I love good fiction! Especially that of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R Tolkien! I am currently reading the Silmarillion by Tolkien and it is really having a profound effect on me. Perhaps the best thing about great fiction is that it takes you out of the world you occupy and returns you more fit to live in it!
I once watched an interview of Sally Lloyd-Jones (Author of the Jesus Storybook Bible) in which she described the different effects of video games and reading on two of her grandchildren. She said that her grandson, who loved video games, would often return from a long stent of "gaming" glazed over and unfit to interact in the real world. Her granddaughter however, who loves to read fiction, would come back after reading for some time with a renewed vigor toward interacting in the real world.
The reason this is the case is because words are essentially the substance of the world we inhabit. God spoke this world into being (Genesis 1:1). The way to live well in the world is to abide by the words of God (Exodus 20, Psalm 119, Matthew 5, Colossians 3:16). Furthermore, it is by the word of God that the world is continually upheld (Hebrews 1:3). It is when we interact with great words in great novels that we are enabled to interact better and more accurately within the real world.
One of the best works of fiction that I have encountered over the past couple of years is C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy particularly That Hideous Strength, the last book in the trilogy. This book is an accurate, and prophetic portrayal of the modernization and subjectification of the Western world. In it Lewis writes about a governmental, scientific, power-hungry organization which is gaining totalitarian power in England. There is much to write about this wonderful book but I would simply like to point out one quote which I find particularly relevant to our current cultural milieu of nonsense.
Those who call for nonsense will find that it comes. (pg. 370)
This is the fate of our current cultural trends in sentence form. If we want nonsense we will get just that. If we want diversity we will surely get it.
The problem is that our cultural really doesn't want the kind of nonsense and diversity that it is currently calling for. The ruling elites and "experts" say things like, "Who am I to judge what people do in their sexual lives?" Well, I can't answer that for you but I am sure you will have quite a headache when you are trying to answer questions on a political talk show about a bisexual girl who wants to marry both a man and a woman who is also bisexual but wants to marry another man rather than the one the first bisexual girl wants to marry. How will the ruling elites answer these questions? What will the politically correct response be there?
Right now the current answers are, "No one's asking for that." Really?! You're satisfied with that answer? Well of course they're not satisfied with that answer but what they are satisfied with is the acclaim they will receive when they fight for sam sex marriage or help pass legislation for the "Federal Defense of Tolerance Rights".
Like much of our political realm, the only answer that is thought necessary is the one that keeps your butt elected or keeps the political talk shows calling your office for your "expertise".
The true shame is that Washington is filled with these frauds because we've put them there. Washington is filled with liars because America is filled with gullible people and America is filled with gullible people because American pulpits have refused to teach people what lying and stealing and vanity is. The real reason politicians are so crooked is because so many pastors in America are crooked.
Reformation is necessary, are you on board?
Food for thought.
Michael