Don’t Be Job’s Friends by Melinda V. Inman

Don’t Be Job’s Friends 

Though most of us have gone through hard times, we’ve probably never before suffered such an intense period of refining. The lessons we’re learning, shared with our readers while the hardships are still in progress, have provided countless opportunities to engender renewed confidence in Christ.

At the turn of this century, our family went through challenging times. We were hit hard by numerous difficulties, coupled with six relocations. One of these landed us across the street from Columbine High School five days before the massacre.

The isolation we felt as we moved multiple times, coupled with losing all of our supportive relationships repeatedly, left us feeling traumatized like Job, with no one in our corner but God. At one point, I felt betrayed by even Him. These events birthed my autoimmune diseases.

Eventually, these experiences birthed copious writing. The Lord had provided a wealth of experiential knowledge that I had never wanted, and yet, these hardships provided commonality with so many others. From the knowledge of what it is to truly suffer, what it means to lack social support during suffering, and what is necessary to even begin to recover, I discovered that the Savior had equipped me to write with the strength gained through tribulation.

And yet, as we’ve gone through these past five months, for the first time in my life a novel isn’t cooking in my brain. Writing fiction is exhilarating, but my mind now daily digests our current devastating life events, and I am silent. I’ve got nothing.

I cannot write characters who experience the setbacks that make a good story, because we have enough trauma of our own right now. I simply cannot subject myself to the traumatizing effect of my fictional characters’ difficulties on top of our own.

Additionally, because I can’t yet perceive the interpretation of our current circumstances within the larger narrative of our family life, I’m in mourning. I’m not grounded solidly enough in these current realities to pen fiction. Who are we now? Who would these fictional people be?

You may be experiencing this, or the opposite. You may have fresh stories springing forth, now that you’ve experienced this devastating, though rich, companionship with loneliness, hardship, sickness, and perhaps death, which God in His goodness has allowed for our welfare.

In this time of pandemic and social upheaval, what work is the Savior doing in you? How is it impacting your writing? We will each have an entirely unique takeaway.

As we’ve endured this time of struggle, my family has simultaneously experienced some of the most horrific tragedies we’ve ever lived through, making our past trials small by comparison.

And yet, those troubles from our past were definitely not small, since they consisted of the Columbine massacre, a life flight, an assault, major surgeries, debridement, economic losses, and kids tangling with moving automobiles, for starters.

We’ve suffered much, and yet every trial in the past five months, though more wrenchingly difficult, has seemed more bearable than those earlier decades, because the entire world is experiencing hardship simultaneously.

We’re all on the same page. We’re all struggling. We’re all suffering in some way. No one needs to explain themselves. We can console one another right where we are, rather than being the lone suffering family with everyone else looking at us like Job’s so-called friends.

And so, dear writers, what can we learn?

We can determine never to be Job’s friends, miserable comforters all, but rather to sit with the mourners in solidarity and silence from here on out, remembering the lessons of our shared hardships.

We can aspire never to write like Job’s friends would have penned, condemnatory and smug, but instead to write from a position of sympathy and kindness, in solidarity with the suffering ones, rather than judging them.

This is how we can bless our readers and, simultaneously, how we can become more like Jesus, who regards us with the kindest sympathy and upholds us during every single trial.

Let’s write with the mercy, tenderness, and kindheartedness of Christ. 

We’re all on the same page. We’re all struggling. We’re all suffering in some way. No one needs to explain themselves. We can console one another right where we are, rather than acting like Job’s so-called friends. #seriouslywrite via @MelindaVInman

In this time of pandemic and social upheaval, what work is the Savior doing in you? How is it impacting your writing? We will each have an entirely unique takeaway. #seriouslywrite #writingcommunity via @MelindaVInman

The Shadows Come

Sequel to No Longer Alone 

 (WW1 Based on a True Story)

Germany threatens all of Europe. Millions have died. President Woodrow Wilson makes the declaration that the United States must enter the Great War to rescue our allies. Congress approves. Our story begins. In America’s heartland, everyone hunkers down to provide food for the world and resources for the war effort. A draft is necessary, and all young men must register. One by one, these are called to war. With this threat looming, Prentis and Avery raise the necessary horsepower, cultivate the needed crops, and contribute their labors to the Red Cross.

But crises at home, an insidious busybody, and one after another called up to fight in Europe bring the greatest dangers they’ve ever faced together. Then there’s the influenza pandemic. Will they survive the war abroad and the war being waged at home, threatening their love and their lives? Will their loved ones make it home again?

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the South. Her fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MelindaVInman/

Website: https://melindainman.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman

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Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00GFYI0RU