Step Two – “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore our writing to sanity.”
What is sanity? My definition of sanity has always been in the form of a negative. In other words being sane meant not being ‘insane.’ And to me insanity came with images of strait jackets, locked doors and high institutional walls. It surprised me when I actually looked up the definition. According to the Merriam – Webster Dictionary the word sanity means – the condition of having a healthy mind or the condition of being based on reason or good judgment.
So how does sanity relate to our writing? To understand sane spiritual writing means that our writing has to be based on reasonable truth, foundational faith and a true understanding of the God we worship. That is not as simple as it sounds.
Many people, including many who claim to be spiritual writers, have a distorted image of God. Their image of God may be one of intolerance, judgment and cruelty. Their God is up in heaven waiting to cast bolts of lightning down to burn the heads of poor sinners. We see that when a mentally ill person kills people at a Planned Parenthood clinic because he claims to be pro-life. It is not sane to claim respect for all life and then kill people. It is a distorted image of God and what he teaches and wants of the faithful.
The same disturbing disconnect can occur in spiritual writing. A writer who claims to be true to the Magisterium of the church may follow the letter of the canon, but present a God without mercy, love or forgiveness. The writing is judgmental, and the treatment of the lost is cruel. The readers are presented with an image of a relentlessly punishing God, who is just planning the destruction of mankind. The most disturbing thing about this kind of writing is that the author actually seems to enjoy imagining the destruction of those whom he considers less religious or less holy than himself.
On the other end of the spectrum is the God who has no rules. He blesses those who promote sin and rewards those who question every rule He has ever created. The human, who this writer thinks is naturally more understanding than God, teaches God a thing or two about humanity. There is no darkness or evil and all is goodness and light. I have read many works like this from both types of spiritual writers and I believe both have missed the mark.
The one and probably the only sure thing I know about writing is that the author of any work cannot hide himself from the reader. Without wanting to or even being aware of it, a writer’s soul is written between the lines of everything they produce. It is an intangible wisp that floats through the air. Unseen and hard to grasp, it lingers in the thoughts of characters and whispers from the twist of plot. Like a sudden fragrance that floats on a gentle breeze it is suddenly there and just as suddenly gone. I can only say this, if I read a work, I know the author. I know how he thinks and I know who he is.
It is not a matter of talent. Some of the most talented authors I have read are not people I would like to meet in a dark alley. Some of the least experienced writers are people I would love to have lunch with. It is not even about genre. There are authors whose supernatural musings display a moral sense of justice that is more religious than many of the sermons I have heard. There are religious writers whose cruel condemnation of humanity and God’s judgment display a dark heart full of hatred.
So how do you make your writing sane, spiritually sane? You have to be religiously sane yourself. You have been given a gift. It is a wonderfully powerful gift. And someday you will stand before Jesus and tell him how you used that gift. I wouldn’t want to be standing there explaining how I scared my readers away from His Mercy. Nor would I want to explain how I conveyed that our God is a wishy-washy entity who has no standards. We are very much responsible for what we tell our readers. Whether you are writing about people, vampires, wizards or angels your writing should convey the truth that God reveals about himself.
How do you know that the God you worship, and the God who flavors your writing represents the true God? That is where the teachings of the church come into play. Ours is a large and inclusive church. There are sections and groups of the church, both conservative and liberal, who may carry a truth of God into the extreme, making it an untruth. That has been happening since the time of Jesus. Keeping all these extremes centered and compliant with the actual teachings of Jesus is the job of the church. There are ways every individual can be led astray. Next post let’s look at Step Two and how we can keep both our spiritually and our writing spiritually sane.
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