THE LAST TIME I managed to leave a few thoughts here I parted with a question. Maybe I did that because open ended questions are the best way to encourage interaction. More likely it was because I really wanted to know others besides me struggled with delays and detours in their pursuits of life.

Last week I listed the steps I knew I must take to continue this writing journey. I placed “Survive in this world” as number 8 when I knew it really should have come first. No matter our plans, life refuses to take a back seat. And just when you think you have all your ducks in a row, the realities of life come knocking at the door and refuse to go unheeded.

I remember the world’s oldest man (at that time) was once interviewed on the Today show some years ago. He was asked the logical question most would want to hear answered, “What is your secret to living so long?” The 119 year old man thought a moment and answered with a twinkle in his eye, “I get up every morning and try real hard not to die that day and so far that plan is going pretty well.”

It was a special moment that has replayed in my mind many times. But the truth is there was a day the plan that had worked so well for over a century failed. Just months after bringing that slice of joy to millions of viewers, the man whose name I can’t recall, was dead and gone.

But even so, he lived far longer than we are promised on a simple premise: live today to the utmost and if God gives you another day tomorrow, do the same thing again.

Now back to the question I posed last week; “Anyone care to share how their plans for life are going”? It didn’t surprise me when someone who has shared this writing journey with me for at least the last five years showed up as transparent as ever. Catrina (CAT to me) Bradley wrote of her delays and detours.

My writing journey, huh? Well, I’m not where I dreamed of being when I started down this path is all I know for sure. I’ve been in a long dry spell – motivation has left me except for brief visits. I dreamed of writing the next great break-out novel (and I still may someday) but for now I struggle to come up with an original Facebook status.

Now there’s a breath of fresh air! You mean writers, real writers, run out of ideas? Think the ones they have stink. Are sure no one else would care to read a single word they wrote should the motivation come. You mean it’s possible for someone creative, and verbal, and all the rest to sit and stare at a stupid computer and think not one of the 7 or so billion people out there would give a flying fig about anything they had to say? You bet!

Take heart CAT and everyone else like us. A multi-published and often recognized author sent me a rough draft of his next novel a couple of weeks ago. The first thing he asked me when I told him I had started reading it was, “Do you think it’s really any good? Do you think people will want to read it?” I dare say a writer who doesn’t keep on thinking that way isn’t going to be around for the long haul.

But then our intrepid responder said something that rekindled a truth that had been slowly wasting away in me: in the midst of her dry spell she saw God using her talents in unexpected ways.

I write more devotions than I had imagined. Actually, I never imagined writing them at all, but they seem to come easy for me. (When they come – a monthly deadline for a group blog helps a lot.) And poetry – I love to write poetry! Who knew? Mostly, I write all day long at work – emails and prayer requests and letters and church bulletins and newsletters – and I think I’m all worded out by the end of the day. But I’m putting all those writing tips and skills to good use – the Lord’s work!

You see CAT, you are a writer and so am I. That breakout novel someone else wrote yesterday likely will be on the sales table at Barnes and Nobles a year from now. Few novels reach celebrity status and even less become timeless. On the other hand, that email you spent time on and used the writing gifts God gave you to express a word of hope to a fellow traveler in this life may well be timeless.

My point is that detours are not always a bad thing. Some can actually save your life. Or perhaps take you down a side street you never noticed before. To places you never thought of or even knew existed. It’s what I do with the gifts God has given me in those detours of life that say more about me than when all is speeding along in the fast lane of success.

“Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you” – Alex Haley

Alex Haley’s Rootsbecame a defining moment in American culture when it won the Pulitzer Prize and aired as an Emmy Award winning TV miniseries in 1977. Though it dealt with many social issues, at its core, this was a story about family and the power that comes from being tethered to one’s beginnings. Everyone needs those times in their life when they remember from whence they came and thus consider where they are headed.

Today, I took one such mental journey to reflect on my writing roots. That led me back to something my wife dug up a few weeks ago – my first published words. It was a six line poem in our High School literary journal. Trust me; I’m doing you a favor by not printing it here. I’ll spare you the pain and boredom of what transpired over the next 35 years before I grew brave enough to give the writing itch a scratch again.

When that day came I did what everyone does when they are ready to write the next great American novel. I got an idea and started writing, and writing, and writing. I poured myself into the characters (lots of them by the way) of that story and before long typed “The End”.

The next logical step was to Google up a willing publisher and send those words off. Six weeks later that lucky “reputable” publisher sent me an impressive looking gold foiled trimmed 10 page contract via Express courier. “Your manuscript shows great promise,” said the impressively titled acquisitions editor. “We are sure that by working together, The Tokenwill be a great success.”

As I read on, my persistently multi-tasking mind scanned the pages that followed as I thought, “This writing gig isn’t hard at all.” This was great. I was going to be able to skip all those tedious books on writing, jump right into my next story idea, and call my aging mother and let her know her baby boy’s name was going to be seen on bookshelves all over the country. So much for my sister, 12 years older than me, being the mental superstar of the family.

But just as I imagined myself calling up Ted Dekker and Dean Koontz to tell them to watch their backs because a new player was in the house, the last page of the contract brought me crashing back to reality. “Please sign in all the appropriate places and include a check in the amount of $3,895.00 so we can begin the work of putting your fine novel to press as soon as possible.”

This reality check was all too indicative of that period in my life. It had been a disruptive few years, with more than one career change and what amounted to a complete emotional and spiritual meltdown. There is always a price to pay for those real stories of life.

In spite of this let down and ensuing diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, I told my ego and feelings to take a hike and hunkered down for another assault on this thing called writing. This time I read the books, sought some advice, and came up with a battle plan. It looked something like this:

1. Learn the Craft
2. Polish My Novel
3. Find an Agent
4. Launch my Brand
5. Query and Send out Proposals
6. Get Published
7. Survive in the Real World

Next time, I’ll let you know how that plan is working out these days. For now, let just say “Survive the Real World” should have been at the top of the list.

How about you? Anyone care to share how their plans for life are going? It’s not that hard and this is a whole lot cheaper than paying for therapy. Why do you think I wrote this article?

Mandy was gone … It happened more quickly than anyone expected … The fact came alive as he lingered on it and  salved the horrors from his mind, at least for now. With no effort at all the unfaded image of Mandy first setting foot in his life played before his eyes, the dove girl sitting in the front row who caught and held his eye.

After nine years absence from the world of fiction, author Frank Peretti returns in high fashion as he invites us with these words into Dane and Mandy Collins’ Illusion. We are introduced to the husband and wife magic act of forty years with them torn from each other by a sudden and tragic car accident. Dane is left to mourn the loss of the only woman he ever truly loved and Mandy to something else even further beyond imagination.

Dane has nothing left but to return to their dream retirement home minus his lifetime friend and in many ways his reason for living. While he feels as though he has lost everything, Mandy may have lost even more. She now faces the loss of 40 years of her life and any knowledge of what transpired during that time. Both were born in the same year but now he is sixty and she is inexplicably nineteen. He suffers alone with his memories; she wanders the streets of the same little Idaho town alone with shadowy memories of another life and another time.

To go any further in trying to explain the plot is pointless and would do disservice to the story. If you never read speculative fiction be forewarned, this one is loaded with strange events with technical sounding explanations. Some readers will nod as though they understand time-lines and quantum physics. Others will simply scratch their heads and move on, unable to abandon this story because to do so would be to also abandon Dane and Mandy.

Illusion has plenty of action, a few nefarious types, and even a shadowy government conspiracy. But in the end, this is a love story. Note I didn’t say, Romance. If you want to know my thoughts on the difference in the two check out “I Hate Romance”.

In that article I wrote, “When you peel away the genre, the author’ s voice, the prose, and get to the core of all great stories you find the same common elements: isolation, love, failure and redemption”. Peretti reaffirms my premise because this IS a great story.

The two main characters are fleshed out in such a way I cared about both of them. Mandy’s sudden appearance, born in 1971 but walking the streets in 2010 as a nineteen year old, offers a bit of comic relief along the way. I can relate to being stuck in the 70s in my mind while bravely pretending I truly understand this new Millennium. Like Mandy, I still sometimes think “Far Out” in the italics of my mind but force myself to say “awesome” instead.

Having been married thirty-seven years myself, I could imagine being in Dane’s skin as he sits alone in that empty dream house and braves jotting down a few memories:

She was still beautiful I kid you not. Yes, she was fifty-nine. Her eyes kept the crinkle that smiling had put there; her hair was mostly blond from a bottle; the sun had deepened her freckles and coarsened her arms and back.

But there was nothing like seeing her sitting at breakfast with the morning sun at her back and her hair a corona about her head; nothing like the curve of her hips … where she draped them with a dress, framed herself in a doorway, even pushed a grocery cart. There was nothing like the pleasant roundness of her breasts under a sweater or her body against mine, that close to no other for forty years. (Chapter 12)

As far as I’m concerned Frank Peretti has scored a work of magic with Illusion. My advice is to forget trying to understand it all and just enjoy the ride.

Thursday Freebie: No strings attached help for those trying to communicate through social media and the web.  Be sure and share this link with all your friends.

Pop-Up Ads: Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. Pop-ups are seriously annoying. Yes, a pop-up could get you a few new email subscribers, but is that really worth all the traffic you lose when visitors abandon your site in annoyance? Convert site visitors into leads with well-written content and compelling CTAs/offers, not interruptive gimmicks.

Automatically Playing Multimedia Content: If someone’s enjoying what they thought was a silent browsing session and they’re bombarded with your theme song or a talking head on a video for which they didn’t press “play” and can’t find the button for “stop,” what do you think they’re going to do? Some might fumble for their mute button, but I can more easily locate the back button in my browser than my computer’s volume controls. Let visitors choose to play your multimedia content; don’t force it on them.

Confusing Animations: There is a three second window which users take to orient themselves on any given web page before they click ‘back’ in their browser. Animations, auto-play videos, blinking and flashing paid advertisements detract from a visitor’s focus during those critical three seconds. Drop the animations, and allow visitors to focus on what they can do on that page with clearly written headlines and explanatory copy.

Flash:  Search engines can’t read it, so your site won’t get indexed. Plus, visitors are often looking for a very specific piece of information when visiting your site. If they have to wait for a 10-second visual introduction before they can find your hours of operation, they are likely to leave before getting what they wanted.

Sliders That Take too Long to Load: Sliders are an excellent way to showcase multiple images in a space-efficient manner. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to use them. If your slider loads images quickly and doesn’t require a new page to load every time a user clicks, congratulations! But the web is filled with sliders that, every time you click the arrow for the next image, load an entirely new web page.

SEO-Driven Content: Unfortunately, some websites are still writing for bots, even though Google’s algorithm is far more sophisticated at determining a page’s relevancy than it was ten years ago. In fact, Google will now penalize you for these types of activities! There’s a difference between search engine optimized content and over-optimized content. Don’t write for crawlers; write for humans.

No Social Sharing Buttons: These buttons make social sharing easy for your readers — they don’t have to copy and paste your URL, shorten it, and compose a tweet. And easy social sharing options means your content gets more visibility, which means more site traffic, better search engine rankings, and more lead generation opportunities.

Titles and Content that Don’t Match: Great titles are what cause people to click through in their RSS, emails, and search engines to read what you have written. But if they’re met with content that’s unrelated to the title you provided they will abandon your site. While it’s important to capture peoples’ attention in titles, make sure it isn’t misleading.

Internal Linking that Isn’t User-Friendly: When done well, internal links are helpful for readers and the website alike. They point readers to other relevant information, and help you improve the organic ranking for important pages on your own website. But some websites don’t execute internal linking correctly, pointing users to irrelevant pages, linking strange phrases within the copy, and overdoing it to the point of making content unreadable.

Too Much You: I know your book, or photo, or product, or service, or thoughts are the best ones on the planet. But too much of anything is well, too much. Focus on your followers more than yourself; it’s the smart thing to do.

So let’s get this out of the way right up front. I don’t know if Frank Perritti’s, Illusion is a great novel or not; at least not yet. One can hardly make such a determination just 69 pages into an over 400 page novel. The premise is intriguing and a few chapters in, I have no doubt I will hang with this one to the end.

The author has already connected with me in a powerful way in chapter eight. Consider this passage when the main character returns home after burying his wife of 40 years.

This trip felt entirely first time. He’d bought one ticket, packed one bag, carried only one boarding pass. There was no one to wait for while going through security and no one to wait for him … He’d bought only one Starbucks coffee and a blueberry muffin for only himself … He went through the doors first with no one to open them for.

While waiting for his one bag … grief overcame him as it often did, on a schedule all its own, unpredictable, unavoidable. Maybe it was the standing here alone … Maybe there was no reason at all. Grief just came when it came, worked its way through, and receded quietly until the next time. That was the way it worked.

 

I was immediately taken back over 20 years ago. There I sat alone in a hospital room recounting for the 100th time the words of our neurosurgeon, “If you have your wife another year, count yourself lucky. There’s really not a lot of hope I can offer you.” Frank Peritti’s pounding home that word “One” painted a word picture I remember all top well. Thankfully, my wife and best friend proved them all wrong.

My point is simple. Peritti painted a scene that connected with me and I suspect will with many others.  He accomplishes that in the midst of a fantastic plot that entertains and to this point is well written. What more could I ask?

If you need more than that before making a decision to read Illusion, I doubt scanning reviews at Amazon will help much. As usual, there are those who feel cheated because the author dared to write from the view point of the world he lives and breathes in. Peritti makes no pretense about who and what he is. Even so, at least one reviewer complained, “The product description made no mention of this book belonging to the Christian Fiction genre. Had it done so, I wouldn’t have wasted my time reading the sample.”

Some in the Christian writing community have observed it is a bit of subterfuge to fail to label books as Christian. So what should Simon and Schuster have done to protect the sensitivities of the aforementioned reader? Perhaps books with warning labels are the answer: “This novel may confront you with a worldview you have previously been able insulate yourself from.”

I’m all for that as long as everyone plays by the same rules. The movie Avatar, for example, needed something more than PG-13. Perhaps, “This film is a thinly veiled attempt to equate capitalism and industry with all the problems faced by our planet.” But I digress.

In fairness, Christians are just as picky. One reader gave Illusion, 2 stars because, “As a longtime fan of Frank Peretti’s, I must say I was really disappointed with his latest,” … Gone- was the Christian symbolism, gone – was the “deep thinking” analogies and above all, gone – was the challenge to my own Christian walk with the Lord.”

So now a novel is not worthy of my time if it doesn’t challenge my Christian walk enough? In that case, a whole lot of what passes for Gospel preaching these days deserves 2 stars as well.

What these reviews and a million other words floating around the Internet about the validity of fiction with a Christian world-view  do for me is confirm how we all tend to be filled with illusions of our own self-importance. I would offer links to articles on the matter but the result is always the same – plenty of heat but little light.

So what do I mean by illusions of our own self-importance?  To listen to some, one would think we writer types are working on a cure for cancer; or even more delusional, the answer to bridging the gap between fallen man and God.

Why can’t a writer just write what he or she wants to write and hope to connect with readers looking for that kind of story? To my writer friends out there, quit lifting yourself up as the saviors of civilization by questioning what others write or read! Some of my friends have adamantly proclaimed, “I don’t read Christian fiction.” That’s their choice. Thankfully I choose to read what speaks to me regardless of the label.

That’s as close to a rant as I’ve allowed myself in a long time on this site. So back to Illusion. Peretti has had some major hits and a couple of disappointments in his career. My guess is this one is already making its way to the This Present Darkness category.

Yaweh uses broken men. I don’t know why he uses David, why he uses us.”

When Cliff Graham introduced his Lion of War series with the first installment, Day of War, I knew in the first few pages that readers were in for something seldom seen in faith based fiction. Here was a brutally honest book that told the story of broken men seeking to make some sense out of a broken world; and in terms that didn’t insult our God-given manhood in the process.

In Day of War, David was yet to be king and seen mainly from the fringes through the eyes and mind of his soon-to-be body guard, Benaniah. There was no doubt to those closest to him that this man-child called David was to be something great one day. And it was those men who saw in him someone worth following into the face of death itself.

Covenant of War picks up with David, now king of the southern kingdom of Judah and at 30, a legend to some, hated by others, and feared to be growing soft by the warriors who know him best. With the Philistines looking to do away with Judah once and for all, it will be Eleazar, one of David’s heroic Three, whose journey holds the key. Someone must have the courage to remind David of what seems to be growing dim in the luxury of a palace.

Nothing of the scope and power of Day of War is lost and if anything is ratcheted up. The final third of Covenant of War is worthy of the best of epics with battle scenes that relentlessly bleed into one another like the life blood of the warriors in the story. The author’s extensive historical research and time in the Holy Land pays off with scenes that literally suck you into the battle.

But these men do not fight alone. When all hope is lost and each man determines to press on no matter what, another warrior contends alongside them. And when they have nothing left to give, he fights in their place.

It was a figure, a man-like thing, but it had a massive sword covered with fire. The warrior with the flaming sword raised his huge arms above his head, a war cry that resounded and shook the earth, as if a lion as vast as a mountain itself was on the hunt.

Though seen only in glimpses, this celestial warrior finally fits the image given such a one in Scripture. This is no Pillsbury Doughboyish cartoon figure of sweetness. This is a being of Hebrews chapter one whose sword is a flame of fire and is sent out to serve those who will inherit salvation.

While Covenant of War stands its ground alongside The 300 or Braveheart, it is another battle and victory that causes it to transcend such stories. Those who are brutally honest with themselves know the greatest battles are not fought with swords or with the hands of man. Such battles can be attended by flaming spiritual warriors but only won through a humble bended knee.

A large and powerful-looking man was standing with his arms crossed at the edge of the forest behind David. He had noble but hard features. His stare was severe, and David looked at the ground … “I am wicked. He would not be pleased with me.”

Covenant of War is a story of promises broken and remembered. It is the story of every man of every time. You may read it once but must live it forever!

__________________________________________

Cliff Graham was born in Dallas, TX and raised in Rapid City, South Dakota. He has been a Military Police soldier, Army officer, pastor, and author. He names Michael Shaara, Steven Pressfield, Louis L’Amour, and Bernard Cornwell as the most influential authors in his career. Cliff is an avid outdoor enthusiast, spending time in the mountains along the Utah-Idaho-Wyoming borders, where he lives  with his wife and sons. During breaks in writing, he enjoys speaking at conferences and churches about King David and his warriors.

Thursday Freebie: No strings attached help for those trying to communicate through social media and the web.  Be sure and share this link with all your friends.

Numerous news sources have begun to report on problems with Facebook privacy in particular when using apps. Because it such an open platform that encourages “friends” sharing these apps with each other it is now populated with rogue apps that can spread spam, malware, and outright scams.

Even legitimate apps present huge privacy risks allowing 3rd party developers to private Facebook data. A large number of Facebook users are unaware that these applications make it possible for their “friends” to access information in their personal Facebook profile. In her article, “How Much Do Your Friends’ Facebook Apps Know About You?” Sarah Kessler points out those applications you share with friends can reveal your:

• birthday
• status updates
• photos
• hometown
• current city
• app activity

Short of ditching all social media or unplugging you computer, there are options to ensure your private information is not available to other people.

Option One: Disable all Platform Apps

You won’t be able to play games or share birthday cards but this is the most obvious and definitive solution. By disabling apps you are totally prohibiting any third party Facebook application from accessing your account.

Disabling apps is a simple process. Go to “Privacy Settings”, scroll down to ‘Edit Settings’ under “Apps and Websites” and click “Turn off all apps”.

Option Two: Learn How to Limit Access

Since many of us have come to love the way Facebook allows us to connect with people the good news is that here is an answer short of abandoning the social media ship. When on the “Privacy Settings” page you can modify to further limit access to your profile data. On the same screen find “How people bring your info to apps they use’ and click “Edit Settings”.

From here, you can use the check boxes to prohibit your friend’s apps from accessing specific categories of your data. Anything with a check mark is already being shared with your friends. Remove the check marks to restrict access to your account.

One of the chief complaints about Facebook is that it makes finding these privacy controls confusing. The very fact your friends have access to your data without your consent is a problem in itself. Thankfully, there are several 3^rd party sites that make managing your privacy settings a snap. These include:

• MyPermissions.Org – Takes you directly to the application settings page for Facebook and other popular social networking platforms. The site will also email you an automatic monthly reminder of what apps you have added and what permission they grant.

• BitDefender Safego – A Facebook app that scans your News Feed and protects your from scams. This nifty app serves as a Malware protector designed specifically for Facebook.
• PRIVATE WiFi® – If you travel a lot or use a tablet or laptop from public WiFi hotspots, consider this a necessity from now on. The program comes with a 3 day free trial and costs about $10 per month but is well worth the investment.
• Do Not Track+ – a free browser plugin that keeps websites from tracking you. Some web browsers offer a stealth mode but it must be turned on each time you open the browser. This free plugin opens automatically and blocks other web sites from planting cookies or accessing any information from your computer.

So let’s get some things straight right off the bat. I have always loved epic tales filled with mythos and story arcs culminating in a fitting end for a bigger than life hero’s journey. Translation: I read Lord of the Rings long before there was a movie and marveled at Asimov’s robots decades before Will Smith came on the scene.

Approaching half a century after reading my first Tom Swift Jr. novel I haven’t outgrown my fascination with stories of imagination and speculation. As critics panned John Carter I happily plunking down twelve bucks to see if my youthful imaginations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ pulp classics were close to Hollywood’s IMAX 3D version.

I start this way lest anyone reads what is to follow and discounts it due to any preconceived notions about me. I am a died-in-the-wool lover of good stories told in strange and imaginative ways. And … I am also an unapologetic believer in the present reality of Jesus Christ who truly died, was buried, and rose again.

Last Easter, Daily Kos offered its take on the true meaning of Easter. For that writer, mythology is more important than fact. And what of someone like me who clings to a literally factual resurrection of the One who is very man yet very God? Let’s just say that writer thinks I’m hopelessly trapped and ignorant of it.

DAILY KOS – For the literalist to think of the Gospels as mythic is to think of them as false and therefore useless.  In a very specific way, today’s fundamentalist/evangelical readers are trapped – knowingly or not – in the language and mindset of a worldview which holds that some things are factual and therefore true and those things which are not factual are untrue.  This worldview is rooted in science but in the science of the late 19th through the mid 20th centuries and not the science of quantum and chaos theory.

I always find it amusing when post-modernists and their spiritual children speak as if they invented such zingers: a worldview which holds that some things are factual and therefore true and those things which are not factual are untrue. Amusing because I paid my own hard earned money to sit in a liberal arts college 35 years ago to hear that very same line of reasoning.

In fact, the following quote from Daily Kos could have been written verbatim by my Ancient and Medieval Philosophy professor.

DAILY KOS – The deep mythology of Easter is the mythology of the cycle of life – of death, of new life.  It is the Mother Goddess earth nurturing her children and rescuing us from death.

The routine went something like this: if that wooden headed literalism about Jesus physically resurrecting from the dead helps, then by all means hang on to it but too bad you’re missing the deeper meaning. Or as Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote in his book Resurrection: Myth or Reality, “the resurrection was true in the deepest sense without being a literal account.”

I am a writer who spins stories. Hopefully they engage, entertain, and occasionally lead people to ask big questions. But even the best stories are just that, stories. What a mistake to categorize the greatest FACT of time as myth!

The problem some people have with the Easter Story is not in finding the hidden truth buried within the myth. Their problem is with the reality that is out in plain sight. There was no digging for hidden meanings when Paul wrote.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 ESV)

I unapologetically stand with one foot temporarily in the now and the other already in the eternal forever of the resurrected Son of God. How about you?

Last week I posted my review of The Miracle of Mercy Land by River Jordan. At that time I promised to be back the next day with my analysis of her story telling style and some negative responses to the novel. Since it’s been a week rather than a day, it’s a good thing the title of this post is, “How long will we be in a hurry?”

Before we get to that, take six minutes to watch and listen to the following. You’ll understand later (if you have the patience for it) why I placed this video here.

Don’t get me wrong, I love action adventure and I can get in a mad rush with the best of them. Like any man, when I have to shop, I’m a man on a mission: track it down, tree it, shoot it, and bag it.

I am also beginning to learn the value of pondering the big things and relishing the small things. God helped me in this new quest for slowing down by allowing me to have Multiple Sclerosis. Now that I am somewhat better He’s doing a really good job of sending subtle reminders every day of how quickly He can slow me down again if need be.

Which leads me to a few negative reviews of a story I truly loved. The Miracle of Mercy Land has been out for a couple of years and managed to garner a broad spectrum of reviews. Some loved it, some liked it, some tolerated it, and a few hated it.

Among those who didn’t rave over the story there is one predominant theme; “Get to the point already” Consider these 1 star reviews:

The story started out slowly, and continued thus until nearly the end … The language of the book seemed to meander on and on … Phrases like “the good of life mixed with the taste of sorrow” abound, and make you feel like you’re sitting on a porch swing listening to a rather long-winded great-aunt tell the story, all the while wishing she would hurry up and get to the point.

The reader never finds out what this book is. It is mysterious. It has some kind of a hold over Doc and a bit over Mercy, but we never ever find out why. It somehow gives the “reader” a look into people’s lives and past, but it is so vague, so unclear, the reader is left scratching his head wondering what is going on. This mystery is never resolved in any kind of a satisfactory manner.

 

What is sad about these readers is that they looked straight at the point of the story but didn’t get it. Life is a mad rush but at the same time often maddingly redundant. Like Bittersweet Creek in the story we find ourselves curving back on ourselves, making the same mistakes over and over.

And, like the man you were sure she would be with yet dissapeared, life is often a mystery. The main character, Mercy, pursued the things that mattered, and also made peace with things never explained. Rather than fighting the ambiquities of life she focused on what she was sure of and trusted whatever mysteries that needed to be solved would be in the right time.

Do you ever feel like David in the Psalms ? How long O Lord? Can you trust Him to explain what needs to be explained, wait on what needs to be waited on, and cling to Him when the only answer you receive is, “Not yet”?