I
was recently interviewed by Mary Harwell Sayler of Christian Poets and Writers.
Mary is a poet and poetry editor, and also is the administrator for the Christian Poets
& Writers page on Facebook. She’s the author of Living
in the Nature Poem, Christian Poet’s Guide to Writing
Poetry, Poetry
Dictionary for Children and For Fun, and the Christian Writer’s Guide.
Our
interview covered a broad range of topics: my new book, Poetry
at Work; who or what encouraged me to write; whether writing is a gift
or a calling; what I’m currently reading; and a lot more.
You
can read the interview at Christian
Poets and Writers (it was posted yesterday). And thanks to Mary for the
opportunity to talk about writing and my book.
3 comments:
I will tell you what troubles me about this language, Glynn: blaming God for our own failures. "God chops us off at the knees" just makes me shiver. I believe that scripture is very clear about our own culpability and the consequences of both our sinful choices and our brokenness. And I am not convinced that those are necessarily the same thing, either. Jesus died for BOTH conditions - our sin and our broken bits. Sometimes we emphasize one a little more than God does, I think.
I almost wrote something similar last week, but held back. But that quote triggered me today. I think some of what you've written about in this book leans dangerously close to determinism, a pitfall that way too many Christian writers fall into.
We are not puppets, God does not push catastrophe at us to 'break us' or 'teach us.' Much of the pain we endure in this life is a direct result of our own or others' sinfulness or brokenness. God, as God always does so very well, intervenes for redemptive purposes, using those hard things to teach us and grow us and bless us.
In the creation which we inhabit, with the rules that God alone has put in place, we are the makers of our own problems more often than not. Jesus' conversation with Peter was predictive and descriptive not prescriptive - he didn't force Peter's betrayal, did he? No. He saw Peter for ALL of who he was and loved him anyhow. And then, in John's rendition, he carefully and lovingly restored him to ministry.
Is this making any sense at all? I'll stop now . . .
Diana -- I think you're reading too much of your own concerns into what I wrote. No one, either me or the author, is blaming God for our own failures. But I do believe, and I think the author would agree, that sometimes God uses our failures to get our attention and move us to a new or different place. Jesus didn't make Peter deny him; but he used that denial to eventually "do a good work" in Peter.
And I think you meant to leave this comment on the previous post.
I'm sorry this reads as a critique of you, Glynn. That was not my intent at all. I was attempting, however feebly, to respond to that one phrase in quotes in your post. Unfortunately, the blogger commenting system makes it impossible to scroll back and re-read, so if I have erred in my reading, I apologize.
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