I have avoided reading Stephen King pretty much my whole life. I, sadly, judged a book by its cover and thought King was "just" a horror writer.
How wrong I was.
My favorite TV show is Lost and it has been well established that the book, The Stand, had a huge influence on the writer's of that show. So, at the prompting of a friend of mine (thank you Kiley), I picked up the book.
I was hooked right away. The story was amazing and introduced me to a theme in King's writing that has such an amazing truth.
Fighting evil comes at a terrible personal cost.
We are so naive to think that when we fight evil or make a stand against it, that it will just wilt and go away. It doesn't and it fights back. The cost might be anything. Our baby having seizures in the hospital. Our house failing to sell for some strange reason when there is no earthly reason it should not sell. Our health going down hill. It is always something.
I think about this as I pray for my city, Columbus. Our church is looking to transform our city by the Love of Christ that lives in us. That is a direct challenge to the evil in the city, as the evil thinks the city belongs to it. And maybe, we might be tempted to agree. There are horrible things that go on here. The rape rate is one of the highest in the country. Those with aids in our city are neglected not just by the church, but the whole community. There are orphans. Single moms who are preyed upon. Young girls forced into a life of prostitution. People steal. People lie. Nature is gutted (yes this is a sin). And with each act, our city becomes a little more dark.
but the city does not belong to the powers of darkness. It belongs to Jesus. He loves it. And He seeks to bring beauty to it. And we ought to be agents of the beauty, not to bring more darkness. To make beautiful art. To help the aids patients by holding their hands when they die. To make nature a priority and take care of it. To make sure young women are protected.
But beauty will come at a cost. We have to be ready for it. The battle between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, all of it comes at a price. Because evil will not set back and let it happen.
Back to Stephen King. I am a huge fan and in fact consider him in the top five of my favorite authors (O'Connor, Tolkien, Lewis, King and Lawhead would be the order). If you have avoided King like i did, shame on us! You will find nowhere in popular fiction the discussion of the battle betweeen God and evil discussed in such stark, honest, and beautiful terms.
Yes, Stephen King is beautiful. I said it.
2 comments:
Hey why dont you get me your phone number you freakin wack job!
Your favorite Mission to the World missionary in Lima, Peru
Love ya Bro
Hey chief. I've checked out you blog a couple of times since you started. Good stuff. It's interesting to hear language, and a style of speech, that I haven't heard in a while. As I spend more time outside of the church I suppose I get less used to the language style that we grew up with. But that is another story altogether. I too love the Stephen King, and I don't like horror stories. But he is such an amazing writer that I can't help myself. In reading his newest, "Cell," I find myself horrified at the vision of horrible evil he presents and, at the same time, amazed at his sentences. I don't think I have found another author yet that so often puts me in awe of their sentences. Several times in the first few pages of "Cell" I found myself stopping to be amazed at how he wrote something.
Yes, he also digs deep into the depths of evil and into the personality of the human soul. Really impressive.
This is dave, by the way. Peace.
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