Why do I write about flawed characters? Because we’re all flawed. If we’re living under God’s grace, it doesn’t mean we’re “flawless,” but God loves us, radically, as we are.
Flawed characters point out the fact that good people have a dark side. We may succumb to anger, resentment, bitterness, etc. The wonderful thing is, God can take those things and turn them around.
In Carolina Dream, Sarah dealt with low self-esteem and control. She had been jilted, and the nice little life she had planned disappeared. God used these things to point out to her that His plan is best, and that she had only to give it to Him. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Ps. 37:4.
In Carolina Mercy, my current release, Lucy struggles with grief and anger. She can’t understand why God would take her parents from her, and why the man she loves is ignoring her. If things are important to her, shouldn’t they be important to God and everyone else? It takes watching her best friend lose almost everything to realize that God loves her and only wants HIS best for her, and that means understanding His simple formula for claiming His mercy. He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
And then there’s Carolina Grace, which will release in February. I won’t go into details, but know that my character learns, the hard way, that bitterness can drive a wedge between yourself and God so easily. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast. Eph. 2:8-9
Flaws, either real or self-imposed, can bring us down and tease our minds into thinking that even God couldn’t love a flawed creature like me. Just remember, those lies are from Satan. He is the author of lies, and our minds are easy prey. We keep them filled with so much junk and so much thinking about ourselves that he can have a field day with the slightest provocation.
When I write about characters that are plain, everyday, normal people, I’m writing about all of us. The really cool thing is that in writing about them, God reveals little bits and pieces about me. It’s humbling. Even when someone is comically wrong about something, it’s something I’ve probably felt or said myself, and it makes me stop and shake my head in disgust.
We humans, we like to live in extremes. We either hate something or love something. We’re for it or we’re against it. Interestingly, the Bible is FULL of flawed characters, and we can learn from them every day. When I was writing Carolina Mercy, finding the scripture in Micah was the launch pad for the entire story. God is saying, in essence, “I’ve told you what is good: be just in your dealings, be merciful to others, and be humble toward everyone. That’s it. You have three jobs. Now do it.”
Sometimes I chuckle at verses in the Bible. I’m sure God rolls his eyes at us several times a day. Last night in our evening service, the speaker cited some verses in Acts 1, just after Jesus giving the disciples the Great Commission, and then His ascension: 10 As they were straining their eyes for another glimpse, suddenly two white-robed men were standing there among them, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here staring at the sky? Jesus has gone away to heaven, and some day, just as he went, he will return!”
My daughter texted me from the other side of the auditorium. “This verse loosely translated “get to work, stupid.” LOL
Granted, if we had just seen Jesus ascend into Heaven, we’d be looking up with a less-than-intelligent look on our faces, but they were concentrating on how the event was affecting THEM, and not on the work left to be done.
That’s one of the basic flaws of human nature, and what we, as people, both real and fictional, struggle with on a daily basis.
We need to look up, but we need to keep our minds on Him, not on how our circumstances affect us, personally. What can we do, even through hard circumstances, to help someone else? To love someone else? To be Jesus to someone else?
Yes, we all have flaws. Thank goodness. Can you imagine a flawless person, other than Jesus? Let Him use your flaws to point you and others back to Him.
Do good work, be just, and be humble. That’s all.
Have a great Monday!
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