Up Pops the Devil

Today as I packed for the Faith and Fiction Retreat, I listened to an interview author, Angela Benson (http://www.angelabenson.com/) had about her new book "Up Pops the Devil". I'll be featuring Angela real soon, so she can share her very interesting publishing journey and great premise for the book. Her interview spurred a deep reflection about some recent events that could have stopped me from traveling to this coveted event for Christian readers and authors.

Life is full of twist and turns, good things and bad things and we all know the best laid plans can be interrupted as quickly as a flash of lightening. When life gets interrupted I spend time with God and ask him what's going on? I wonder did I hear God correctly when he said go left or was I supposed to go right? Was I disobedient or hasty about a decision, or am I living through a JOB moment in life when you know, up pops the devil.

I'm a person who has learned to find the root cause of situtations in my life and work. Self-examination and personal accountability go hand in hand in my daily walk with Jesus. When one's "locus of control" rest with external sources accountability is low and the devil we blame will pop up more than we'd like. Since I'm not interested in trial and error I journey inward, searching my heart for the reason for the trouble. When asking God why I'm enduring a particular thing sometimes he answers clearly, other times it comes to me in the still of the night and alot of times I just don't get an answer. What I have found and grown to completely understand is that surrendering it all to HIM has made it easy to accept the gravest of situations. I find peace no matter the situation and peace is what he promised us.

The retreat seemed almost out of my grasp for several months due to finanical issues, but I remember clearly God told me I could go, so even when a $1,400 auto repair popped into my world a little over a week ago, I stood firm on the promise God made that I would make the trip this year. The devil popped up, but because of faith and grace and mercy, this girl is still packing.

What experiences have you had lately with an interruption of life's plans that faith bought you through?

Destin take me away...

I am not a summer person. That's really not a good thing for someone who lives in a hot city like Atlanta where we only have two seasons - summer and winter. I turn off the heat for the air-conditioning and the air-conditioning is on for more months than I care to run it. By the time August rolls around, I'm sick of long, sunny, hot and humid days. Add the business of life and Atlanta traffic and I'm a complete lunatic by 6 pm, Monday through Friday. Seriously, if I didn't pray I'd have to be medicated. However, unlike the summers of the past, this year right when I'd usually be approaching maximum misery, I have something to look forward to. That would be four days and three nights in yummy Destin, Florida. Six members of my writer's group, Visions in Print and many other authors and avid readers of Christian Fiction will be attending the second annual offering of the Faith and Fiction Retreat. ( http://www.faithandfictionretreat.com/ ). The hotel is a five star resort with a spa where some body treatment awaits me. The seafood in Destin is right off the pier and the beach... let's just say, the picture below can't capture the magnificence of the emerald green water splashing against sugar white sand. It's absolute perfection.


I grew up one mile from the beach in New Jersey where the water was dark blue. I miss the beach, like most who live so close to the water, I took it for granted. Now that I'm land-locked I crave looking across an expanse of ocean, especially when life is particularly troublesome. Not only does the beach make summer bearable, but when I'm close to it, the presence of God penetrates my being. I've made some of the best decisions of my life staring at water. It really is a healing balm. I believe the ocean is the most poignant reminder of God's infinite desire to give us good gifts that soothe the soul in a way that no wrapped present can. My mini-vacation is just what the soul doctor ordered. It's the break I need to help me get my creative mojo back, so I can make better headway with my second novel. I don't even feel guilty about not taking my kids, September will be here soon enough and my oldest has requested Orlando, Florida. So this is mom's little excursion that will bring her back to them rested and spiritually refreshed. Just the thing I need to help me make it through until I can turn the air-conditioning off. Destin, here I come...take me away...


Tell me where you've gone or plan to go for the summer? If you're not getting away, what types of things do you do to refresh your soul and reconnect with God?

Writing for HIM

You haven’t heard my voice in a few weeks. I’ve been busy with author features and book giveaways. It’s been an exhausting month. I’m looking forward to July, because I sense some peace on the horizon. Although I’ll be extremely busy at my day job and busier still with writing related things, I’ve been praying for God to give me that place of rest where the cares of this world won’t carry my joy away.

I’ve been pecking away at a couple of writing projects. Really, trying to hone in on one in particular that would wow my agent, my editor, and the reading public at large. At the same time I’ve been in this dry place, where God hasn’t been giving me direction about where he wants me to go and what he wants me to do with my writing. I’ve been feeling insecure about my first novel, going back through it with a fine tooth comb looking for the weaknesses and errors that I can still fix before my editor finds them. I’ve been re-reading craft books and skimming blogs about writing and finally, I’ve been immersed in reading and critiquing other people’s work. All this while I’ve been waiting for heaven to open up and say, “Okay, the next writing assignment is...” or so, that’s what I thought I was waiting for.

This past Saturday I attended a writing workshop. As always, I had childcare issues, so I arrived too late to eat my $14 meal, but right in time to get the food I really needed which I couldn’t have paid for, because it was priceless. The presenter, Anna DeStafano (http://www.annawrites.com/), President of the Georgia Romance Writers and award winning author, made a point that hit home and woke me up to my current reality. I’m not waiting for God. Jesus has already come and he left me a message about my writing many years ago, when I was wrestling with the decision whether to write secular fiction or Christian Fiction. The Lord spoke to me and said, “You can write whatever you want, but I’ll bless you more if you write for me.” Heaven opened up along time ago.

It’s a fundamental truth, at least in my world and in my relationship with Jesus, that he’s not a micromanager. The Lord gives us gifts and assignments and sends us on our merry way to get stuff done. HIS expectation is that we not bury the talent and that we not forget that he has called us to spread the Good News. Everything else in life from ministry to childrearing really revolves around those two charges. The details of how only require that we exercise excellence in getting it done.

So, the truth is I’ve been putting off the writing of the novel in the same way I put off dealing with anything in life that I don’t want to do. My dirty little secret is that procrastination is how I handle conflict and I have Anna to thank for pointing that out to me. But I’m a big girl; all grown up and I’ll fight my personal demon, take it by the horn and wrestle it down to the ground. I will go forth and get to doing the thing I was born to do and that’s write the Great American Novel. It may not be on the order of a Zora Neal Hurston or James Baldwin classic or even our modern day masters like Walter Mosley or the late BeBe Moore Campbell, but it will be my masterpiece…my divinely orchestrated work of art and my attempt to do what HE has graciously allowed me to do. Write for HIM. What an honor and a privilege.

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings,

Rhonda

For a good post on keeping Jesus in your work, visit Dee Stewart at http://www.christianfiction.blogpost.com/ and read about writing vertically.

What is Christian Fiction?

I was asked this question a few months ago and shared the following response: Christian fiction is a novel or story that includes one or more saved (by "saved" I mean believing that Jesus Christ has redeemed us from our sinful nature. Once saved we have complete and radical trust in Jesus' power to change, restore, forgive, heal and make our lives new) character(s) who face an issue or challenge that pushes the limits of their faith. By the end of the story they resolve the issue or challenge in a way that's consistent with the integrity of the Christian faith. Wow, that's a mouthful and it came off the top of my head.

In Christian fiction at least one of the main characters demonstrates his or her love for God and clearly has a strong desire to lead an active Christian life, even if they miss that mark from time to time. In good Christian fiction they will miss the mark, many times, that makes for a realistic story and good conflict in the novel. Perfect people who handle things in a perfect way aren't real in life or on paper and that's been an ongoing problem with some Christian fiction. But I think as more people come into the genre and more networking is done with readers, authors will learn what readers want and some of the perfect people-isms will go away or the good writers will rise to the top.

In closing, I'll add that I don't believe Christian fiction is a story where the main character lives a life in which they do everything wrong before coming into relationship with Jesus Christ and neither does the Christian Booksellers Association (www.cbaonling.org). This is because in Christian fiction there needs to be a clearly articulated Christian worldview. The character can't have that if they aren't already saved. I think may confuse what I call "Church Fiction", that would be a novel about church drama that does not have a Christian worldview. So, that's my 2 cents. Some would disagree with me, but hey it's my blog.

Many Blessings and Much Love,

Rhonda

My first novel, Issues of the Heart, coming Dec 2009 from Urban Christian Books.