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Choosing Faith Over Fear
I have a confession. I absolutely love writing Christian suspense, but I do a much poorer job of dealing with suspense in real life. With less than two months left in my pregnancy, I am finding daily opportunities to give my anxieties back to God. Whether it’s a pregnancy symptom that is worrying or discouraging me or just how much I have left to do before the baby arrives, I find myself with two choices: give in to worry or give it to God. I wish I could say that I always choose the latter. Sometimes, I don’t, and then I have to repent of my sin of worry and…
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Sorrow and Love: Finding God’s Presence in Our Pain
About once a decade, Easter or Resurrection Sunday falls on my birthday. This year is one of those times, and last month brought me closer to Jesus’ wounded side through some painful experiences. I’ll share just one of them here for now. What began as a beautiful ski trip to Beech Mountain ended in the emergency room. On day two, I crashed on the slopes and dislocated my shoulder. The pain was brutal. Although I hope you’ve never dislocated your shoulder, you more than likely have your own pain you could share. Pain takes many forms whether physical or emotional, and the two often interconnect. What I learned from last…
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Worry Checkup: How the Right Focus Can Beat Your Fears
I was eleven-years-old when I came home with my first pair of glasses. For months, I refused to wear them. I hated that clunky nineties-styled frame! I remember praying that God would give me perfect vision like my brother. Clearly, that didn’t happen. And grown-up me is okay with that, because I know that my disabilities don’t limit God. However, even as an adult, I sometimes focus too hard on my situation that I lose sight of the unshakable God I serve. The blind hymn writer Fanny Crosby penned the words to “Blessed Assurance” back in 1873 , and through them, she reveals a clearer vision than we often have.…
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Box Jumps in the Writing Life
When my husband and I joined a gym together, he introduced me to the box jump. In theory, it’s simple, a metal platform that you jump on with both feet at the same time. You can move to higher levels as you advance in ability. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. In theory, publishing is simple too. You have a great idea. You write it down on paper. You publish it, and it becomes a New York Times’ best seller. And you laugh. Of course, publishing doesn’t work that way. Mastering the box jump isn’t so easy either. In fact, it has many parallels with the writing life.…
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Revolutionary Love
Love perseveres in spite of obstacles. Love gives without any guarantee of receiving. Love sacrifices until it hurts and then sacrifices some more. If I told you those themes are part of my latest novel, you might guess I’m a romance writer, right? Well, they are, but guess again. The Revolutionary is a dystopia. Wait. Dystopia? You mean one of those futuristic novels so dark they make the problems of our own world look like a walk in the park? Yes and no. Though dystopian novels have certain bleak characteristics, I think that setting paints the perfect contrast to the hope characters are fighting (and sometimes dying) to gain. How…
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3 Ways to Shred Fear on Life’s Slopes
Recently, this Florida girl left her state behind to experience snow and skis for the first time. And. I. Loved. It. All. Yes, I’m not too proud to say the white stuff stole my breath and claimed a space in my heart. That said, I wasn’t an instant star on the slopes. I wiped out hard and often, but by the end of the trip, I truly enjoyed skiing, despite my ungraceful moments. I learned so much on the slopes and realized that some of those same principles apply to our Christian lives. We can’t let fear keep us from growing; instead, we can intelligently channel that emotion to discover…
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Cone of Uncertainty and Giving Up Control
Last week, I had a hard time focusing, and this week started much the same. If you live in Florida, you may have shared the same problem. When I stared at Hurricane Irma’s cone of uncertainty, I wondered how the storm’s path might impact me. Not having owned my home for even a year, I found myself wanting to hold tightly onto what I had little control to protect. Though I’m grateful the storm didn’t damage my home, the experience made me realize I need to hold more loosely, not only to the things of this life, but also to choices and circumstances whose results I can’t control. Because at…
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The Pixelated Lens of Fear
Fear isn’t just something that plagues children. Although we might laugh about monsters in the closet now, the truth is that we all struggle or have struggled with fear at some point. Only, our fears morph into more subtle villains, masked with titles like rejection, self-doubt, and failure. Or, they may even be seemingly laughable “little” things that tempt us not to trust God … like my somewhat irrational fear of needles. (I say “somewhat” because trypanophobia is a word in the dictionary, which makes me guess I’m not alone.) Today, I’m honored to be a guest on author Jerusha Agen’s The Fear Warrior Blog. There, I’m sharing a challenge about…
