Uncovering Our Hard Hearts by Melinda V. Inman

Uncovering Our Hard Hearts

God is for you. Let’s not forget this reality, this fact, even though we’re another month into this pandemic. The emotional stress of less human contact coupled with our lack of control over our circumstances is causing turmoil. We can’t seem to find God in this trial. In short, this pandemic has uncovered the hardness of our hearts.

We often feel as if the pandemic has not only separated us from one another, but also from God. Of course, this isn’t true. Our feelings are out of line with reality. God is always present. Yet, in times of trouble, we can forget the sovereign goodness of God and that he is with us in even this.

This calls for personal reflection, for probing to see what exactly is going on in our hearts. We need to remember, to focus on the promises of God, which prove themselves true.

This testing of our faith reveals what we’ve buried. We didn’t realize it, but truths we once believed may have become mere platitudes. Our anxiety reveals that we doubt God’s goodness.

Some of us then resort to fake science, to conspiracy theories, and to doubting the wisdom of doctors and scientists. Some resort to fear-mongering and to grabbing hold of anything that makes us feel even slightly in control. Some of us cannot sleep, for anxiety has overtaken us.

Instead, what if we yield? Is God sovereign, or is he not?

Digging into our heart response shows us that we need to come to Jesus. We’ve faltered in our trust in him. Our faith isn’t as strong and as deep as we once thought. During cycles of terror, suffering, and pain, this experience is often the norm. We learn our true condition.

“We want a gospel that tells us we’re beloved and safe, but we don’t like remembering it also includes death. We want to be protagonists in the story of love, but we need continual conversion to inhabit the place Christ bought for us in his story” (K. J. Ramsey, This Too Shall Last).

Continual conversion. Our commitment to Jesus is not a one-time proclamation that we then walk away from, our tickets punched. No, we cooperate daily in our messy transformation. The letter to the Hebrews was written to believers like us, who faced imminent death and who considered walking away from their faith for they feared falling into Nero’s hands.

Hebrews 4:6-7 urges: “So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David. . . ‘Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts’” (NLT).

We harden our hearts every day in large and in small ways. But today, let’s yield to God. Let’s soften our hearts, handing our doubt and fear to him. Let’s pray that prayer of faith once again, “Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief.” This prayer is always welcomed.

During hardship, even Christian writers need these reminders. We need to reaffirm our faith and to strengthen our confidence in Christ by spending time in God’s Word. I know that I do. I was just sitting in my dark closet crying over these truths.

God is sovereign over our circumstances. Let’s turn again to the Lord, humbling ourselves, praying that prayer of faith as often as needed, and giving it all to him. Let’s treat others as we would like to be treated, wearing our social distancing masks, protecting our neighbors.

And then, let’s write about it. Our readers feel the same. Everyone does. Now is the time to write with complete transparency, to offer real words of hope.

As a reminder of that hope, listen to this blessing on Instagram by Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes.

Today, let’s yield to God. Let’s soften our hearts, handing our doubt and fear to him. #SeriouslyWrite #Encouragement via @MelindaVInman

God is sovereign over our circumstances. #SeriouslyWrite #Encouragement via @MelindaVInman

Now is the time to write with complete transparency, to offer real words of hope. #SeriouslyWrite #Encouragement via @MelindaVInman

The Shadows Come

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?

Melinda V. Inman, author of Fallen; Refuge;
No Longer Alone; and The Shadows Come

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

More than Dust in the Wind by Melinda V. Inman

More than Dust in the Wind

Change is in the wind. Everywhere around us, my husband and I are experiencing drastic shifts in our lives. I’m sure many of you can relate, no matter what stage of life you’re in.

Two years ago, we uprooted from our home of almost twenty years and relocated across the country. Our new city is peopled by many millions. Before this, we mostly resided in small towns or cities of less than 250,000. This realigned our large family, turning every holiday upside down. There went our family traditions, thus provoking an identity crisis.

At Thanksgiving, my husband retired after being with the same employer for over forty years. This caused all sorts of upheaval, as it’s a major adjustment for him and thus, for me.

During all of this, I finished and then launched my fifth novel, based on my great-grandparents’ early lives during WW1. With the book’s completion, that depressing farewell to their world is now part of the emotional mix.

I’ve been feeling the angst of the 1970s song, “Dust in the Wind,” by Kerry Livgren of “Kansas.”

Now, don’t hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky

It slips away

And all your money won’t another minute buy

Dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind

Dust in the wind

Everything is dust in the wind

[“Dust in the Wind” lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC]

If that sounds like something from Ecclesiastes, it’s because the song lyrics reflect what Solomon also experienced. Though he had everything, he realized that no matter what, he would still die, and all his work would amount to dust.

Cheerful, right? All of this has weaseled down into my heart.

As writers, our emotions and the spiritual place from which we process our work, our family, and our circumstances impact what we write and how we write it. I’m glad all this dust is settling during the holiday season, when all eyes are on Jesus.

No matter who we are, each year we discover that these holidays are different than the last. We march through life, and things change. Rather than despair as we reflect on what is altered, how much better to focus on the One who orders all our days. The holidays circle around him.

These changes, this upheaval, these relocations, this volatile publishing industry, these constant marketing challenges, these changes in tradition, our days winding down—all are gifts from God, even if we don’t understand why or how.

I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 3:10-13 NIV)

Though our bodies will one day be dust in the wind, our souls are eternal, and our life experiences are shaped by God specifically to draw us toward him, to mold us into the image of his Son, and to accomplish his purposes. This is all far more than dust in the wind, for we are blessed by this reality:

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27 NIV)

With this awaiting us, we need not lament the loss of what once was. But rather, we can attach ever more securely to the One who inspires everything we do.

Fix your eyes on Jesus this holiday season, especially if life has been all sorts of messy. As always, he’s the reason we live and the reason we write. God bless you in your journey, dear writer!

Though our bodies will one day be dust in the wind, our souls are eternal, and our life experiences are shaped by God specifically to draw us toward him. #WritingLife #WriterEncouragement #seriouslywrite #encouragementforwriters via @MelindaVInman

The Shadows Come

The Shadows Come

Sequel to No Longer Alone

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 alive?

Set in 1917-1919, The Shadows Come is based on a true story.

Available in paperback and e-book on Melinda’s Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Melinda-Viergever-Inman/e/B00GFYI0RU/ref

Melinda V. Inman

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
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00GFYI0RU