Step Two – “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore our writing to sanity.”
Do you believe in God? Do you really believe in God? You may bristle about the question, but there are so many layers and levels to faith that it seems like an appropriate query to me. When I was a child, I had an unwavering faith. I couldn’t understand doubt. I believed what my parents, the nuns and the adults in my little world taught me. It was faith, but it was the faith of a child. Some people grow into an adult faith without much trouble. Then, there are the rest of us. We rebel. We grow into teenagers who question everything, doubt everything we are told and give our parents long nights of despair. I was one of those.
I see parents worrying about their atheistic teenagers and the children who never go to Mass. I tell them not to worry – just pray – pray not only for your children but for yourself. Pray that you receive a gift; the gift you need is the patience of God. He understands rebellion and young people. He has a lifetime to reach them. They will be back before you know it. It’s funny how the first real need or tragedy in their life brings them to prayer. What level of faith do you have? The only guarantee is that your faith will grow and wane over your lifetime. That is true for all people. As a spiritual writer, it may be even more true.
What is it about writers? We are different from other people. We live in our mind. Correction, not just our mind but in our imagination. We create people who don’t exist, who live in worlds that were never real. We dream up situations that haven’t happened and set our imaginary friends in those emotionally powerful or action packed situations. Once our story is started, it is hard for us to return to the ‘real’ world. Standing in line at the supermarket, we don’t see the cashier, we envision our main character destroying the evil villain. While making dinner, we are lost on the alien planet of our latest novel.
While all the world is paying attention to the outside world, we are living on the inside. It came to me the other day, that what isn’t real often requires more of my time and attention than what is real. Is it hard to understand that our relationship with God can become part of that lost world. That our faith in a heaven can get lost in the flow of our own musings. Does God become just another character we conjure up? Do we believe in the true God or the image of our imagination? Do we believe in the God who created us, or the God we have created.
We, the story tellers of the world, can get lost in the story. That is why having an anchor like the Church to guide us is even more important for us than for the “sane” folks out in the real world. We can lose the true God in two worlds, the real world and the world of our imagination. We need the unchanging teachings of the Church to guide us. Are the angels in my books anything like the real angels? If I don’t have a guide, I am in danger of creating new-age renditions of angels much like the occult imaginings so popular today. Is Mary able to hear our prayers in heaven? The teachings of the catechism of the Church can answer that question. As spiritual writers we need to hook our imagination to the truth and that truth is found in the Catholic Church. We need to believe in a power greater than ourselves. I have a God of my imagination. He is a lot like Santa Claus. Soft and chubby, kind and joyful, he is there to pick me up when I stumble, and smile at me when I am sad. Your God may be judgmental and strict. Whose God is real? Probably neither.
The truth is that God is like a multi-faceted diamond. We focus on the facet that we need and know. He is beyond our understanding. However, just because we cannot have faith in the God of our imagination, we can have faith in the God who created our imagination. The trick is not getting lost in our own mind. We need the Church to guide us in the truth. We need to separate what we imagine from what is real. That is where the gift of faith comes in. And we as spiritual writers need faith in the Church and the real teachings of the Church to guide us. How do we stay connected to the truth and how do we reflect that truth in our work? There are numerous practices we need to follow to keep us on the narrow path.
In the next few blogs let’s talk about sanity and what that is. Let’s discuss the practices that will keep us living in truth. The truth about ourselves, our writing and our spiritual life.
Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in New Jersey with her retired husband. She is a mother of two and grandmother of two. She and her husband raise Nigerian Dwarf goats and enjoy chickens, horses, and turkeys on their farm. They love camping and taking road trips around the country. Karen is an award-winning author of numerous novels, and a series of children’s books.
Karen Boyce
Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in N.J. with her retired husband. She is a mother and grandmother. She is the author of “The Sisters of the Last Straw” series published by Tan Books. You can see her work and learn more about her on her website: www,kkboyce.com