Memorable Characters

Day 34 of 40 days of Lenten Posts

Writers are constantly striving to create memorable characters.

We want to read about interesting
people who overcome impossible obstacles.

Some characters are the good guys; they are the ones wearing white hats in case you forgot. The bad guys are sporting the black hats.

Okay, I just showed my age, I of course got this from watching westerns in black and white.

Creating interesting characters is serious business for writers.

There are two definitions for character:

1. A person, man, woman, soul, creature, individual.

2. Personality, nature, disposition, temperament, mentality, essence, integrity, honor, moral strength

When a writer is creating her protagonist and antagonist a decision has to be made concerning their moral fiber, what are they made of? This will determine what they are capable of doing, or not doing, in the story.

As a novelist I have the freedom to play with my characters but in my own life I don’t have that liberty. My belief in Jesus Christ as my savior and Lord carries with it restrictions. Restrictions I don’t mind having, they are not barriers but guardrails. My integrity, or lack of it, will keep me out of trouble, or get me into it. With my moral compass set it is easier to stand against temptation when it arises and it will arise.

I have determined to develop a character worthy of the title, Child of Christ.
I want to become a memorable character.
How about you?

Every story needs a turkey.



Detours and Paths

Day 7 of 40 days of Lenten posts

Life for Christians can suck; don’t let anyone tell you that when you become a Christian all your problems will be gone. You will still sin, mess up and wonder if you are even saved.

When you give your life to Christ it is like painting a target on your back, the enemy of your soul will come after you with discouragement, temptations, and lies.

John 10:10 says the thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. He’s not after the non-Christians, he already has them. You have become his prey. God’s purpose is to give you a rich and satisfying life. It may seem a contradiction that you will have all these problems but still have a satisfying life. Think about it, isn’t there satisfaction in overcoming obstacles?

God doesn’t always deliver us from the messes we get ourselves into or from all that the enemy throws at us, instead He steps up alongside of us and shows us the way through, and out, of the muddle we have gotten ourselves into.

As we read the Word and listen carefully we become better at discerning when the enemy is speaking and when it is the Spirit of God directing us. When peace descends you know you are on the right path.

And if you leave God's paths and go astray, you will hear a Voice behind you say, "No, this is the way; walk here." Isaiah 30:21-22 TLB

Will You Wait?

Itarsi, a city in Madhya Pradesh, India is host to a pastors conference that is taking place right now.  This conference will minister to almost 1,000 rural pastors. Our pastor, a team of teachers and group of young people from our church are a major part of this conference. The team of young people are a praise team and a camera crew who are capturing footage of this holy time.

The rural pastors who are attending this conference are not going for a pick me up, like we would do when we go to a Joyce Meyer conference or other religious gatherings. These pastors will take what they learn to their little churches and turn the country of India inside out for Christ. They daily risk their lives to preach the gospel that we take for granted.

Our church has a web site set up and updates are posted daily by the team in India. I love technology. This website enables us to know how to pray for the conference and the pastors.
One of the young people on the team put up a post that is so impactful that I am copying it here.

Don’t forget to wait
Post by: Justin Hale (video editor)

As I sit here in the air-conditioning, capturing footage and listening to iTunes, there are hundreds of pastors and students gathered less than a block down the street learning how to be better husbands and wives. This is their seventh session of the day, each session’s topic ranging from “Encountering God Through Praise” (way to go PR) to “The Life of John the Baptist”. Each attendee sits eagerly, notebook in hand, soaking in every word, ready to write that next bullet point down, ready to ingest this sermon and deliver it in his own church. This scene could be any pastoral conference arena or bible college classroom. Except this is no ordinary theological dissertation. This sermon might be the one that causes the sky to rain with ashes made of what used to be his church. That next bullet point might cause the streets to run red with his own blood. This isn’t America, with a church on every corner. This is Madhya Pradesh.

A few hours ago, while I was eagerly anticipating lunch being served, I commiserated with a fellow teammate who was saying that he usually had difficulty making it through one sermon, let alone six. You see, in America, we live in a “streak o‘ lightning” world, constantly being bombarded with distraction after distraction, moving from one stimulation to the next like we change songs on our iPods. The only thing that is constant is that we are constantly moving, marching to the insane beat of some drummer who moves so fast he might have eight arms and a Red Bull addiction. Our days are suitcases packed so full you couldn’t zip it if an entire offensive line sat on it. All of this noise serves to do one thing: it reduces our attention spans to zero. And good things only come to those who wait.

Psalm 46:10 says “Be still, and know that I am God;” but how often are we really still? How often do we wait on Him? Are we willing to sit in the sweltering heat for hours at the clip just to hear what His word has to say? Regrettably, I usually can’t sit in the comfort of my air-conditioned home for less than an hour to wait on Him. The God of the universe paid the most precious price He could pay to have a relationship with us. Think about it. God sent a part of HIMSELF down to earth to be tortured and murdered, then sat three days in HELL, just so that He could have the opportunity to hang out with us. And we act as though our time is so precious. “Hey God, I think maybe I can pencil you in at 3, but we’re going to have to make it a quick one. Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory is coming on and it’s the one where he buys the tennis ball gun from American Gladiators. I know I’ve seen it three times already, but it’s hilarious!”

These pastors represent 2.6 % of the population of India and the anti-christians are scared to death that they will de-stabilize the country. The majority of America is christian and everyone thinks we’re a joke. These pastors are willing to sit through heat, tribulation, persecution and the threat of martyrdom for the chance to have an encounter with God. I want to challenge each one of you, starting with myself, to take a few moments out of the proverbial rat race, and simply wait. Wait until God shows up. And then let’s see what happens from there. I don’t think we’ll be disappointed.

Will you take the challenge to "simply wait" on God?