Lent 3 2010 - Writing the Truth

"The life-giving, life-saving story is a true story that transcends facts." - Madeleine L’Engle

Some of my favorite writers tell lies. And sometimes the lies show the Truth.

Bet that grabbed your attention, huh? Well, I’m being a little tricky with words – of course, I’m talking about fiction writers. Fiction is a type of writing that is an ‘imagined’ or ‘made up’ story, so in the sense that it’s not something that really happened, it’s not factual, not ‘true.’ Therefore, some of my favorite writers tell lies.

But….how can ‘lies’ show the Truth? What the heck does that mean?

Now before you all get your undies in a bunch (especially any novel-writers out there), I’m not trying to bad-mouth fiction writers in any way. I love fiction! I read fiction all the time! The point I’m trying to show you is that even when a story is ‘made up’, it can show Truth. Still confused? Well, here are 3 of my favorite writers. They all happen to be fantasy writers, because I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy novels, but they also are people of faith whose faith comes through in their stories.

1. Madeleine L’Engle. Have you ever read A Wrinkle in Time? Great story about instantaneous time/space travel, witches, angels, big furry monsters, a huge disembodied bad-guy brain, life on other planets….and about the power of Love. How to show Love even when you don’t like the person. How to care for your fellow man and learn the lesson of ‘who is my neighbor?’ (sound kinda familiar?)

2. JRR Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings trilogy isn’t just a great travel tale about elves, wizards, hobbits, men, orcs, talking trees, and a Ring. Tolkien’s deep faith and his love of the natural world and sorrow at what man was doing to it runs through every page. While he creates a whole other Earth for us to read about, he is showing us deeper lessons about good versus evil, the seductive power of evil (lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, anyone?), how it’s sometimes really, really, really hard to do the right thing, but how we always will have help. Not bad, huh? Pretty good faith lessons from a fantasy writer!

3. CS Lewis. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If you haven’t read it, you should. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should. This book has probably the most obviously Christian message of all – it’s more or less a retelling of the story of Jesus’ betrayal, death, and resurrection. Aslan=Jesus, get it? I remember how excited I was when I first made that connection. I mean, it’s not exact, but the message is pretty clear for those who know both stories. And for those who don’t, who are reading the book just as a cool fantasy book, well, they get a pretty important story, don’t they!

These writers chose to weave faith lessons – Truth – into their fiction stories. They chose to put a deeper meaning into their books – one you have to think about – rather than just to tell a fun story. (now, I’m not knocking ‘fun story’ novels that don’t have a deeper meaning, either. I like those, too – but somehow, I like these more.)

Why have I chosen these for my Lent 3 message? Well, because I like reading, honestly. And I think writers are very cool. And I think writers who want to get across a message of faith are cool. Spreading the Truth while telling stories – that’s what Jesus did!

Writing a book is hard work, and it takes a lot of a certain kind of imagination. To have a whole story in your head, then to get it down on paper, then to have the courage to show it to someone else, whether it’s published or not – WOW!!! And I really admire the three writers I listed above, because they’ve written books that all kinds of people like to read, so their message is getting out to who knows how many millions of people. Talk about leaving behind a reason to be missed!

I know we have a lot of writers among our youth, and I hope that those of you who love to write keep doing it! And may your light shine brightly as you do it!

Have a blessed week, my friends!