I know this comic is talking about aliens, but I can’t help but think it often applies to God as well.
Courtesy: xkcd.com
First Impression: Warbreaker
Last winter, I was getting ready to take an eight-hour trip on Amtrak to visit my brothers in North Carolina. While perusing the bookstore in Union Station, I came across Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris. As I regularly listener of Sanderson’s writing podcast, I had considered picking up his work before. I’m usually wary of genre fiction, despite my affinity for Sci-Fi. It’s inconsistent, I know. But it was my desire to resolve that inconsistency that led me to buying Elantris.
Being his first published work, the book was a bit rough around the edges, but I liked it enough to pick up Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy this spring, which was a much more well-developed work that I thoroughly enjoyed. This led to me to reading Sanderson’s only other standalone novel and the subject of today’s blog, Warbreaker.
I’m about a fifth of the way through Warbreaker now, and so far… not much has happened. I’ve been introduced to the key players in the narrative and have had the setting established. The world seems richly developed and well thought out. Sanderson’s notable magic system is in place, if not yet fully explored. For the most part, however, the the book hasn’t really grabbed my attention. I contribute this to two things.
First, Sanderson’s other books also tend to be slow builds. It’ll plod along through the first act, start racing through the second, and then be charging at a breakneck pace through the climax. It’s his style, and I don’t hold it against him. I just haven’t gotten there yet. If this was my only complaint, then I wouldn’t have much to write about for this blog.
The other reason book hasn’t grabbed my attention is because, as yet, we don’t have a very clear protagonist. The three main viewpoint characters, Siri, Vivenna and Lightsong, all share screentime equally. None of them are breakout characters. Sanderson seems to go out of his way to show us how each of them is naive in their own way, and I have trouble seeing any of them seriously driving the plot forward. The only other major viewpoint character we’ve had, Vasher, has barely appeared since the prologue. He is poised to be the strongest character in the novel (and by far the most interesting), and yet has been almost absent beyond the first ten or fifteen pages. I’m sure he’ll be around later, but I was really hoping to see more of him by now.
There’s not much else to say at this point. Hopefully I’ll finish the novel this week and have a full review ready soon. I fully expect the novel to catch me at some point. There are lot of good seeds being spread. Themes like love, family, loyalty, religion, and especially politics are all being woven together skillfully. Making themes like these all come to head is something Sanderson does well.
Will I like this novel better than Mistborn? That remains to be seen. But I seriously doubt I’ll be disappointed.
Staying Busy
With all the stuff going on my life, I seem to have left my blog by the wayside. Now, any internet-savvy person can tell you that when you start blogging about how you want to blog more it means that your blog will die immediately. So I’ll just post something quick and not worry about when I’ll be writing again.
1. I love being back in school, but also can’t wait to get out and be working a real job full time.
2. By real job I mean something that has to do with my major, namely writing or editing. I am currently leaning towards applying for a writing position at a nonprofit in the DC area, but we’ll see what opportunities present themselves.
3. Being back in school full time means having more time to engage in InterVarsity. As those responsibilities pile up, I’m finding myself actually more excited to be where I am now. I am so blessed to be doing what I’m doing.
4. I never did NaNoWriMo last year. I blame my two jobs, a 50~ hour work week, and IV. I’ve got a novel idea I’m working on now, with no real time table set to when I’ll complete it. Hopefully it’ll be by the end of the year. In the mean time, I’m trying to write a small piece of unrelated narrative every day to keep myself sharp.
5. Last month I finished my studies in Isaiah and have begun reading through the Psalms. I’m also continuing studying Matthew, after getting about seven chapters in with my small group last semester.
So yeah, that’s life for me right now. I may write again soon. I may not. I’m not going to jinx it either way.
Psalm 1
How happy is the man
who does not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path of sinners,
or join a group of mockers!
Instead, his delight is in the LORD’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.
He is like a tree planted beside streams of water
that bears its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
The wicked are not like this;
instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not survive the judgment,
and sinners will not be in the community of the righteous.
For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
NaNoWriMo Approacheth
As many of you know, the novel I started last year kicked off with my attempts to join in on National Novel Writing Month. Every year, people around the globe try to write 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I started about halfway through the month, and fittingly finish about 25,000 words in that time. Since then I’ve been “working on it,” which basically means I put off, daily, touching the thing. While I’ve made some progress over the year, I’ve broken the promise I made to myself to not be “that guy who sits on an unfinished novel.”
After going back through my original concept for Biosphere 12, I’ve come to realize that part of the problem is that the story simply doesn’t stretch out to 50,000 words. The novel is meant to be a classic frontier narrative in a science fiction setting. Frontier narratives are typically of novella length at best. In light of that, I will be reworking Biosphere 12 in the future to fit with the original concept. So the question looms. Will I participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo event?
The answer is yes.
I will take another stab at embracing literary abandon and try my luck with another idea I’ve had kicking around for the past few years. Stay tuned to my facebook all November for word count updates and to my blog for my thoughts as I engage the novel writing process once more. As with last year, I request that everyone bug me as much as possible about how the novel is going. It’s become one of the most grating questions to me in the past several months, which is kind of the point. After answering that question 50,000 times, it should be no problem knocking out a mere 50,000 words.
God’s Timeless Consideration
For the past few weeks I’ve been reading through C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite books, a book that I will read again and again as my life goes on. The following is a excerpt from the chapter “Time and Beyond Time:”
“God is not hurried along the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along by the imaginary time of his own novel. He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world.”
This is an encouraging thought. It shows us two things. First, more obviously, it is a demonstration of God’s love. The last sentence is critical. Christ died for you, just you, as much as He died for the whole world. God’s eternal nature allows for that kind of love. How small we really are compared to God. But how blessed we are that such a God could love us as He does.
Secondly, what does this say about how God answers prayer? God is infinite, timeless, and all-knowing. He’s sees our past, present, and future simultaneously. He sees how our actions affect us, those around us, and those a hundred years down the road. He knows every nuance of our existence. And when we pray to Him, He has an infinite, boundless, unmeasurable amount of time to consider our prayers. Every request we make, no matter how small, He considers more than we could possibly know. If I pray for guidance in my career, in relationships, or in any facet of my life, saying that God takes ten, a hundred, or even thousand years only scratches the surface of the surface of the surface of how much love, care, and consideration He puts into my request. This is a God that deserves all my trust.
How can any answer He provides lead me wrong?
Why All the Suffering?
This question is haunting to many. They see the suffering of the world. They see women sold into slavery and children begging on the street. They see families torn apart by war and common people turned into murderers. Wealthy rulers and titans of industry stand by and do nothing. Their millions go to waste while the oppressed cry out. Violence is everywhere. Poverty abounds. There is only one question to ask:
Why?
[ James 4:1-3 ] “What is the source of the wars and the fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do no have because you do not ask. You ask and don’t receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your desires for pleasure.”
[ Deuteronomy 15:4-5 ] “There will be no poor among you, however, because the LORD is certain to bless you in the land of the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance – if only you obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow every one of these commands I am giving you today.”
[ Romans 3:23 ] “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Sin. Sin is the cause of all the suffering in the world. Our transgressions, our faults, our selfishness, our lust, our greed, our desires, and ultimately, our pride. No amount of suffering is possible in a world without sin. No one on Earth is free from its effects.
If the question before was “why does God allow suffering?” Then the question now becomes, “why does God allow sin?”
[ Genesis 1:26 ] “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to our likeness.’”
We are created in the image of God. We are therefore creative, relational beings. If God were to have any relationship with man, he couldn’t simply program us not to sin. If we cannot choose to disobey God, what meaning does our obedience really hold? If we cannot choose to break fellowship with God, what meaning does our fellowship really hold? If God did not allow for the possibility of sin, the creation of mankind would be meaningless.
Through us a picture of God’s image is revealed. But that image is corrupted by sin. And God, being a God of justice, must deal with that sin.
So why hasn’t God wiped out the human race, rich and poor alike. All have sinned. All have fallen short. The oppressed peasant is just as broken and sinful as the rich oppressor.
[ James 2:10-11 ] “For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all. For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker.”
Every man, woman, and child on this Earth deserves punishment for the sins they’ve committed. That is true justice. That is the fate we all would receive, if not for God’s love.
[ John 3:16-18 ] “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.”
[ II Corinthians 5:21 ] “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Why does God allow sin? Why does God allow injustice?
That fact is, He doesn’t.
Sin will be punished. Injustice will be punished. For those who believe in Christ, who repent of their sin and follow Him, that punishment is poured on Jesus on our behalf. For those who do not turn to Christ, who do not repent, that punishment will be handed out in full after death.
God’s justice and God’s love are both made complete in Christ.
This is the gospel. This is the very heart and soul of our Christian belief. Don’t let anyone tell you different.
[ Galatians 1:6-10 ]
About Me
It’s funny how I can find words to express complex ideas, to write long-winded essays about major works of literature, or to create a bit of literature of my own. But when asked for something simple, like a description of myself, all the elegance and grace I’ve been trained to infuse in my writing disappears.
Who am I? I am an introvert. I am a reader. I am a writer. I am a child of God. In my heart is a sincere desire to find and understand truth and then to spread that truth to others through meaningful conversation within meaningful relationships.
I am imperfect. I take time to get to know. I hope this blog can help you better understand who I am, what I am passionate about, and where my faults lie. Every time you read this page, you see another tiny glimpse of my personhood. I hope that those little glimmers show you a man who is earnestly seeking to become more like Christ, in whatever individual ways he is called.
This is who I am. I hope it is a person you would like to get to know. Talk to me, even if we don’t know each other that well. I promise that, in time, I will open up better in person. It just takes me a while.
Behind the Name – Adilyn Elaine Rice
As a writer, I consider the names I choose for my characters to be very important. It is a common trope in literature to hide messages in the names of characters or to give characters names that match their individual traits. In A Bold Stroke for a Wife, Susanna Centlivre practices this techinique masterfully. A more recognizable example would be Willy Loman from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Willy is, quiet literally, a “low man.”
As a Christian, I see repeated examples of how important names can be. Biblical names often reflect one’s calling in life. In some cases, as with Samuel or Jesus, God commands mothers and fathers to give their children particular names as a way of setting those children apart. In other places, God calls people later in life and changes their name as a sign of His renewed purpose for them. Abram, Sarai, Jacob, Simon, and Saul all saw drastic changes come over their lives after God rechristened them for His work.
So what about today? How much stock do we put in our own names? Is there some supernatural effect that naming has on our lives? Does it affect our personality and circumstances? Or is this significance only to be found realm of literature and Biblical history?
I’d like to think that when done in faith and with the intention of bestowing a blessing, the names we choose for our children do have an effect on their lives.
I thought I’d take a moment to examine the name of the newest member of my family, my niece, Adilyn Elaine Rice.
First Name:
ADILYN (sometimes spelled ADELINE), a diminutive of ADÈLE, which is the french form of ADELA. Taken from the Germanic “adal” meaning “noble.”
Middle Name:
ELAINE, an Old French varient of HELEN, which is the English form of the Greek name HELENE. Taken from the Greek “helene,” meaning “torch” or “corposant.” Possibly related to the Greek “selene,” meaning “moon.”
Last Name:
RICE, an English form of the Welsh RHYS or REES, meaning “ardor,” “fervor,” “passion,” or “zeal.”
Elaine, the only name rooted in a distinct noun, is taken from the Greek word for torch. Symbolically, torches represent enlightment, guidence, or hope.
If Adilyn’s name really does reflect on the kind of person she will grow up to be, then I have great hope for my niece’s future. She will be a person with great passion, tempered by a God-given nobility, providing guidence and hope for everyone she meets.
Lainey, whatever path you walk down, I pray that God will be with you every step of the way. May His passions be your passions. His nobility be your nobility. And may His light shine in you and through you in the many years to come.
