Even if you have a difficult father to overcome, as I did, God wants to father you into all he's made you to be. That sentence capsulizes my memoir, Trading Fathers. When I first began to write my story of wrestling with God, honing that sentence took six months. Getting the story in a sentence is a good starting place for writing, especially a piece of creative non-fiction. "Creative" means using fiction techniques, like dialogue and scene, to tell a non-fiction story.
Writing a book requires a tenacious focus. Every scene chosen must contribute to the story's forward movement. Dialogue must be carefully crafted to convey character. Every page needs to express the theme.
Sometimes I wonder. Has God formulated our story in a sentence? Is he writing the story of our lives with a similar intensity of focus?
He knows where he wants the story to go. His general theme is "making us into the image of Jesus" so we can walk with him in holiness, lest we burn up near his "consuming fire." Is he crafting the scenes of our lives as carefully as I crafted the scenes of my memoir?
And what's our part in the story? We seem to be more than characters, but less than authors.What mysteries we populate. Plots and subplots yet to be lived. Endings sure but unclear to us, the characters. And yet, most of the time, I'm grateful not to be the author of my own life. I've written a book. It's hard work. Being a character is God's great story isn't always easy, either, but not so hard as being the author.
Father, author of life, source of being. May we submit our whole hearts to the story you are writing.