Faith Reflections

The Publication of a Novel — A New Title, Etc.

My publisher decided on a different title for The Fountain.  It’s going to be titled Kathryn’s Fountain.  She had several reasons, including the fact that a search of the old title brought up lots of stuff while the new title will direct people to my novel.  I think it’s a good idea.

When authors sign a contract with a publisher that publisher takes on a great deal of cost and risk in bringing the book to publication.  They also have expertise in this whole area of publishing that we writers don’t.  That’s why I want to be as cooperative as I can with my publisher.  We both want the book to do well!

Besides being in conversation via E-mail with the publisher herself, I’m also in contact with the editor assigned to my book, Hannah.  Now I’m in conversation with Christina who is handling promotion.  She tells me the release date will be Nov. 1 but that they will be sending out pre-publication copies called ARC books to people for review quotes.

A couple of the well-known authors I contacted to read a copy and possibly give a quote or blurb of endorsement turned me down.  I still have a couple of ideas of some others to contact, but the time is getting short.  These quotes or blurbs on the cover or back can really help — I know, I look at them on books I’m considering buying.  So, the process continues!
Dave

Of Worms and Angels

A worm and an angel have more in common than do an angel and God, that’s how great God is.  Dave

Sunbeam Road, Glory Road

This morning, as I took my prayer walk, I was inspired by the sun shining through the trees and morning mist, the shafts of light streaming down to the road.  I was walking toward the beams of light, which were so obvious from where I was coming.  When I arrived at the place where the beams met the road I no longer could see them.

I took the picture accompanying this post but wished I could have had someone take the picture with me in the sunbeams.  It would have looked so spectacular!  Ironically, I was in the sunbeams but couldn’t see them.  They were only visible from a distance.

The glory of the sunbeams reminded me of the glory of God, as if some slivers of light had escaped from heaven.  I got to thinking how these glorious sunbeams are like the glory of God.  When we are in the midst of a difficulty, we ask for God’s glorious presence.  Often we don’t experience it in an major way.  It’s usually later, with 20/20 hindsight, that we realize God was, indeed, with us!

The next time I ask for God’s presence in a particularly challenging situation, but don’t feel His reality as I’d like to, I’m going to try and remember that He’s there with me anyway.  After all, we can be walking in sunbeams and never know it!
Dave

Removing Ourselves from the Judge’s Bench

Every morning I reflect on the day’s reading in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. Each day’s reading is good but I feel prompted to share with you my thoughts on a recent reading (forJune 17). Chambers wrote about criticizing others. 

It’s an easy habit to fall into, criticizing others, and it’s a bad habit! I’m not talking about the times it’s our responsibility to think critically. If we’re responsible for the performance of other people we are required to view things objectively and sometimes that will require us to talk with the person about changes that need to be made. These times, it seems to me, are far less frequent than we’d like to think! 

My experience has been that when I get in the rut of thinking critically of others I end up feeling miserable myself. It’s difficult to throw mental mud at someone within your own mind without it getting all over yourself! 

I’ve done a great many funerals and one of the nicest things I’ve heard people say of the deceased is that “He/she never said a bad word about anyone.” Wow! That certainly is high praise. I’d like to be more like that, hopefully before I’m dead! 

Of course the main reason we shouldn’t be so judgmental is that this is the way Jesus wants us to be. Oswald Chambers writes, “Jesus’ instructions with regard to judging others is very simply put; He says, ‘Don’t.’ OK, let’s hear it in Jesus’ own words. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” (Matthew 7:1) There’s not much room for flexibility in interpretation in that is there? 

God has put a call on each of our lives but that call does not include being judge of the world, or even the little piece of the world around us. So, it’s time to lighten up, extend a little more grace and mercy to people, cutting them some slack. I’m feeling better already!

Focus on the “What” and Not the “How”

Recently Rupert, my friend and fellow pastor at M-P, showed me a book he’s reading for his PhD program.  We got to talking about a point which the book makes, that we put too much focus on the “how” in our lives.  When I think of a problem or a challenge I immediately want to answer the “how” of it.  “How will I get the money?”  or “How will I find the time?” or “How will I explain what I want to do?”  “How?”  “How?”  “How?” 

I suspect it would have been very easy for Moses to have asked “How?” when he led the huge crowd of probably over a million people of God to the edge of the Red Sea, saw the Egyptians in hot pursuit, and knew they had to cross.  When Moses considered leading this huge group of people into the wilderness he must have been tempted to ask “How?” in reference to the feeding of so many. 

I sometimes resist acting in positive and creative ways because I don’t have a completely satisfactory answer to the “how” of it.  I’ve come to realize that when I have a greater concern of how I am going to do something rather than the doing of it, I’m beaten before even starting.  It’s easy to give too much leadership to “How?” in life. 

“What am I supposed to do?” is the first question that we should be asking.  Its answer deserves our total commitment.  The “How?” question needs answering eventually but it must never be allowed to take away from the “What?” question.  Giving leadership to the “What?” question will best guarantee that we will find an answer to the “How?” question.
Dave

The Publication of a Novel — The Design Process

My editor, Hannah, and my publisher, Catherine, have been keeping me updated via e-mail as to the current stage of development of my novel.  Hannah’s incorporating my changes that I sent her.  I carried through on most of her suggestions and feel the changes will make for a better story.

Christina, their marketing director, is working on the project.  At this point I’m anxious to find out what she has in mind.  A puzzle piece figures into the novel so I want to do something with that concept.  I’ve included in this post a puzzle piece image I’ve created.  I hope to incorporate it in a bookmark or perhaps on a display board at book signings.

I’ve also contacted a couple of authors about doing a book cover or book back blurb in which they endorse the book.  One is too busy at this point and the other has yet to respond.  It would be nice, but time is getting short.  My publisher hopes to go to press by July 1.

They tell me the novel will come in at about 180 to 190 pages.  The graphic designer who will do the cover has just read the novel and says she’s inspired.  I can’t wait to see what she comes up with for a cover design.

I just signed up to be part of the Monroe County LIbrary System’s tenth annual author and book fair called Writers on the River that’ll take place at the main library in Monroe, Michigan, on Sunday, November 9th.  That will probably be my first book signing.

These are exciting times for an author!  I’ll continue to keep you posted.
Dave

Thoughts about God — Pt 2 — Where’s God?

I have a microscope, an old brass model I purchased on a garage sale. With it I look at some of the scum from my decorative pond. I’m transfixed by the tiny one-celled creatures that I see zoom about. What a miracle of life in miniature! God’s into the details of existence I find near at hand. 

I have a telescope, a gift from one of the men in my church. With it I can gaze at some distant galaxy, the light of which has taken billions of years to get to earth, it’s so far away. Amazing! God’s into the grand objects of distant space. 

God’s present in the microcosm I see through my microscope and He’s also present in the macrocosm I see through my telescope. He is present in the paramecium, a one-celled creature in my pond, and He is present in Perseus, a constellation in the night sky. God’s here, there and everywhere. There is no place where He is not. He is present everywhere at the same time. Space and place don’t limit Him. 

What great comfort this is, to know that God is with me wherever I am. What great comfort to know that God is not only present with me but with my son and his family, who live in another state, and with my daughter and her family, who live in another country. 

In the 1987 movie American Tale there’s a song with the lyrics, “Somewhere out there, beneath the pale moonlight, someone’s thinking of me and loving me tonight.” People thousands of miles apart can be looking at the moon at the same time, and feel a closeness. 

We may be far away from those we love but God is not! Through prayer we can have a personal connection to those from whom we are separated by miles. God is our common link! 

Omnipresence, that’s the technical name for the attribute of God that describes Him as being all places at the same time. He is with me as I write this. He is with you as you read this. How amazing He is!
Dave

“Acts of God”

The warranty that came with a small appliance we just purchased states that it does not apply if the failure of the appliance was due to an “act of God” which it defines as flood, hurricane, tornado, lightning, etc.  Why is it that we refer to the calamities of nature as “acts of God” but rarely give Him credit for the good things that happen in nature?  God often gets bad press.

On the other hand, it has crossed the mind of nearly everyone of us that God has made this world, including nature, so why are there such natural disasters as floods and droughts, earthquakes and erupting volcanoes, hurricanes, and tornadoes?  I’m not sure anyone has ever given an explanation that’s completely satisfactory, but what follows are some thoughts I’ve found helpful.

God has set up this universe with certain cause and effects that science helps us see and understand.  When conditions come together just right, or just wrong, they produce results that aren’t always the best.  Currents high up in the atmosphere keep dry weather in some areas so long there’s a drought and wet weather in another area so long that there are floods.  Plates in the earth shift because of immense pressure and this causes earthquakes.  Subterranean pressure of another kind produces volcanic eruptions.  Warm air meets cooler air and, with other conditions just right, produces a hurricane or a tornado.  Sometimes weather works in our favor and sometimes very much against us, costing loss of property and life.  Just as we can’t blame God for gravity killing someone who falls out a window, so we can’t blame God for what goes on in nature.

Having said this, there seems to be the suggestion in the Bible that the created order, as we know it, is not the way God created it!  Most know the story of the fall of Adam and Eve into sin but less known is that all of creation, in some profound way, exists in a fallen, imperfect state because of the fall of human kind.  We’re so used to hearing about crazy weather and volcanoes and earthquakes that we see it almost as normal, until it hits close to home!

A positive response to tragedy caused by natural events is to use it as an opportunity to deepen our faith and dependence on God.  Another positive response is to allow such events to make us better, not bitter.

This world is far from a perfect place, and certainly nature is no exception.  Nature’s not under our control.  How we respond to what it does to us is under our control!

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Romans 8:22

The Holy in the Ho Hum, The Blessing in the Boring

My heart, soul, and mind, are still attempting to cope with all I saw and experienced in Parkersburg, Iowa, last week. The f/5 tornado devastated the southern half of the town of two thousand. One lesson I came away with is that I have a new appreciation for the ordinary!

The owners of the over two hundred homes destroyed and the four hundred damaged wish Memorial Sunday evening would have been an ordinary evening. It was anything but ordinary. It was extra-ordinary in a horrible way. That Memorial Day Sunday was memorable in a very wrong way.

Lives lost, houses wrecked, trees twisted of limb and life, debris thick on the ground, and bewilderment as to what to do next is how that Sunday evening changed. How everyone wished things could go back to normal, the way they were just minutes earlier! If only this could have been another ordinary, hum drum day!

Most of our days are rather ordinary, even boring. I think we ought to be thankful for the blessing of the boring! There is something comfortable about the daily routine. We don’t have to occupy our minds with focusing on the mundane chores of stirring our milk into our cereal or brushing our teeth. We can think about other things, better things, more important things.

It’s as if our ordinary, daily, and routine activities are a blank, flat, nondescript canvas upon which we can paint whatever thoughts we want to. What if a painter had to work with a wrinkled, multi-colored canvas? No, he needs a plain canvas!

It just so happens that in today’s devotional (June 4) of My Utmost for His Highest Oswald Chamber writes, “We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing - that He is preparing and equipping us for some extraordinary work in the future. But as we grow in His grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, at this very moment…we learn to sing, glorifying Him even in the ordinary days and ways of life.”

Yes, ordinary days can be good! Find the holy in the hum drum. Discover the blessing in the boring.

Beyond the Tornado’s Destruction

Note: I have written a weekly newspaper column for my home town of Parkersburg, Iowa, for over 32 years.  Recently, a huge, level 5 tornado hit Parkersburg.  I drove all through the night to join my mother, brother and sister in Parkersburg.  My mother hid in her basement and was not injured, though her attached garage was destroyed and her house is beyond repair.  The following is a column that is to appear in the paper this week.
________________________________________

The mighty wind roared into town and changed so much so fast. In a few moments it was over, but in a real sense so much was just beginning. What should have been a sleepy Sunday on a Memorial Day week-end turned into a horrible moment forever to be remembered.

People climbed out of hiding to find their homes gone or seriously damaged. There were frantic searches to see if loved ones were alive, a rushing to neighbors to see if they were OK. Luscious green trees were now skeletons eerily piercing the sky, their twisted limbs grotesquely decorated with pieces of clothing, mattresses, lawnmowers, and sections of metal. Vehicles were crushed and crumpled. Precious possessions lay scattered everywhere.

I was one of those loved ones who rushed back to the hometown to be with family. In my case, I drove 12 hours through Sunday night from southern Michigan to be with my mother, Clara, and the rest of the family (her house was on South Johnson Street). I grew up in the Parkersburg community and have had the privilege of sharing with you through this column for over 32 years. A part of me is still here.

Though I am a word-crafter by trade (preacher and writer), finding the right words in the debris of my scattered thoughts and feelings in the face of this tragedy is no easy task. Just as many of us collected items from the rubble and put them in various piles or pails, so I’ve attempted to collect my thoughts, and would like to share them with you.

1. Tough times bring out the true character and level of faith we were building during the ordinary and good times before the tornado came.

2. Having realized this, we can use tragedy to remind us that we have yet a long way to go in this character-building business. We have a choice to let the tornado leave us bitter or better as a person. It’s God’s intention that we not waste this pain!

3. There’s a lot more good in this world than one might have thought. All kinds of help came to Parkersburg and the surrounding community hit by the tornado. People do care!

4. Our grief for the lives lost should not keep us from expressing gratitude that many more lives were not lost.

5. Never again let us complain that our days are so ordinary and uneventful. Every one of us would wish that Sunday, May 25, 2008, had been an ordinary Sunday. Let’s be thankful when we are blessed with so many ordinary days!

6. We’ve been made starkly aware that possessions can so easily be taken from us, a reminder that they should not be our ultimate source of happiness nor should they define our value as a person.

7. Tragedy is to draw us closer to God. C.S. Lewis stated that God whispers to us through pleasure but shouts to us through pain.

We can build new houses, a school, and businesses. Our life as a community and our individual lives can be rebuilt too, if we choose to make it so. We had no control over the tornado’s coming or what it left in its path. We do have control over what life will be like now that the tornado is gone!