Ok, before anyone accuses me of a bait and switch, the title reflects the contents of this blog, and while it is catchy, the two topics are not directly related. It is my quirky randomness that drew the two subjects together and thus created the Title for this blog post. Sorry if it misled anyone.
Writer's block. Anyone who has ever had a deadline for an essay in High School knows what this is. It sucks, even when you are not a writer by profession. I know of a few strategies to get past it. Go back and rewrite the last sentence/paragraph/page. Just free write until something comes to you. Start a new thread until you complete the assignment or something new comes to you. The second one works best for me, but there are times when nothing seems to work except stepping away for a time and coming back later. Sometimes months or even a year. I got to a point in my on going story series that i just couldn't seem to move forward with it. 
I backed up, i approached it from various angles... but i am stuck. I've even considered re-writing some of it. Such are the perils of not having a start to finish outline i believe. I outlined some, but since it was an on-going deal i only went so far, and then out paced my outline with the writing. So... i am going to take a(n as yet determined) brief break from that storyline. Almost immediately i had another story line concept that i am interested in pursuing. This one not in the Necromunda setting. It is still in a gaming system though, because i lack sufficient creativity to create my own 'universe'. This one will take place within Steve Jackson Games universe of Car Wars. Yet another not mainstream game - even by table top war gaming standards. I will see if i can get some short stories off the ground this way. Mostly, because i just like to write, and i am just not a touchy-feely kind of writer. I like to write about people that have to eek out an existence out of pretty hostile situations. As usual the main protagonist(s) will not be some well off, silver spoon fed, aristocrat. They will be an everyman type deal, and their trials and accomplishments. I have one character outlined in my head, but i am awaiting some feedback from a friend on the second one. We shall see. Sometime back, if you've actually been reading this blog long enough, you may remember my concern with the following verses:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." (Matthew 7:21-23, ESV)
It concerns me because it clearly shows people who were doing things in the name of Christ, and yet the Lord Himself say, "I never knew you"! How can one who proclaims themselves a Christian, a follower of Christ, not have at least some concern over this statement?!? My concern does not come because i think the Lord is some kind of vindictive despot. It is because i know He is a just God.
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34: 5-7, ESV)
And the Lord being just is perfectly within His right to dismiss the very people that did all of those things in His name, and yet they are turned from the Throne because He never knew them. This had me meditating. I know we are NOT saved by works. We can never do enough good things to overcome the debt we have incurred, and that we produce good works - not to obtain righteousness, or God's favor - but because of what He has already accomplished by Christ's work. The concept of grace is not what concerned me... but the walk through life with the firm belief in those works are evidence of the grace, evidence of my heart change, but then when it comes to stand before the Judgment seat and hear those terrible words. Then, yesterday the Lord showed me a verse within His word that gave me comfort:
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. (1 Corinthians 8:1-3, ESV)
I can see how this can be a round robin train of thought. If you love God, you will do what He says, but we cannot do what He says without His provision, and because, of His grace, but how do we receive this grace unless we love Him? In the end i find myself praying for His grace to love Him more, so that i may do the things He commands. In the end it is but for me to love, to serve, to pursue Him, and all my effort and strength is provided by and through my Lord Jesus Christ.
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