Life Experiences

Like many writers, I write from my own life experiences, or experiences of others I know. In my book Like a Cedar In Lebanon one of the main characters is Jack. Jack seems a dastardly, unlikeable person in the first part of the book when I’m telling Lebby’s story. The second half of the book is Jack’s story – the horrendous things he suffered that made him the way he was. The story is about redemption, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

 

Lebby’s life was based on many things I experienced. Jack’s life was based on things I learned and understood from working with men at Teen Challenge for nineteen years. There are also characteristics of Jack drawn from my experiences with my ex-husband and my son.

 

It took me many years to forgive my ex-husband. When he passed away recently, I realized there are still many wounded areas in me. Unfortunately there are many things about my son – I have four daughters – that remind me of my ex-husband. Dealing with my son, who has battled alcoholism from his teen years, is like reliving so many experiences from my first marriage.

 

Many years ago I heard a preacher say that the reason some of continue to go around the same mountain is because we didn’t learn the lesson God intended the first time. My son has been staying in my home for the past several days and will be here until the end of the week. He is helping my husband do some construction work on a church. We had to spring him from jail for this.

 

My son is just so much like his dad. I've cried enough tears over him to fill an ocean. God help me, I don’t want to keep going around this mountain! And I don’t need more material to write about, thank you very much! If I live to be a hundred, I won’t run out of things to writing ideas.

 

Life! To quote a line from a movie, “Life’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”   I’m so glad I serve a God who holds it all in his compassionate, capable hands.