He looked for a sinner in every crevice and corner of his town but found not one.
Summer vacation had finally arrived—what Tom Sawyer had long anticipated. But as luck would have it—or not have it—he contracted the measles. What more could ruin summer fun? For two weeks, he languished in bed, between consciousness and unconsciousness. He longed to get outside and do what he always did: let his imagination run wild. And he missed his girlfriend—or the one he hoped would be his girlfriend. She had left for a nearby town to spend her summer vacation there.
When, at last, he finally recovered from this wretched disease for which there was no cure but time and Aunt Polly’s homemade remedies, he escaped the house and made his way out to look for some of his fun-loving, sinful friends. Some that he could smoke, chew, steal, drink, and curse with. But what he discovered wasn’t what he expected.
Surrounding him were people who had “got religion.” He found one of his friends reading the Bible and another passing out gospel tracts. But he knew of at least one person that surely religion had not touched: Huckleberry Finn. When he finally ran into him, to his horror, he found him quoting Scripture. While Tom suffered from measles, a revival had swept through town, delivering religion to everyone.
Thankfully, at least from Tom’s perspective, the revival didn’t last. After a brief relapse of the measles, he once again fled the house. This time, he found his friends had relapsed into their old ways. He couldn’t find a sinner the first go-round, but he found plenty the second time he looked.
Jesus commended the first-century church in Ephesus for its love for and service to God. “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people” (Revelation 2:2 NLT).
The members would not tolerate evil. They didn’t have trouble finding sinners, as Tom did, but they were not among them—at least not in practice.
I can’t speak for other writers, agents, editors, and publishers, but all the changes in our culture—which affect publishing, marketing, editing, and, yes, writing—make my head spin. What I do know is that tucking our pens, pencils, and keyboards and running the other way isn’t the answer. Infiltrating is.
The believers in the church at Ephesus shone their lights to a dark world, and God commissions us writers to do the same. And it is a great privilege—but one that sometimes comes with aggravation and always comes with hard work. We must keep up with marketing, publishing, editing, and writing trends. This means we should attend conferences, read books on writing and marketing, and follow those who know about social media trends and changes (one good place is this website).
Many authors of the classics addressed social and cultural issues through novels. Uncle Tom’s Cabin and A Christmas Carol come to mind. Fiction writers can do the same today. We don’t have to limit sermons and biblical teaching to Sunday pulpits and classrooms. We can shine God’s light through our characters. Nothing is wrong with honorable protagonists.
Regardless of what genre we shine, we should write God’s love and principles lovingly. When others scan bookshelves, Amazon, or Kindle stores, let’s never let them find our work among sinful topics. As hard as he tried, Tom could not find a sinner. Let’s make it just as difficult for people to find bad stuff in our writing.
As writers, our responsibility, our privilege, is to let the light of right shine, not evil. That kind of living repelled Tom Sawyer—and it might repel some who turn to our writing—but the world will be better if we shine God’s standards through our words.
TWEETABLE
amen!
ReplyDeleteMartin, thank you for this timely and well-written post.
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