Drama.
In a house with three teen/preteen girls, drama is not usually a good thing. It’s something to be circumvented, squashed, avoided at all costs. You tell the kids it’s bad, and you try to teach them better ways to settle conflict.
But the last month or so, drama has begun to mean something different to me. A writer friend of mine—I consider her a friend although I have never met her in person—asked me to join Christ to the World Ministries. CTTW takes the Word of God to people all over the world through dramas and Bible studies that present the message of the Bible and the story of Jesus in ways that people everywhere can understand and relate to. These programs are shared around the world through radio and other media formats.
My friend, Jennifer, asked me if I would like to write a drama series on the life of Joshua. Since I have already researched Joshua heavily for In the Shadow of Sinai and its sequel, By the Waters of Kadesh, I agreed to look into it. It’s turned out to be a lot of fun as well as incredibly challenging. I’ve completed three of the twelve episodes.
It’s exciting, yes, but unbelievably humbling and a little scary to think that my words will be broadcast into over twenty countries in Africa and Asia. The vast majority of the people who will read my fiction already know Jesus, but the purpose of these dramas is to reach those who do not know Him at all. That thought is continually in the back of my mind as I write and could be disabling if I let it. I try to concentrate on just writing the story and creating word pictures so the hearer can visualize the truth of the Scripture. I pray over it and leave the rest to God—or at least I try to. And I try to remember what Isaiah said,
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (55:10-11)