Glory

So lately….

…I’ve been thinking about glory.  Maybe I’m a bit of a prude, or something like that, but sometimes I get concerned about how much glory I should put into my book series.  What’s that mean?  What I mean is: how much should I try to make people think my series is glorious, or deserving of praise and admiration?  “Is there such a thing as too much glory?” you might think, at least on the level of fame and fortune.

But I don’t really work on that level.  By now, you should know I’m a person very deep in my faith.  That being said, I ask such questions of whether my book will be too awesome on a religious level.  So here’s the heart of the problem:

If my series is so awesome, with amazing characters people love, fantastic worlds that people get lost in, powers that people are obsessed with, and truths that they found inspirational, will such glory distract people from God?

Think about it.  People can get lost in fictional worlds.  Those worlds have power.  We have power as writers.  I have power.  I personally don’t want to draw anyone away from God, and certainly not to myself.  He deserves all the credit (although my series couldn’t be classified as Christian or Religious).

But, as I thought more about this problem, I started to realize something.  See if you can follow this logic:

God is perfect in every good way.

My book is perfect in every good way.

Therefore, my book is a reflection, in one way or another, of God’s perfection.

Okay, so it’s probably a stretch to say that my series will ever be “perfect in every good way”.  My logic is probably a little messed up too.  But…BUT, similarly, if my book is outrageously well thought-out, well-plotted, with characters you can’t get enough of, scenes beautifully depicted, and all people can think of is “this is AMAZING”…won’t they, somewhere down the line, think of God, and how awesome He is?

Well, not everyone.  I guess I’m talking about people who know and believe in God.  But think of it this way.  Whenever someone (at least a guy), takes a bite of the perfect hamburger, doesn’t he immediately think “Mmmmm! Thank you, God!” (maybe that’s just me).  Amazing things leave us in awe and wonder.  We think, “how can this be?” (*ahem* Blessed Mother).  Glory and perfection aren’t things that naturally come from this world.  Lots of things leave us breathless.  And they don’t come from us.

We see a beautiful sky.  Who created such beauty?

God did.

We see a beautiful painting.  Who created the painting?

The painter.  But what he painted only could have been inspired by something beautiful he experienced else where.  If he paints a picture of a bowl of fruit, the form of the fruit which he tries to capture came from somewhere.  Where did it come from?

From God.

So here’s what I want to do.  I want The Golden Lands to be so awesome, sowonderful, that people will immediately be directed towards God.  They’ll immediately think words of praise and thankfulness to Him for ever inspiring a teenaged guy.  I want TGL to be something heavenly (although not religious).  They’ll thank God for the beauty in the series, the way it makes them feel, the way it empowers them.  God is at the source of all good things.  

God willing, people will be able to discover and continue seeing this through my work!

Your AA,

Aul