A while ago I had an idea for a short story that went under the name ‘A Balanced Diet’. It was about a boy who has a revelation whilst listening to a talk at the church that his family attends. The talk, aimed at children, was on the book of Job, and the revelation is this: If you’re really naughty then God’ll get you, but if you’re really good then the devil gets you, as Job experienced. The boy decides that the best thing to do is to be neither good nor bad, but to try and fly under the radar by living a balanced diet, so to speak. Whenever he does anything bad, he immediately has to find something good to do in order to balance it out, so as to not attract any unwanted supernatural attention. Of course, the opposite is true as well. If his mother praises him for doing a good job of tidying his room, he has to balance that out by sneaking off and pinching his baby brother or something.
I didn’t get far with it – just an idea and the beginnings of a tale – but I know, even without exploring it, that it will end up in a dark place. That’s where selfishness, fear and manipulation always end up. A dark place.
The alternative, and the only route to the light, is surrender. I’ve been coming to realise that. Note that surrender is not the same as ‘giving up’ or ‘not caring’ or ‘abdicating responsibility’. Surrender is the act of trying, caring and taking responsibility, but only for and about those things that God has given you to try, care and take responsibility for. In other words, what you are surrendering is your demand to set the agenda.
The story I haven’t written is about a boy who is trying to set the agenda. If I do ever sit down to write it, it will end up in a dark place. Submit to God, let Him set the agenda, and though you may at times find yourself wandering through some dark places you’ll never end there. You’ll just be passing through on your way to the light.
