I started a project back in May with a website called Odyssey Authors. It’s a collaborative writing site with a few other fun things thrown in. The website had a major facelift recently, and interest is growing. The admin just sent current members an email this morning saying:
Holy cow the site is blossoming like Blossom from the TV show Blossom!
These last few days have been a masterful success for Odyssey Authors. With
our new site design and our recharged advertising campaign the site is
starting to fulfill the vision we all had for it when we first created it.We’re right on the tipping point, ladies and gentlemen. All we need is a
few more days of your continued activity while new people are checking us
out. Take a look around the site, make a couple posts, be generally jolly.
The chat rooms are back up, so maybe hop in there and see what’s crackin’.As always I <3 you all. Thanks for your dedication to our cause!
I was proud to have the first Odyssey and to see a contribution. It’s way past my turn to write the next chapter. Feel free to stop by and even join. They are a great crowd.
This was the story as I wrote the first chapter. Notes and background information are available at the link.
The Story Thus Far:
Rick absent-mindedly thumbed through the change in his pocket as he walked into work. As a general practice, he parked in the very last row of the parking lot in order to get a bit more exercise. Combined with the habit of always taking the stairs, he hoped that he was burning a least a few of the calories coming from the muffin he ate for breakfast.
About halfway to the entrance, he began to get a dull headache behind his eyes. As a distraction, he pulled out a coin from his coat pocket hoping it was a quarter. He didn’t collect the 50 state quarters, but he found it distracting enough to see which states he had collected while going about everyday life. He hoped it would be a new Montana quarter.
To his surprise, he found the weathered image of King Kamehameha I staring back at him. Reading the state motto, Ua mau ke ea o ka‘aina i ka pono, his headache worsened when he considered its meaning. Pausing to get a deep breath of the chilly morning air, he put the Hawaii quarter back in his pocket and fished for ibuprofen in his other pocket.
Looks like a three-pill day, he muttered to himself as he swallowed them. Rick did not like swallowing them without a drink of some kind, but there’s no water fountain or anything else until he comes off the stairs on the third floor.
He thought to himself about the assorted paper-pushing projects sitting on his desk and let out a groan. He comforted himself that it was Thursday and that the weekend was near. Walking steadily, he made it to the front door and turned to take the stairs alone.
…and He says, “you are very good.”
When God created the earth and everything in it, he set apart mankind as special. The heavens, the ground, the plants, the animals; these things he spoke into existence. Mankind, however, was made deliberately. You could say that the first man was crafted. God has absolute power - when He speaks it happens. Yet, when He considered us, He put His hands into the ground and gave Adam his shape.
God didn’t stop here, though. All the other creatures were given life because God said that His creations have life in them. For mankind, he stooped on the ground and awoke Adam with a kiss. The first thing Adam saw when He opened his eyes was God looking at him with love. God was close enough to touch and Adam could hear His voice.
When God considered Eve, he took a part of Adam and did the same thing. Eve was forged out of the ground and shaped by God’s hand. When she awoke the first time, she also saw God looking at her with love. She could also see that He was close enough to touch. She could hear His voice as well.
You were made from a part of me and a part of your mother. For nine and a half months, God knit you together in the belly of your mother. At the appointed time, you joined us. I am sorry that the first thing you saw was the concerned look of a midwife and a hand pump taking breath from you. However, you soon saw me and later your mother. When I held you, I told you that you were good - not because I have the power of God, but because it is true.
This is not the end of the story, however. God, out of his love, provided boundaries to Adam and Eve. They were simple and easily understood. One was that they could eat any fruit or vegetable to sustain themselves. The main one, though, was that they were not to eat from a certain tree.
Obeying that rule was more difficult than you may think, especially when an interloper comes and stands between mankind and God. An angel visited Adam and Eve and convinced them to disobey. When they disobeyed, they sinned against God and all their descendants.
Sin has a consequence. For Adam and Eve, it was knowing the difference between good and evil. Once they learned about evil, there was no way to protect their children from that knowledge. God even visited one of their children and warned him about the power of evil. Still, this one sin has a consequence that affects me, you, and everyone alive. Despite all the best efforts of billions of parents, children learn about evil and eventually choose it. Despite my best efforts, you have learned about evil from me, in part, because you have seen it in me.
The consequences of sin don’t go away - sin has a permanent effect on the world. This is why sin is a grave matter! Hold on to the knowledge of good that you have. It will save your life and the lives of others!
As serious as sin is, there is a remedy. The remedy is even more serious than sin because its price is so high. My son, sin can only be overcome with atonement and forgiveness. Forgiveness can be difficult to give to someone that hurts you, but over time, even hardened cynics like me can forgive. Atonement, however, is quite serious. The penalty for introducing sin into the world is blood and death. You see, the only way for the sin to die inside of a man is for the man to die. There is no other way.
God provided the blood of animals to Adam and Eve. He later provided his only Son for them and all their descendants. His son, Jesus, shed innocent blood and died. He took on the sins of the world into his own body so that sin could die with him. Through him, atonement has been given for the sin in all our lives. When he arose from the dead, sin had been conquered once and for all. When he arose, we all had a chance at forgiveness.
I will tell you more about this later. Suffice it to say that we must also die and be raised again, just like Jesus. It is the only way for our sin to die. It is the only way for us to be forgiven. It is the only way to reclaim that which God declared in us to be good. I have been through this journey and I want to help you through the same journey when the time is right.
Remember where the good comes from. It comes from God. You do not earn His love. You do not earn mine. You are good because God said so, not because of who you are or what you do. When I held you at birth and every time after that, I said that you were good because you are. Sin has a consequence, yet so does atonement. Because of sin, we know good and evil - because of atonement, we know love, faith, and hope. The penalty has been paid. Therefore, we can know the love of God, the faith of his Son, and the hope for all mankind, not just me and you.
There are so many that will tell you that you are bad. Sometimes those voices seem louder than God’s voice. Remember, you are very good, and that will never change. Despite sin, God still says that you are good. You were created very good by God, just like Adam. God’s words do not ever change. No. Never Change. When He speaks, it is reality, and no force in the universe can change it.
Yes, you will sin. Yes you will have to make amends to those whom you sin against. In order for them to forgive you, you will have to work hard to see justice done at your own expense. God has atoned for it, yes, but for the sake of others, you will have to make things right with those you have sinned against. As Paul has said, overcome evil with good. Do not let your first sin, your second sin, or your most recent sin overcome you. Do what is right because God’s perspective of you has never changed.
When you sin, we will be there and we will support you no matter what. This is true because of who you are, not what you have done or not done. As your mother and I have said many times, “Doing the right thing is not always easy, but there is always grace.” As Titus has said, the grace of God is the divine influence that continues to teach us what is good. Whatever happens, listen to that divine influence because it will teach you to choose the good and avoid what is evil.
All of this begins with love. As John says, we love because God first loved us. You were formed in love, knit together by God. God loves you. My son, God is here and he says that you are very good. Do not ever forget that.
Forgot that today was Labor Day. Still, will post later today or tonight.
The parody of the Paxton song was *not* the spiritual entry. That was just a random idea that came from listening to a tape of songs performed by my father-in-law.
More later…
keep looking »