I Know The Author

Stephen King used to be my favorite author. My mom didn't like that very much, and I don't
blame her.

If you're unfamiliar with Stephen King, he's the madman behind The Shining, IT, Children of the
Corn, and a whole lot of other horror stories. He also wrote the novella that would become The
Shawshank Redemption, my all-time favorite movie. He's highly regarded as one of the best
fiction writers of all time, and his novels captivated me. Yes, they're haunting and violent, but he
writes with an elegance and smooth composition that is more enthralling than any other author
I've come across.

An aside: I speak in the past tense––he was my favorite author––for a reason. I eventually
realized that I was feeding my heart and mind a lot of dark, evil content with the excuse of
"excellent writing and storytelling," but that's a topic for another blog. Regardless, King's stories
always, for better or worse, house characters who face immense trials or trauma, only to
overcome in the end. Without darkness, the light wouldn't be as bright.

I digress; I've read many of King's novels, and, over time, I started to notice several patterns in
his books. Stephen King is from Maine, and nearly every book he's written takes place, at least
partially, in Maine. He does a fantastic job of making his characters feel like real people. And
generally, come the end of the book, the main characters have not necessarily a happy ending,
but a safe one. His characters come out of the novel's events very much different from when they
began. Having experienced more than their fair share of trauma, they survive and live on.

Knowing these things changes how you think as you read his books. If you know that the main
character will survive until the end of the book, their being in a near-death situation isn't quite as
intense as it would be if you didn't know how the story would end. Maybe you've gotten lost in a
favorite author's works––maybe you started recognizing patterns in their storytelling. When you
know the author, you know how the story will end, and you think differently about the events
that take place along the way.

Every one of us is living our own story. (Unfortunately) every one of us thinks of ourselves as
the main character. We all have dreams and ambitions that we hope will come to fruition, and we
all struggle along trying to figure out just what the heck we're doing here. When the hard times
come, and some trial rears its head, we worry because we don't know what will come of it.

But our story has an author. And that author has some patterns of his own. If you know him, you
know how his stories end. If you're unsure, take a look at 1 John 5:4:

"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith."

If you have faith in Jesus, you overcome the world—period. By faith in Jesus and his
substitutionary death on the cross, Christ's righteousness is imputed upon you, and you overcome
the world because He already has.

If I know that this is the case––that my story ends with me, in Heaven, with Jesus, totally
righteous and complete––shouldn't that alter how I view my short life here on earth?

I don't know what's going to happen to me along the way. When I read Stephen King, I never
expected the twists in the plot or the crazy things that go down, but I knew that Danny Torrance
survives The Shining because there's a sequel! So, when he's being chased down the hallway of
the Overlook Hotel by a possessed firehose, I can rest assured knowing that, somehow, he's
going to get out alright. How much more should I rest assured in the great inheritance of eternal
life that God has promised me? My story doesn't have a sequel––my story goes on for eternity!

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." - Philippians 3:20-21

As long as I live here on earth, nowhere will really feel like home. I've come to realize that in
recent years.

Maybe you can relate to this feeling. I spent my post-high-school years moving up and down I-
35 between Dallas and Waco. Dallas to Waco for college, Waco to Dallas for one church job,
Dallas to Waco for another church job, and back to Dallas for The Worship Initiative. In those
years, I really struggled to feel like I was home. I grew up in one place; I started following Jesus
in another. I have family and friends in Dallas, but I built my own new community in Waco. I
finally settled in Dallas with an amazing job and a wife, but I still miss my church and my
friends in Waco. Nothing really feels like home anymore, and it gets to me now and then. But
when I read Philippians 3:20-21, I'm encouraged. This life won't feel like home because we are
citizens of Heaven. Our souls long for it, and it's where we will one day reside.

If we are in Christ, any hardship we face in life should be met with confidence that, although we
don't know precisely how, everything's going to work out for our good in the end (Romans 8:28).
We're promised that. You know the author, you know the stories he writes, and you know how
they end. Live with the end in mind.

"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - John 16:33