A Writer's Classroom
What I Learned From Writing My First Book
Grace In The Shadows is my first work of fiction. I chose a particular setting (which I won't reveal in this blog) to display the theme of brokenness but actually brokenness can be found wherever there are human beings.
This story could be anyone’s story, especially those who struggle with childhood wounds. They usually show up when we become adults and especially when we attempt to get close to God. The Lord has an amazing way of shining His light on our cuts and bruises.
Similar to the main character, Dalton Baxter, who never understood the father heart of God, many of us,
likewise, fail to appreciate this amazing reality. Instead, as new Christians, we hop on the performance treadmill, thinking we can earn His approval. Unfortunately, many injured kids in grown up bodies are still trying to figure out why our earthly dads never doted on us, held us on their laps, or gave us butterfly kisses.
It is within that prism that we often see God.
So we work harder.
God seems like the dad who raised us. Unpredictable. Angry. With high expectations we will never meet no matter how hard we try.
Then when life becomes too difficult (as it does for everyone), many of us seek comfort from alcohol, drugs, food, workaholism, pornography, man-pleasing, and even religion. And then after engaging in such behaviors, we are slammed with guilt. It’s then we become desperate, making promises we will never be able to keep. If we abuse these passing pleasures long enough, undesirable patterns can be carved into our brains, forming pathways of thinking that are hard to change. Breaking addictive thinking and behavior is as hard as redirecting the mighty Colorado River that serpentines through the Grand Canyon.
Is there hope? Are we destined to stay stuck?
No. Jesus emptied Himself of His deity and came and dwelt among us. The key to “unstuckness” is to surrender to His love. Giving up on self-effort and our striving to pull-ourselves-up-by-our-bootstraps is not easy. For many of us, God is a last resort, when we find ourselves in trouble.
In 1995, songwriter Eric Bazilian, wrote a pop tune called, One Of Us. The lyrics were a bit odd, describing God as “one of us” and how He rides a bus and is a slob like us. You might think the words even border on blasphemy, but actually they are quite profound.
God did become one of us and the songwriter threads this theme throughout his song. It tells a story of God’s friendship with ordinary men and women, who travel in buses instead of Jaguars.
A few years ago I went through a very hard trial. There were days I wasn’t sure I’d make it. During that time, I found this verse to be so comforting: What is bruised and bent, He will not break; He will not blow out a smoldering candle. Isaiah 42:3. God never beats us down when we are low. In fact, He meets us on the floor. It is here we discover a deeper grace than we ever imagined. It is here we find grace in the shadows.
Karon Ruiz, Author, Grace In The Shadows
