NOVEL CHRISTIAN

“…Author of life…” Acts 3:15

“…Author of salvation…” Hebrews 2:10

“…Author and Perfector of our faith…” Hebrews 12:2

Aside from my lessons in rich character study from the Bible, the Author of My Life has also seen fit to deeply impress me with a host of characters from reading classic literature over the years.  I have a unique collection of novel “friends” - favorite characters from classic books and authors - that are somewhat of a community group, as it were, of my own.  The pen of fabulous writers have written characters who to this day polish, challenge, rebuke, correct, and train me in righteousness in more ways than I could articulate.  Although never a replacement for my favorite Author, classic works nevertheless have had a tremendous impact on expanding my thinking and ability to love.

Harriet Beecher Stowe changed my life forever after reading about the Christ-like Tom in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Charles Dickens validated a quirky family and literally made my gut ache with laughter from David Copperfield; no one has stretched my head into the puzzling divine like Flannery O’Connor and Hazel Motes (Wise Blood).  Leo Tolstoy gave me a fascinating education into the dark abyss of human psychology with Anna Karenina, and John Bunyan infused a new level of fortitude and courage for my battles with evil through Christian and Hopeful in Pilgrim’s Progress (sidenote:  PP is a MUST read, you won’t understand half of Spurgeon’s allusions until you do).  Nathaniel Hawthorne has shown me that despite my ugly sins, there is a goal of textured Grace to yearn for in Hester Prynne withThe Scarlet Letter.  And on I could go.  Hence, as my best friend so eloquently puts it, the Holy Spirit very often uses novels to get through the backdoor of our stony hearts.

I am nearing the end of a 4 month journey with George Eliot and Adam Bede, and once again, find myself completely enveloped in glorious characters who reflect different facets of the redemption story through tragedy and the naivity of life apart from Jesus Christ.  Suffering and sorrow, and discipline in its many forms on earth, has a sweet resonance for those who are trained by it (see Hebrews 12:7-11).  Depending on what season of life I find myself, I will be drawn to particular characters and qualities.  Hence, in the disciplines and sufferings of my particular season, I appreciate so much the backdoor wisdom I have gleaned through the delightful pen of George Eliot and her character of Adam Bede.  I have been an omniscient reader, watching life play out in deeply flawed characters, (so much like myself!), who emerge from pain and tragedy with fresh humilities and a deepened awareness of their sinfulness.  A beautiful reminder that Christ is the Author of my life, it’s a great read from His perspective, suffering and sorrow have deep purposes in His economy, and we have many chapters to finish.

“For Adam, though you see him quite master of himself, working hard and delighting in his work after his inborn inalienable nature, had not outlived his sorrows - had not felt it slip from him as a temporary burden, and leave him the same man again.  Do any of us?  God forbid.  It would be a poor result of all our anguish and our wrestling if we won nothing but our old selves at the end of it - if we could return to the same blind loves, the same self-confident blame, the same light thoughts of human suffering, the same frivolous gossip over blighted human lives, the same feeble sense of that Unknown towards which we have sent forth irrepressible cries in our loneliness. Let us rather be thankful that our sorrow lives in us as an indestructible force, only changing its form, as forces do, and passing from pain into sympathy - the one poor word which includes all our best insight and our best love.”  Adam Bede by George Eliot

“AFTERWARD”  Hebrews 12:11

“How happy are tried Christians, afterwards.  No calm more deep than that which succeeds a storm.  Who has not rejoiced in clear shinings after rain?  Victorious banquets are for well-exercised soldiers.  After killing the lion, we eat the honey; after climbing the Hill Difficulty, we sit down in the arbour to rest; after traversing the Valley of Humiliation, after fighting with Apollyon, the shining one appears, with the healing branch from the tree of life.  Our sorrows, like the passing keels of the vessels upon the sea, leave a silver line of holy light behind them ‘afterwards’.  It is peace, sweet, deep peace, which follows the horrible turmoil, which once reigned in our tormented, guilty souls.  See, then, the happy estate of a Christian!  …Even now he grows rich by his losses, he rises by his falls, he lives by dying, and becomes full by being emptied; if, then, his grievous afflictions yield him so much peaceable fruit in this life, what shall be the full vintage of joy ‘afterwards’ in heaven?  If his dark nights are as bright as the world’s days, what shall his days be?  If he can sing in a dungeon, how sweetly will he sing in heaven?  Oh, blessed ‘afterward’!  Who would not be a Christian?  Who would not bear the present cross for the crown which cometh afterwards?  But herein is work for patience, for the rest is not for today, nor the triumph for the present, but ‘afterward’.  Wait, O soul, and let patience have her perfect work.” 

 Evening, May 18, C.H. Spurgeon