Crossroads and Periscopes: How Stories Teach Us to Live

By Stephanie Duncan, Marketing Assistant at Moody Publishers

Welcome back to the new Moody Fiction Blog! Today we are continuing in the fourth day of our launch contest from Jan. 5-9th, and will be giving away 10 free copies of Miss Match by Sara Mills! Read on for details...

The Incarnation of Christ, as one of the core Christian beliefs, is composed of the Word given skin, of theology given a body, lungs, hands, and eyes.  John 1 speaks of the Incarnation beginning with creation, stating that “all things were made through Him” (John 1:3).  In this divine creative process, all things that were brought into existence began with the Living Word, and as humans made in the image of God, our words are  intended to function similarly.

Our words are not intended to stay stagnant or shelved, but to grow into our very doing, to become incarnate in the tangible outworking of our lives, and this applies particularly to the arts.  A biblical view of creative writing unfolds out of an understanding of the Incarnation, which teaches that just as the Word became flesh in the Son of God, language is intended to become manifest in life.

As writers, we are entrusted with the work of reminding a broken people of this wholeness, of picking up the pieces through story, metaphor and creative word, and so returning the minds of men to the Incarnation.

Stories also help us to interpret our lives in light of the greater, eternal context.  Madeleine L’engle comments in Walking on Water, “Stories are able to help us to become more whole, to become Named.  And Naming is one of the impulses behind all art; to give a name to the cosmos we see despite all the chaos.”[1]  Stories are powerful in their ability to inspire connectedness between daily life and heavenly glory.  Words can be for us anchors and footholds, able to tie down the majesty of idea to our level of living.

Michael Malone, a contemporary novelist, compares reading literature in one of his books to peering through a periscope: both enable us to “see around corners” and expand our vision.[2]  Stories give us the incredible gift of perspective: offering us a glimpse of eternal reality, showing us the connectedness of life, and assuring us that the glory we read of in Scripture and the daily cycle of our lives do, in fact, operate in the same sphere.

Flannery O’Connor suggests this as well, “The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location.”[3] Good writing connects the regular details of our lives with the glory of our souls and puts them on the same plane.

The best stories are those that realize their sanctifying power in the word of truth of the Author of Life.  The glorious task given to the Christian writer, then, is to fashion words in the manner of the Incarnation: words that point men to wholeness, and language that teaches us how to live.

 

To enter to win a copy of Miss Match, all you have to do is leave your comment below (along with your email--important for us to contact you if you are a winner!) answering the following question or responding to this post, and you will be entered into the contest.  Winners will be selected at random and will be notified the day after their comment is posted. Good luck!

 

Today's Question: In your experience, how has either writing or reading sharpened your eternal perspective? How have stories reminded you of God’s unfolding drama of redemption? 

FBI agent Jack O’Connor receives a letter from Maggie, a woman he used to love, saying she’s in trouble in Berlin. The FBI refuses to get involved, so Jack asks Allie Fortune to help him investigate. Allie and Jack pose as a missionary couple who want to bring orphans back to the United States. 

A child finds important documents that everyone in the city — Soviets and allies alike — want for themselves. Maggie refuses to tell Jack what the documents are, saying if things go wrong, they are better off not knowing. 

Through the course of the search, Allie’s past is brought back to her, half a world away from home.

Find Sara Mills at: 

www.saramillsbooks.com

---

[1] L’engle, Madeleine.  Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art.  Wheaton, Illinois: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1980.  Pg.  46.   

[2] McCullough, Donald W. “What Does Literature Have to do With Ministry?” Theology, News and Notes.  December 1991.  Pg. 3.

[3] O’Connor, Flannery.  “Novelist and Believer.”  The Christian Imagination: Essays on Literature and the Arts.  Ed. Leland, Ryken.  Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981.  Pg. 315.