Ask and
keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you
will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For
everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and
to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened. (Matthew 7:7, 8, AMP)
I’m out of breath.
I’m so drained.
How many times have I said, this
week alone, “I wrote a screenplay based on my most recent novel”? I may also
add, “It’s time to break the silence of endometriosis.” I’ve talked about this
in almost every conversation, in person, in emails, and via text or Messenger.
How
many times have I said this since I published Strong & Steadfastin
late February? I don’t get exhausted after I run four miles or swim for an hour.
Have I run several straight marathons and didn’t even know it?
Rest,
repeat—and remind myself of what’s in God’s Word.
IfI keep on asking, seeking, and knocking, I will receive what
God has for me. The best things often take time. No rush.
The
two strongest words in the English language are will and shall.
Best
of all, it’s in the Bible—in Jesus’ red-lettered words.
But
wait! There’s more…
God
gives to everyone who keeps on keeping on. I’m an everyone; so
are you. Continue to delight yourself in Him, and He will give you your heart’s
desires (Psalm 37:4). When you least expect it, when you’re just about to give
up, you’ll find what you’ve been looking for. And when God opens doors, you will enter
them with a renewed, purposeful stride.
“Now
go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Exodus 4:12, NIV).
Let your
conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know
how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6, NIV
Social.
Whether as a noun or an adjective,
it will always involve spending time with others, laughing, sharing—speaking
words.
It’s the end of another week, and my
soul is hollow. Hardly any in-person social interactions.
All of them were
through a laptop or that rectangular 4 X 6 X 1 ½” device. And I’ve gotten a lot
more “reactions”. For social media users, you know all seven of them: like, love,
care, ha-ha, wow, sad, and angry. Each has an emoji.
With a quick touch of a
button, you have, according to social media, shown you’re involved and have
adequately expressed how you feel about a post.
Nowadays, social media is the best
way to announce milestones or updates. Imagine getting nothing but these clicks
of buttons when you announce a graduation or the death of a family member or
friend. After all the hard work you or a loved one did to get that diploma or
the grief you’ve endured, you need, as the above verse says, gracious words,
seasoned with salt.
Liking, loving, and caring involve words
and quality time.
Next time you see a post that catches your attention, comment
on it. Your words may be the very ones they need.
I
am recording this so that future generations will also praise the Lord for all
that he has done. And a people that shall be created shall praise the Lord.
Psalm 102:18, TLB
Every author has their own seasons
when they write their best. Mine are fall and winter. These two seasons have
been the best yet for me. I've put the finishing touches on Strong & Steadfast, my upcoming novel, and tweaked and trimmed the screenplay for it. The mad mix of creativity and Christmas cheer during
this down time has made me loopy. I’m ready for a break, to do something else for
a while.
Every author also has their own way of
seeking rest and getting re-inspired. I like to watch at least one movie every Friday
either on DVD or Amazon Prime.
At the beginning of December, I saw Jesus
Music. It was about the development of contemporary Christian music, or CCM.
My earliest memories of this were of ‘80s Christian pop and rock bands. Their songs
were on mainstream radio, their videos in heavy rotation on MTV. I passively
heard “Love Will Find a Way” by Amy Grant because I wanted to be the “Material
Girl” Madonna squeaked about. Moreover, I couldn’t wrap my mind around my
classmate’s love for “First Love” by Petra, when my mix tape included “Sweet
Child of Mine” by Guns and Roses.
Yet in the ‘90s, I started
listening more to CCM—including Petra. I went to New Life Books and Gifts, a
local Christian bookstore in my hometown. As
I bought Bible study guides, Janette Oke’s novels, and Jars of Clay’s debut CD,
I got saved.
Jesus Music started with the Jesus Revolution
revival, about Love Song. I’d immediately become a fan of theirs when I saw the
awe-inspiring film about this revival. Their music sounded so simple yet deep.
Then they featured Larry Norman,
the Father of Christian Rock.
I first saw his name when I was at
the bookstore, around 1998. I looked through but didn’t buy a book about the
top 100 Christian artists at that time. I read a brief bio of him and was
fascinated and heartbroken. What did “Why Does the Devil Have All the Good
Music?” sound like? He’d had a massive heart attack and was in rapidly declining
health.
Could I have asked a sales
associate to order some album of his? How could I think about this when the
shelves and my music collection had tapes and CDs of Point of Grace, Steven
Curtis Chapman, and Rebecca St. James? I also didn’t know anyone who was
partial to ‘70s Jesus Music.
In the ten minutes the documentary
dedicated to Larry, I learned so much more about him. Leave it to me to like
his outrageous, unabashed lyrics about being fall-down drunk, over-sexed, and
yellow-fingered from smoking—followed by a simple call to action to call out to
Jesus. What went through hippies’ minds when they heard this? Did they fall to
their knees and ask Jesus to be their Savior? Or did they take the needle off
the record, toss the 33 1/3 across the room, then insert another needle in
their arm?
My recollection of the book and my
rising curiosity about this long blond-haired guy eased the tension when the CCM
odometer rolled to the ‘80s and ‘90s. Tainted nostalgia as the featured artists
spoke about divorces, drug abuse, and intra-band strife. Though jaded, I still got
a brief chill when I saw a live clip of “Friends” by Michael W. Smith.
The next morning, I added many of
Larry’s hits to my Amazon Music collection. One of them was “Why Does the Devil
Have All the Good Music?”. I smiled. It’s so catchy, relevant, and entertaining. My favorite line is "Jesus is the Rock and He rolls my blues away."
I also have “The Outlaw,” “The Rock That Doesn’t Roll,” and “I Am
the Six o’ Clock News.”
Since my late-‘90s living inciting
incident, Larry has passed away. I could wonder why I didn’t find out more
about him then, but I won’t. His music was hidden for me, revealed at the right
time.
