A Christian man of great learning once confessed that he made it a point to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He believed such knowledge was sufficient in itself. If Jesus’ knowledge was called into question, well, I am certainly no better than Him. I am content to allow my steadfastness to offend those, within and without the faith, who are looking for offenses.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #186 Sorry, Not Sorry.

 “Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said…Let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

To set the scene, Jesus’ disciples had been criticized for not washing their hands before eating. This was more ceremonial practice than a matter of hygiene. The ceremony was also more traditional than scriptural. Jesus had the unmitigated gall to call into question His detractors’ practices that served to circumvent the Law and call it hypocrisy. He then pointed out that true defilement came from within.

In answer to the question “Is Christianity hard or easy?”, C. S. Lewis once wrote that it is both hard and easy. The answer all depended on what you were trying to do. He pointed out that most people approach Christianity the same way an honest man goes about paying his taxes. That is, he does as little as possible to pay what he considers his due while keeping as much as he can for himself.

The Law said to honor your mother and father. But that was a costly proposal before Social Security. So, the Pharisees “dedicated” all their resources to God. It seemed a very godly thing to do. Except all it really accomplished was to shelter their money from being used to support Mom and Dad. It was legal, even celebrated, but the thought and intent were contrary to God’s decree.

The point I wish to make from all this is that Jesus was right on spiritual and scriptural grounds to call them on it. He offered no apology for doing so. Then, He told His disciples that once the message was delivered, leave the hearer to his own devices. Of course, they later killed the messenger.

Christians aren’t appointed to save the world. We are commanded by Christ to deliver the message that salvation is available. That we are afraid, shy, don’t know what to say, or that it will offend people are not acceptable reasons to tacitly deny Christ.

Maranatha

Know Jack #395 True Lies

 “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful.”

George Orwell

I think fiction writers would do well to have a touch of politician in them. Making a web of lies sound true enough to draw the reader into it, well, that’s what we are all about. The difference is that fiction writers presume their audience knows they are lying. Moreover, readers will not tolerate lies that are too outrageous or that contradict earlier statements of fact. In fiction, a writer can only stretch reality so far before it breaks. So, the writer has a disadvantage not shared by politicians.

I haven’t ventured into the creation of new worlds often. Only once springs immediately to mind and that story is yet to be put into print. However, when I did venture off this planet, I felt compelled to make a world familiar enough to require little explanation without being completely earthbound. I didn’t realize back then that I worried needlessly about using “male” and “female” rather than “man” and “woman” to describe non-humans.

As politicians might tell you, one way around unpleasant truth is to use a very narrow spotlight and shine it only in places that fit the storyline. Let’s face it no one wants to read about a romance between a working stiff with a beer gut and plain Jane who works at Wal-Mart. While I advocate cramming as much reality into a story as possible, that’s too much reality.

Like voters, readers don’t want to hear about their rather ordinary lives, they want the lifestyles of the rich and famous. My characters are harder to convince that a rougarou is real than are my readers. My readers want the rougarou to be real and so do I.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting fiction writers to tell fabulous lies to entertain people. Mr. Orwell, a master of fiction himself, has a different take on politicians horning in on the genre.

Lost Crusader #185 Making a Living

 “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?”

Ecclesiastes 1:2-3

The Preacher has an important truth to share. What good was his wealth, his throne, and even his wisdom? Long after he was dead the sun would still rise and set, the wind would still blow, and the rivers still run to the sea. All his labor invested in a thousand endeavors would not change that. It was all in vain.

He tried everything “under the sun” and his opinion concerning the vanity of life remained unchanged—until he discovered that there is in every person God-shaped emptiness that is vain to try and fill with anything but God. With that discovery, he learned how to reckon profit and invest in things that endured.

At the Judgment Seat of Christ, the works of all who stand before Him will be tried by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Some things will endure while others are destroyed. Jesus (the Judge at this trial) once posed this question to His hearers.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Rather than allow people to guess, He supplied the answer.

“Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life…”

That’s not very specific, is it? He once claimed doing the will of God was meat. But honestly, that’s still not specific. The Holy Spirit that Jesus left to guide people into the truth offers this word on the subject. In the fifth chapter of the Book of Galatians, there is a list of actions/attitudes that ends with this thought: “They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God”.

It is followed by this word: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance: against such there is no law”.

One more word about the judgment of Christ. Innocence and guilt go beyond words, and beyond actions (no matter which speaks louder) down to the thoughts and the intent of the heart. It is not enough to do right. The thought behind the action must be equally pure.

Enduring riches cannot be labored for and can’t be earned. They can only be given away.

Maranatha

Know Jack #394 Write What You Know

 Write what you know, every writer has heard it over and over again. I’m searching for a word here—a word that means you say and believe one thing and do the opposite. It eludes me at the moment. Never mind, I’ll think of it soon. Anyway, it’s a word that writers should become familiar with.

I suppose it’s fair to ask how well we should know something before presuming to write about it. There are a great many things, so I’ve been told, that the color of my skin or my lack/possession of certain body parts precludes me from ever knowing or forming a valid opinion about.

I purposely left my lack of education out of that list, because as a famous songwriter once said, “I can read the writing on the wall”. If this modern line of reasoning is objectively true, then the scope of my characters and settings of my writing must, of necessity, be extremely limited.

I don’t mind that too much. Being a dinosaur and a rebel, I ignore such thinking and break the rules anyway. However, I do have a couple of objections to this interpretation of the write what you know rule.

First of all, if I adhere to the rule and write only what I can know as a white, male, heterosexual, Christian, then I will be criticized for not being diverse, inclusive, and equitable. On the other hand, if I venture into writing from the viewpoint of “persons of color”, women (real or make-believe), homosexuals, and other religions/cultures I am appropriating or more accurately misappropriating a fountain of knowledge that belongs solely to those who identify as one of those groups. Thus, dooming my writing to be styled as paternalistic, monochromatic, monoculture, and worthy of being banned.

This seems strange to me because I frequently read writers with no real experience or identity as a member of my faith who write stereotypical characters of that faith. Do they really know what they are writing? Or are they playing on approved stereotypes with impunity?

Should I write a character wearing literary blackface will he/she meet with the same acceptance as the hypercritical, bigoted, homophobic dullard Christian of modern literature? I mean we all know one of those characters springs from racist attitudes and the other is amusing and insightful.

In a world where “My Truth” supersedes reality, does anyone really know anything for sure? Choosing the pronouns for my characters might be offensive not only to them but the reader.

In a world that does not revolve around the sun, but around each of the billions of individuals that inhabit the planet, not only does everybody know everything, but no one knows anything. Write what you know then takes on a whole new meaning.

Maranatha