PenWorks of the Blog Tour: Post 13 - Natasha Woodcraft
Natasha Woodcraft writes:
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12, NIV)
I don’t know about you, but I constantly need rest. Life is a little (read: a lot) hectic, and there is always someone who needs my time – some excuse not to ‘Sabbath’. I’m often drawn into a cycle of running from one task to the next, feeling increasingly stressed or anxious as everything takes longer than I’d hoped.
Hebrews 4 is a wonderful passage – complex, but wonderful. It speaks of the promise of entering God’s rest, of faith joining with the Word to affect us deeply. Those who first heard failed to enter that rest due to unbelief (v6) but the promise still stands – Great is His faithfulness! The writer says that the promise of God’s rest is for today – if we don’t harden our hearts.
Now, I doubt, as Christians, that we do this intentionally. But we can still harden our hearts to hearing God’s Word – His voice – by just being too busy to sit and be still. We know we should be eager to enter into his “faith-rest” (as the Passion Translation puts it), we should be ploughing our efforts into seeking after Him first, but life gets in the way.
My writing has been a journey (that I’m still on) of learning to listen. Of learning not to harden my heart but to open it up to God, allowing him to penetrate my soul and spirit. How? Well, for starters, I write with my Bible open. All my stories are Bible-based, whether Biblical fiction or, more recently, Christian Fantasy fiction. As I write, I listen for what needs to go in, and as I edit, I listen for what needs to come out, or what needs developing. I stay tuned to God’s voice in the world around me – sermons, songs, conversations with friends – as well as in my quiet times with Jesus. This can be hard! But somehow, for me, writing makes it easier. I have a goal, if you like, a task. And as a very task-driven person, that helps. Writing also opens up not just my soul, but my imagination, to God.
Writing, for me, is a place where imagination and biblical truth collide. In Awakening the Light (see below) it was an opportunity for me to explore what creation might have looked like in a different world – how else God might have done it? C.S. Lewis did this in the Magicians Nephew, where Aslan sings creation into being. In my story, I don’t mess with human creation (although my people are called ‘the Enja’, they are essentially just like us). But I do mess with animal creation a little bit, forming hybrid beings, that look a little bit like this and a little bit like that, is ever so fun. And the world itself?
The world is built around the hypothetical question – What would it look like for the light (Jesus) to literally be at the centre of the world? In order for that to be possible, the world couldn’t be spherical, because the centre of it would be dark (as it is with our planet). So I imagined a world that looked a little like a spinning top, with the light in the centre spreading outwards in every direction as the world spins around it.
We all see what rejecting God looks like in our world. We live with the consequences every day. But what would it mean for people to walk away from the light – to reject it – if it was such a visible presence? That’s a question I seek to answer in the Stronghold of Enjanan series, where people can literally choose to live in the light or the darkness; where some reject the Creator even when His light is the source of life and health and flourishing.
Because that’s what we do as humans, isn’t it? Just as Hebrews said, the promised rest is available for us, but we rejected it. The good gifts that God offers us daily are gifts we so often shun in favour of what the world offers, creating darkness, rivalry and strife. Why do we do it? Because we want control of our own destiny. Because surrender is so hard. Even when we know it’s for our good.
So biblical truth and writing fun. It absolutely is possible.
I hope that my stories will provide a refuge for today’s teenagers and young adults. Those seeking truth in the world full of ‘everything but’. Those seeking holiness in a world full of compromise; those seeking God in a world where idols are everywhere.
Awakening the Light is a story where quiet courage is celebrated; where steadfast faith, rather than blind ambition, is valued. Where the values of honesty, integrity and purity are lifted high. But it’s also a story that doesn’t pretend the darkness doesn’t exist. Slavery, immorality, violence. They are all present in Enjanan, and I don’t shy away from them, though I tried to treat them with caution for the sake of my younger readers. Pretending doesn’t do us any favours. Asking God to enter our space is the answer. Asking God to dwell with us, to shine his light in our hearts, and committing to walking in it. That’s the way we endure.
There’s a prevailing theme of biblical grace as well. Each of the central characters – and there’s a whole family of them because family is also valued in this world – they each face their own challenges. They each have their own spiritual weakness. They each must learn to overcome in God’s strength. Because that’s what I wish I’d read as a young person – not a guilt-list of things I shouldn’t do, but an encouragement into the place of God‘s presence where he can empower us for Jesus-like living in a broken world. Where we can discover his promised rest.
Will you join me?
Natasha Woodcraft lives in a slightly crumbling farmhouse in Lincolnshire, England, with her family of boys and menagerie of animals. She holds an honours degree in Theology and believes stories have power to communicate deep truth and transform lives. Her novels explore God’s redemptive purposes for ordinary, messy people living in biblical times and fantasy worlds.
https://natashawoodcraft.com/subscribe
The Stronghold of Enjanan: Awakening the Light
An Epic Fantasy of Faith and Courage
In a world that spins around the Eternal Light, Shay’s people are in peril. The mysterious Nahil have arrived, offering prosperity, power, and peace. But wherever they are welcomed, chaos lingers and shadows take root.
Shay has always felt invisible – a dependable son overshadowed by his brilliant siblings. But when Shay's formidable sister falls victim to the Nahil’s schemes, it's time for his dormant gifts to awaken, and his faith to be tested.
Will Shay embrace the light, or lose everyone he loves to the shadows?
https://books2read.com/awakeningthelight
