Alive ...

             For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12)

 

             I read a lot – not nearly enough, but a lot. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been trying to develop some themes for different times of the year. Of course, October is the month in which to read horror. I listened to some stories and poems by Edgar Allen Poe, read by Vincent Price and Nigel Rathbone. I can’t say they were frightening. I read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. It was interesting but not really frightening. I’m almost done with The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. For me, this story is scary, and I probably shouldn’t be reading it right before bed, but that’s when I get to read. The thing about these stories is that the reader is supposed to be emotionally involved for a horror novel to be effective. If someone isn’t scared, the story has failed for that person. Emotional involvement is key to a lot of writing, but at least in the case of most horror stories, the whole point is that we know they’re not true. We close the book and put it down, and our bodies (generally) settle back down.

            As I think about today’s passage, I think that The Haunting of Hill House is partly alive. I interact with it. I don’t just read the words; I respond to them. At the same time, when I close the book, it is with the knowledge that it’s not true. That makes the book only partly alive. I’ve read other true books that speak the truth but evoke no emotional response. They seem to interact more with the world but not with me. Those books might be termed active.

            Then there are the books that are both alive and active. They speak to our souls and our souls respond (if our souls are not dead), and they speak truth to the world. The book can be a novel and do this because it speaks truth within the fiction. But I doubt any book does it better than the Bible. Not only does it evoke responses, but those responses are not about the characters but about the reader because it tells the truth simultaneously. In addition, those responses aren’t just fear, amusement, or anger, but they may evoke each of those separately and possibly in combinations. The next time the same passage is read, you may have a different response. And even in those parts that are clearly stories (AKA parables), there is truth.