This spring I’ve put my shovel in once again and dug deeper (paying for a few months this time on Ancestry.com). It turns out that my family was mostly German (and Swiss), not Native American, and we go back to the early part of the 18th century, at least, in America. I’ve found some several times great uncles and cousins who served in the Revolution, and I’m onto some clues about a possible Price ancestor. If he’s the right guy, there’s a solider there, and the line goes back to late 1600s Connecticut and before that, Wales. Bingo! (If I have enough spaces covered when the caller repeats all the numbers.)

This is, needless to say, time consuming, so I’m putting this to good use—I’m hoping to join the DAR, and I’m planning to use a lot of what I’m learning in the book I’m working on about the Great Awakening, in the years 1739-1740. My central character is George Whitefield, the greatest evangelist of his time, along with two fictional people from Philadelphia. Should writing be this much fun? Yes, because it’s also a lot of hard work, and well worth it!

Advances in science and technology came at such a rapid pace—for that era—that it seemed there was nothing human invention and education couldn’t do, no problems it couldn’t solve. As I wrote in Great Events in American History:

“A major symbol of human development was a colossal ship called RMS Titanic, a luxury liner . . . (that) boasted unparalleled opulence for its first class passengers, including a swimming pool, a Turkish bath, and the finest food and décor. It didn’t, however, have many lifeboats, just enough for one-third of its passengers. Perhaps one reason for this was the absolute confidence that its builders had. . . According to Shipbuilder magazine, the vessel was ‘practically unsinkable.’ A deckhand who was trying to convince an anxious passenger not to worry said, ‘Not even God could sink her.’ (pp. 75-76)

On the night of the 15th, however, the ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. At first, the captain ordered his band to play lively songs to keep up the spirits of the passengers, but when it became clear that the ship wasn’t going to make it, Christian hymns replaced the other tunes. Less than three hours after the accident, the Titanic slipped beneath the waves. Over 1,500 passengers lost their lives; there were 705 survivors.

“Evangelist John Harper was on board that night, and he hurried to put his six-year- old daughter in one of the lifeboats. That accomplished, he went throughout the vessel warning people of its demise and telling them that in order to avoid spiritual death, they needed to put their faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

“When he could no longer stay on board the sinking ship, Harper jumped into the frigid water and took hold of a piece of debris. Spotting another passenger, he asked the man if he knew Christ. When the man said he did not, Harper told him how he could. The man of God met his Maker that night and likely took several people to heaven along with him.” (pp. 76-77)

http://www.margaretdaley.com/2012/02/interview-with-dr-rebecca-price-janney/

A year later I befriended some Koreans at Princeton Seminary. During that time I liked to wear colorful socks, and one day a male Korean told me, “I like your sex!” At first I was shocked, until I realized he meant that he liked my socks! I didn’t correct him, needless to say, because he would have been mortified.

Many years later I’m teaching Korean graduate students at Biblical Seminary. Most of them have theological degrees from Korean schools, and many are pastors, but they want to study in America. First, however, they need help understand how to write for an American academy. I’m happy to be helping them develop their reading and writing skills. We often share laughs at how we misunderstand each other. I have the utmost admiration for them—if I were in their shoes studying in Korea, well, let’s just say I’d be in big trouble!

Lo and behold, the celebrity’s secretary lost the best copy I had–lesson learned there, I can assure you–and I tucked the story in the back of my mind for another time.

A few years later I took it up again, starting somewhere from scratch. After many months, I began sending the manuscript to various publishers, who politely rejected it. Back to the proverbial drawing board.

I worked and reworked it, then sent out a new and improved version, with much the same result. This time, however, the rejections were more specific, and I began to work on the story’s weaknesses while adhering to the heart of it.

It got disacouraging to keep on writing a story that no one wanted, but I felt compelled to stay at it. When God puts something on your heart, it’s unwise to walk away from it.

This past Christmas Eve a contract arrived in the mail for this book, making one of the best gifts I’ve ever received! I’m hard at work on the manuscript, which will be published by AMG at a to-be-determined date.

The story deals with a young woman who, in the election year 1968, believes Bobby Kennedy has the answer to all the nation’s perplexing problems. When he’s assassinated, she hardly knows where to turn. A close friend begins to draw her towards Christ at that time, and as she enters college a year later, she maintains contact with him. The story culiminates with the 1970 Asbury College Revival, an event I’ve studied for many years and have actually written about in some other books.

I”m so grateful to God for making this dream come true, and I look forward to the day when I can share this book with you.

There’s actually a true story about a Christmas truce that happened during World War I that I find especially inspiring. To read more you may click on:

http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/christmastruce.htm

I treasure each piece, and while I try to take good care of them, I admit that I don’t keep them as clean as they require. After an especially good polishing, I’m careful for awhile. I remove the rings before doing dishes or washing my hands, but then I start to forget, and a small but steady accumulation of soap and hand lotion starts collecting on the jewelry. The pieces are still beautiful, but they lose that special sparkle under the layer of gunk.

Aren’t our lives a lot like that? We begin as these beautiful, unique creations of God and as we get on in years, we make efforts to keep our lives from the stain of various sins. Then we get a little lazy here and a little lazy there and before you know it, we’ve lost our sparkle. Instead of being a shining beacon for Christ, we’re more like a flashlight whose batteries are growing dim.

At Thanksgiving, Najib inspected my rings and eyed me critically when I couldn’t honestly tell him that I’ve kept them as clean as he advises. I have until Christmas to do something about it! Maybe this season of Advent, I’ll also ask God to show me what might be gunking up my life so I can shine more brightly too.

In this story, Sting told the reporter, “I’m essentially agnostic. . . I have a problem with religion. I’ve chosen to live my life without the certainties of religious faith. I think they’re dangerous.” (Time, November 21, 2011; p. 64.

This anti-religious sentiment is nothing new. In the U.S., ever since the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” Evangelical Christians in particular, who follow very definite, rock-solid teachings about God, have often been regarded by those in secular academia, publishing, and entertainment as ignorant hayseeds, bigots of the worst sort who would gladly drag unbelievers to the gallows and stakes of the past. The 1925 Scopes trial centered around a challenge by the ACLU to a Tennessee statute forbidding the teaching of evolution in that state’s public schools.

Teacher John Scopes violated the law and in the ensuing trial, was represented by the brilliant attorney, Clarence Darrow. The aging Christian orator William Jennings Bryan led the prosecution. The sweltering courtroom became the center of a national debate about creation v. evolution, God v. science, and because of Bryan’s faltering abilities, as well as a groundswell of support for Scopes in the media, orthodox Christianity fell into national disfavor.

The Sunday after the trial ended, Bryan died suddenly of a heart attack at his home, a man at peace with God and ready to meet his Savior. Years later, an ardent admirer interviewed Clarence Darrow in his home, asking how the lawyer would sum up his life. To his surprise, Darrow immediately walked over to a coffee table and picked up a Bible, the same book he’d spent his life ridiculing. He said, “This verse in the Bible describes my life,” and he opened to Luke 5:5. Changing the “we” to “I,” he read aloud, “I have toiled all the night and taken nothing.”

He replaced the Bible and caught the man’s eye. “I have a lived a life without purpose, without meaning, without direction. I don’t know where I came from. And I don’t know what I’m doing here. And worst of all, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me when I punch out of here.” (Janney, Great Stories in American History, p. 127)

The Bible says those are blessed who do not “sit in the seat of mockers.” (Psalm 1:1) I hope this is something that Sting is able to come to terms with.