It is presumptuous for any author to suggest – much less say outright – that the voice of God is what one should hear in the stories set before a potential reader. To do that is to assert that an author understands God’s thoughts and is sharing that revelation with the unenlightened.
That outlook – that a writer possesses knowledge withheld from most people – is at the heart of GNOSTICISM, an early mystical spin-off of Christianity that was deemed a heresy requiring suppression.
The present author has not been granted secret heavenly information. There is no need to hide these pages in a cave or in the desert.
That does not mean, however, that writing these stories was simply a casual pastime designed to make me the next Dan Brown. The reader will quickly recognize that each narrative seeks to endorse a position that in today’s world is rejected, criticized, or laughed at. In every case the egotism encouraged by our “me-first” culture creates either suffering or a stasis that refuses to look for ways to improve society.
As I got into each story, I found that it told itself. Insensitivity toward animals, the theme of “The Least of These”, was composed while television advertisements cried out for shelter aid. Governmental insensitivity toward violence, homelessness, immigration, foreign governments, and minority rights drove me to write “Its Own Reward”, “Friends Drop In”, “Beg to Differ”, “The Tipping Point”, and, of course, “The Transparent Angel”. Surely, we are better than these situations suggest.
I can go on and on. I am a retired teacher and I’m approaching 80. I have seen more of life than I like to admit. In a strange but very real way, I heard the voice of God telling me to stop sitting on my butt and do something about all these problems. As long as I’m alive, I can make a difference.
As old George says in “The Tipping Point”, maybe I can be the change that comes out of all this.
Isaiah responded to God’s call by saying “Here I am send me.”
Why did I write STEWARDS OF THE LIGHT? God made me do it.