|
CRoB Readers Club-New! Between the Lines-New! Fiction Reviews Non-Fiction Reviews Articles Children's Books Classics Short Stories CRoB Links, Sponsors and Stores Parents Guide-New! Search the Review
|
|
 
Get Free Books - Become a Reviewer!
Authors and Publicists: Help Spread the Word- Link to Us Visit Our Parent Company, WhiteFire Printing.
|
Flourescent Light Words We just got some of those new spiral flourescent bulbs for our kitchen light. After putting them in, I was walking around my kitchen going, "Wow! Was this towel always this green? Was hamburger always this red? Hey. . . when did that stain get there on my stove?" Okay, the difference was partly because my four-bulb fixture was down to one working bulb and had been for. . . let’s just say a while. But after cooking and cleaning in dim light, the difference the flourescents made was astounding. So I got to thinking and realized that a good book is the same way. I’ll never forget the first moment of awe I had with a book. It was when we read A Separate Peace in high school. Now, I had long been a book lover, and I was already a storyteller. But that was the first piece of literature that I read and thought, "He’s thinking what I’ve thought, only he’s putting it in a way that actually makes sense, adding eloquence to the mundane." That’s what a good book does. Takes our thoughts, our feelings, our fears, and sheds new or brighter light on them. I’m not much given to demonstrating emotion, so it takes something special in a book or a movie to make me cry. It takes more than talent, more than writing skill. It takes digging deep into the character’s heart and touching mine in the process. I had one of those moments when I read Francine River’s A Voice in the Wind many years ago; it was the first time I ever hated an ending and yet knew that it was right. More recently I had a similar experience with Annette Smith’s A Bigger Life, a story of a family struck by a tragedy I’ve experienced myself. That was one of those books that no one would dare call upbeat, but which literally hit me, right in the gut. But the best flourescent light words come from another book–yeah, you knew this was coming. The Bible. It still amazes me, though, that I can read something I’ve read dozens of times before and suddenly, POW! It’s lit up, and I’m wondering, "Has that always been there?" When we read the Word of God with the right heart, one opened up like a blossom in the rain, He shines His light on it and us. It makes us better understand ourselves, can reassure us in the dim recesses of our lives. But then, it can also show us the stains we might have missed before. That can hurt, can bring us to our knees. And it should. We need to make sure of that, that we’re as affected by God’s word as we are by man’s. Sure, I don’t often cry at movies and rarely when reading a novel, but I have. Can I say the same for the Bible? When was the last time I read the account of Jesus’s suffering and shed tears over it? Ever? When did my heart seize up in my chest at David’s cries to God? Has it? I’m the first to talk about the value of fiction, good fiction especially. And I’m the first to praise the authors of it for seeking the Lord, opening their hearts to Him, and pouring out the stories He gives them. But we have responsibility, too, as readers. We have to take their lessons to heart but not stop at their words. We have to go back to the source, back to the original Word-smith, and hear Him for ourselves. Sometimes, flourescent lights give me headaches. Sometimes, they just seem too bright. Sometimes, they make things look like a different color than I thought they were, or reveal those blemishes I’d just as soon not know about. The right words do the same thing. And it’s up to us to decide–do we listen to them anyway and accept the challenge they propose, or do we leave that one dim bulb burning until it too dies and we’re left in the dark? Wanna give me your take? Questions, comments, silly statements? Email me at BtL@ChristianReviewofBooks.com View Other Columns: Celebrating the Tradition |
|
