The First Step Toward Confident Living

Strength for the Quest
FINANCIAL BANKRUPTCY usually comes as no surprise. It’s not the result of a single misstep, but a series of small rationalizations over time, poor spending habits, and bad decisions that build like snowflakes on a mountainside, resulting in a sudden, cataclysmic avalanche. 

The same can be said about moral bankruptcy. In his novel, The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky describes the downward spiral—  

“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and, in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal, in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying — lying to others and to yourself.” 

Making promises you don’t keep.

Exaggerating to get attention. 

Lying to avoid confrontation.

Writing verbal checks your life can’t cash.

Rationalizing that everybody does it. 

The first step toward confident living is being honest with yourself, honest with others. There is strength in truth, freedom in honesty. 

STRENGTH FOR THE QUEST
Because Life Is More Than A Journey

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Novels Spark Revival In USSR

Strength for the Quest
I’m sure the author wouldn’t want to hear this, but for me the most memorable part of his book was a footnote— 

The footnote told how, in the 1970s, journalist Malcolm Muggeridge was interviewing Anatoly Kuznetsov, a Russian writer who had defected to England from the USSR. Muggeridge surprised to hear that a spiritual revival was taking place in the Soviet Union. This was at a time when virtually all Christian books, including the Bible, were banned by the Communist government. But according to Kuznetsov, there was hardly a writer or artist or musician who was not exploring spiritual faith. 

What was sparking the revival? 

Kuznetsov explained that while the Russian authorities suppressed all Christian writings, they dare not suppress the works of the great Russian novelists, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and that through their novels people were reading perfect expositions of the Christian faith, resulting in widespread spiritual revival. 

On a personal note, early in my professional career I observed how story was able to portray spiritual truth in a powerful, memorable way. People remembered the stories I told long after they forgot the lesson. It was this observation that lead me to begin writing fiction. 

I’ve staked my professional career on the fact that good fiction is life-changing fiction. 

STRENGTH FOR THE QUEST
Because Life Is More Than A Journey

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INTERESTED IN REVIVAL? For revivals in America, see my Great Awakenings novels

Click here: Great Awakenings

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