Audio Transcript
I’ll be the primary to confess that it’s somewhat area of interest for us to talk to writers. Most subscribers to this podcast should not writers. I do know that. However due to Pastor John’s prolific writing ministry, we get loads of nice questions from writers — and actually from all varieties of Christian creatives. Writing is close to and pricey to us each, Pastor John — a lot in order that when you’ve got the APJ guide, you’ve seemingly seen that little part I pulled collectively “On Writing, Grammar, and Poetry” on pages 411–416. We don’t revisit these themes usually, however we do at present with this query from an aspiring writer, an nameless lady.
“Good day, Pastor John! I’m seventeen. I only recently found this podcast and rapidly grew to become an enormous fan. I’ve already listened to all of your episodes on hobbies and leisure, however I want to ask one thing of somewhat extra particular nature. I completely love literature and writing, however I like to write down issues which have twists and turns and which might be typically somewhat creepy. Is it okay for Christians to write down — or learn or watch — issues like thrillers and homicide mysteries, which have some violent or scary parts in them, so long as these parts should not sadistic, sexual, or gratuitous? Or does this violate passages like Philippians 4:8? Typically I really feel like darkish parts serve an essential objective in fiction, as a result of they open the door for nice ethical and biblical options, however I’m not certain. I might love your opinion on this matter. Thanks.”
Let me placed on my lit-major hat for a couple of minutes. I don’t often do that, however I’ve good recollections — a lit main who has spent 55 years virtually completely immersed within the phrase of God, the Bible, which is a type (from one vantage level) of literature. However from one other vantage level, I’ve discovered that nearly everybody who tries to deal with the Bible as literature winds up minimizing the Bible because the authoritative, infallible revelation of the Creator of the universe. The truth that it’s each literature and revelation parallels the thriller of the incarnation, doesn’t it? Jesus Christ is each man (which corresponds to literature) and God (which corresponds to revelation). He couldn’t be our Savior if he weren’t each.
Simply so you already know, I’ve not misplaced the bug. I proceed to learn and luxuriate in fiction, and I’ve written, I suppose, lots of and lots of of poems over these 55 years since I used to be a lit main. I nonetheless enjoyment of a picturesque simile like Proverbs 11:22: “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is an exquisite lady with out discretion.” That’s nice. That’s simply nice. Jesus painted impossibly provocative photos: “It’s simpler for a camel to undergo the attention of a needle than for a wealthy particular person to enter the dominion of God” (Matthew 19:24). That’s good. That’s actually good. I nonetheless love the cadences of Psalm 1:1: “Blessed is the person who walks not within the counsel of the depraved, nor stands in the way in which of sinners, nor sits within the seat of scoffers.” That’s good.
However the superb divine logic and actuality of Romans 8:32 exceeds the pleasures of these items a thousandfold: “He who didn’t spare his personal Son however gave him up for us all, how will he not additionally with him graciously give us all issues?” The glory of that actuality can not severely be in comparison with the pleasures of literary model. Each are good; one is superb.
We Know Darkness
So, right here’s the query I’ve lived with for many years that pertains to this younger aspiring author of darkish literature. Right here’s the query: Why is it that the majority writers of fiction and even perhaps nonfiction discover it simpler to write down severely and compellingly in regards to the darkish than in regards to the mild? Why is it that the majority writers can produce one thing credible, genuine, shifting, compelling about ache and concern however can not write with the identical compelling credibility and seriousness about pleasure?
You may see this, for instance, symptomatically in tv adverts. If the writers wish to painting some deeper emotion — say, of a household in sorrow — they will typically write one thing and present one thing that really has the texture of authenticity about it. However once they flip to indicate happiness, the default is silliness. It’s simply unimaginable — an enormous, huge, toothy grin in every single place, and other people falling everywhere in the sofa and guffawing, and grown individuals performing like clowns. You get the impression that these writers are out of their ingredient. They don’t know what to do with happiness. They’re caught at about age ten.
“To be a very good author in regards to the mild requires an extended and deep stroll with God within the midst of human struggling.”
Now, my tentative rationalization for this — why it’s simpler to painting with authenticity the human expertise of concern and sorrow than it’s to painting the human expertise of happiness with the identical authenticity and depth — is that, for most individuals, the human expertise of significant concern is way extra frequent than the human expertise of significant pleasure. Most individuals have classes for the stark terror of being charged by a grizzly bear or the panic of being surrounded by a mob or the sinking feeling within the abdomen of a window being damaged in the midst of the evening or the heart-crushing grief at dropping a liked one. We all know these items. We’ve tasted these items deeply.
However we don’t have comparable experiences or classes of significant, humble, invincible pleasure within the face of ache and dying. Severe concern and sorrow is frequent. Severe pleasure is just not. It appears to me that fairly often, that type of pleasure is changed with the closest many writers can get to it — specifically, a type of stoic swagger within the face of hazard. Which reveals that the hero or heroine is coolly above all of it, which is the very reverse of the common-or-garden, severe, invincible pleasure I’m speaking about, which is so uncommon and, due to this fact, so troublesome to write down about.
Writing with Severe Pleasure
Now, my guess at an evidence for why writing authentically in regards to the darkish is simpler than writing authentically in regards to the mild is that this: To be a very good author in regards to the darkish requires some literary reward mingled with the expertise of darkness and concern and brokenness and sorrow that’s frequent on this world. However to be a very good author in regards to the mild requires greater than extraordinary human expertise of the darkish or mild. It requires an extended and deep stroll with God within the midst of human struggling.
The type of severe pleasure I’m speaking about is very at residence within the coronary heart of a Christian, a Bible-saturated Christian. These outdoors the Christian worldview have tasted this due to frequent grace, however it’s the peculiar purview of biblical revelation to know from the within out what severe pleasure within the face of struggling is admittedly like — except, in fact, Christians have been compelled into the mould of simply being just like the world, which occurs by the hundreds.
So, my quick reply to our younger author is that this: In fact one can write with biblical faithfulness in regards to the darkish as a result of the darkish is actual. In truth, the one individuals who understand how actual and the way horrible it’s are individuals who know their Bible. With out biblical classes, the efforts of the world to painting the darkish fall far wanting actuality, irrespective of how horrible they make it look. However to write down faithfully in regards to the darkish requires a deep consciousness that “God is mild, and in him isn’t any darkness in any respect” (1 John 1:5). It requires a deep consciousness that God is sovereign over the darkness. Creepy is attention-grabbing however not essentially insightful. Darkness will probably be defeated in the long run.
But when you will write in regards to the darkish in a severely joyful method that avoids naivete and melodrama, it could take a long time of strolling via deep waters with Christ. Don’t surrender. You might show to be a kind of very uncommon writers who is aware of sufficient about God, is aware of sufficient about struggling, has lived sufficient life and sorrow and severe pleasure that you might really write with authenticity in regards to the mild even higher than in regards to the darkish.
