When the Harvest of Our Lives Contradicts the Faith That is Supposed to Be Its Source …

Man o man! I’m supposed to be cutting words from our 90,000 first draft to get it closer to the 75,000 word requirement in our contract with Baker … but as of 9:13PM today, I’ve somehow moved us up to 112,869 words (!). Must be all of this great research I keep reading in my files and thinking, “Well we HAVE TO include THAT, don’t we?!” (Oh, Tara. You are in TROUBLE.)

(BTW—Aren’t you glad you’re not me tonight? I’m happy that the night is still young and I’m feeling a close kinship with my college freshman niece and grad school buddy Kelly V. It sure feels like exam week around here! Which is kinda fun and kinda exhausting and TOTALLY requiring me to access parts of my mommy brain that aren’t usually accessed as a normal part of my ordinary day.)

Anyway …

I stumbled on these points from Lane & Tripp’s, How People Change and thought, “Wow! Those guys are smart” and “Man! I have got to reflect on this in my own life.” And since I probably can’t keep all of this in our manuscript, I decided to post them here:

Life should include:
– Peaceful, loving relationships
– A sweet, natural, day-by-day worship of the Lord
– A wholesome and balanced relationship to material things; and
 – Ongoing spiritual growth

But, instead, does our life include:
– A trail of broken relationships
– A knowledgeable but impersonal walk with God
– Struggle with material things
– Definite lack of personal growth

If so, something is wrong with this harvest. It contradicts the faith that is supposed to be its source.