Connecting the Dots

 One of the themes in my books is connecting the dots between events in our lives and God's Hand in our lives.  I have a strong conviction that God is active in my life, and I look for Him and to Him every day.  It is easy to view life as random and chaotic, and often it feels like it is, but I cope better if I look for what God could want me to learn or how He wants me to grow from the things that happen around me.

Connecting the dots to see God in my life is important to me.  But it is also important to me to see how my thoughts and actions lead me to other thoughts and actions.  How my thoughts and actions, how what I believe in and support creates dots that connect and lead me down a path.

I believe that God extends His grace to us at all times.  No matter how badly we fail to live up to His will, He still extends grace.  Forgiveness is always available if we are truly remorseful.  There is always another opportunity for redemption.

I also believe that God calls us to imitate Him.  I believe God calls us to extend grace and forgiveness.  I believe that God calls us to be kind, to be tender with each other.  I believe it is a disrespect to God to be mean or cruel, or to belittle or denigrate others, as all of us are God's children.

And that brings me back to connecting the dots.  I believe that when I support people who are unkind, who lack tenderness, who are mean, who are cruel, who belittle others, who denigrate others, I am creating a path for myself to participate in those behaviors.  I believe that anyone who supports anyone else in hateful behavior is creating a path to become hateful themselves.

And I believe this is a great rejection of God and His gifts to us.  Yes, He will always extend His grace.  Yes, He will always offer forgiveness if we are truly remorseful.  Yes, there is always another opportunity for redemption.

But when I think about how good God has been to me, I don't want to keep failing Him.  I want to live up to the gifts He has bestowed on me.  And that calls me to reject all activities and thoughts that lead me away from love and grace and into hate and intolerance.

It is easy to fall into the ways of the world, and share that unkind meme or make an unkind remark on social media.  Many things I see posted on social media I can't imagine the poster actually saying to someone in the real world.  But I believe those dots of unkindness connect in us and lead us to unkindness becoming easier and more familiar.

It is hard to acknowledge when we fail to live up to God's goodness and grace.  I believe it is necessary to acknowledge when I fail, so that feeling of disappointing God acts as motivation to do better and to be better.

One of the reasons I write is to create a world where people are kind and caring, in the hope that reading about that world can help more people to want to live in that kind of a world.

But if we are ever to live in a kinder and more caring world, it will take all of us choosing to do better and be better.

Connect the dots in your own thoughts and actions.  Where are they leading you?

Evidence of the Mystical

 Everyone looks at the world through their own filter, and that is one of the glorious and amazing things about being human.  The same thing can happen to two people, and each will see it in their own way.

It won't come as a surprise to anyone who reads my books to learn that I see evidence of the mystical, evidence of God in my life almost every day.  Some days, the evidence is so powerful, it brings tears to my eyes.  Today was one of those days.

The evidence can be incredibly ordinary, or incredibly profound.  Some people would see coincidence, and some would see nothing at all.  But I see that God loves me, and is showing me through the words and deeds of others that everything will be okay.

My characters see and feel God in their lives the same way that I do.  All the advice on writing I've ever read says to write what you know, and the only way I know to approach life is believing in a fully engaged higher power who excessively loves us.

I hope that the next time you read something that is exactly what you needed to read, or hear a song that touches a spot in your soul that needed to be touched, or see beauty in nature that lifts your spirits, you see the hand of God touching your life in a positive way.  And if not, I still hope your soul and spirit is comforted.  Because that is another thing I believe.  God will keep trying, whether you see His hand or not.