Recently, I have dived in to the work of amateur playwright. After having worked with the theater company Crosslove Theatre before its demise in December 2009, I decided to try my hand at writing plays. Nothing for making money or anything, but just something new to try, and see if God blesses the work. But as with all artists who begin a new work, I realized I needed inspiration. And sometimes, it takes a while for it to come.
The first bit of inspiration for writing a play came back in 2008, when seeing a movie ignited the inspiration to write my first play. The film: “Appaloosa,” a western starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen. After seeing the film, I felt God tell me that it was time to write one of the many stories I had rattling around in my brain. And from that bit of inspiration, “Redemption Trail” was born. It’s the story of a Pastor who is forced to confront the demons of his past, all told within the setting of a western adventure/drama.
I had the first draft finished back in March of 2009. While I have yet to go back and do finishing touches on it, I was pleased with how the first draft came out. The story I had developed in my mind was even better once it was on paper. I give myself no credit. God supplied the inspiration. And I just wrote down what He willed me to write.
Since then, I haven’t had much inspiration to get down the other stories in my head. There has been one that has been with me about as long as the western one was. The story really grapples with issues such as Pain, Death, and the Will of God. It asks the big questions, like: “If God loves us, why does He allow so much pain in the world?” “Why does a loving God take away those we love?” But until recently, I’ve had no push to work on this story. Until recently.
Last week, one of my friends from high school, Josh Butler, was killed in a horrible accident in Winston. I won’t go into details about what happened, for it is hard for me to even tell people what I heard happened. But with this accident, I found myself asking those questions I mentioned before, as well as others. Why, God? Why take your children home so young?
As I continue to wrestle with these questions, I found myself feeling that the time was right to start this work I have thought about for so long. I feel as if God is wanting me to use this as a catharsis for dealing with this loss.
While I won’t go into detail about this story, I will reveal to you all the name of the story. It is simply called: “Sin & Salvation.” It will deal with the issues of loss, faith, and the will of God, while showing that everything that happens does so for a reason, even if we cannot see it for ourselves.
I’m not doing this for fame or glory. I’m doing this for the God that I love and trust, and in the memory of my friend, whom I will dedicate this work to. As soon as I have finished this work, I will submit it to people for revising. Anybody who wishes to review my work, feel free to ask.
I love you all, and hope that you will have a blessed week. Vaya con Dios, my friends!
In Christ,
Steven
