The Cinderella Experience

Once upon a time, a beautiful young woman falls on hard times as a result of a tragic death in her family. She is forced into manual labour. Then a complete reversal occurs. She fortuitously meets a wealthy, well-respected member of the community who falls in love with her. They marry and she is rescued from a life of poverty and hardship. They live happily ever after. 

This is the basic plot of Cinderella, several other fairy tales and many fictional stories. Perhaps you have even written one yourself. It’s also the storyline of all our lives.

Our Cinderella Story

We were created ‘beautiful,’ made in the image of God. We have worth and value because we bear God’s image. We fall on hard times because we live in a broken world. Hard times take many guises. Cinderella experienced the tragic death of her father which changed the family dynamic. We may experience conflict in our family due to divorce, addictions, abuse, neglect. Or our hard times may come from unfortunate circumstances, illness, economic downturns, floods, fire. Or our hard times might be unseen, mental health issues, emotional distress, disappointments, broken dreams. None of us escapes difficulties, though the severity varies greatly. 

We are all faced with a choice, a call to action or adventure. Cinderella didn’t have to go to the ball. She could have stayed home and bemoaned her unfortunate life. Will we allow our hardships to define our lives or will we carve out a life of meaning and purpose outside our difficulties? 

Our opportunities to overcome physical difficulties may be limited, perhaps ill-health or financial restraints mean we’ll never achieve all we hoped for. Yet this doesn’t mean we can’t achieve something worthwhile for our family or community. We can change the lives of those we come in contact with through our kindness, by being a listening ear and by our prayers. Yet it’s a risk.

The risk of engagement 

Cinderella took the risk of becoming involved in the king’s affairs and the danger of being exposed if she was home late. Likewise, we’re called to take a risk, maybe not to go to a ball, but to take the initiative and pursue a course of action outside the expectations placed on us by others. 

Our course of action may simply be to abandon our plans and commit to God’s plans, not knowing where this might lead. Though it’s unlikely to lead to marrying into a royal family or even a family of wealth and privilege. Yet from a spiritual perspective when we commit to God, he welcomes us into his family and we experience spiritual wealth and privilege. Even as part of God’s family, we may not experience release from hardship in this world but we know we will in the next. By faith we know, we will receive our happily ever after ending.

The Cinderella of the Bible

Of all the characters in the Bible, the story of Ruth reads like Cinderella.

Ruth is still a young woman when the early death of her husband leaves her destitute. She travels with her mother-in-law to Israel, the birthplace of her husband and her deceased father-in-law (Ruth 1). She works in the fields, gleaning grain and meets Boaz, a wealthy, well-respected member of the community (Ruth 2). They fall in love and marry (Ruth 3 & 4). Ruth is rescued from a life of poverty and hardship. It’s a “rags to riches” story where God works unnoticed behind the scenes.

The complete reversal of Ruth’s circumstances comes about because she makes the decision to abandon her Moabite religion and puts her faith in the God of Israel. Her situation isn’t instantly improved as Ruth has to work long hours in the heat of the day gleaning grain, but she has hope in God and her faith is rewarded. She is blessed beyond expectation. 

Ruth was a foreigner, widowed and poor. Through her marriage to Boaz, Ruth joins his family and is released from poverty. Ultimately, she becomes an ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). Destitute Ruth is the Cinderella of the Bible.

Happily ever after?

Ruth’s story finishes with great blessing but also unanswered questions. Ruth marries an older man, will she be widowed again? Does she ever see her parents again or her sister-in-law, Orpah? 

In this life, we will always face uncertainties and disappointments but we have great hope in the God who makes Cinderellas of us all. 

Susan Barnes, writes insightful blog posts that 

encourage readers towards a more meaningful 

relationship with God. 

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10 Biblical women who made a difference.

CWD Member Interview - Susan Barnes

Most Thursdays this year we will be interviewing one of the members of Christian Writers Downunder – to find out a little bit more about them and their writing/editing goals. 

Today’s interview: Susan Barnes 

Question 1: Tell us three things about who you are and where you come from.

 

1. I was born in England and migrated to Australia with my parents in 1964 as Ten Pound Poms

2. I’m a writer and short-term interim pastor. I’m working towards getting my first book published

3. I’ve always been an avid reader, but I didn’t grow up dreaming of being an author

Question 2: Tell us about your writing (or editing/illustrating etc).  What do you write and why?

I write to teach, disciple and encourage Christians. Mostly I write devotional thoughts based on Bible verses but I’ve also written book-length manuscripts. My manuscript, 10 Blessings of God You Won’t Want to Miss, recently won the CALEB unpublished non-fiction award. Currently, I’m working on a manuscript where each chapter is a Bible character. I particularly like to write about obscure characters or difficult stories. For example, Priscilla, Lydia, Jephthah, Jonathan, Nebuchadnezzar, Abraham sacrificing Isaac etc. 

Question 3: Who has read your work? Who would you like to read it? 

A lot of my devotions are online and I don’t get a lot of feedback. I know from the statistics that my website has always attracted more Americans than Australians, but I have no idea why. Perhaps because there are simply more of them. In the last 12 months, I’ve had a surprising increase in the number of hits from the Philippines. 

Of course, I’d like everyone to read my blog/website! But realistically, I hope my work is found by those who need a word of encouragement, challenge or hope. Link to my website.

Question 4: Tell us something about your process. What challenges do you face? What helps you the most?

Initially, my process for writing devotions was random but these days it’s highly structured. As part of my devotional times, I write about a verse that stands out to me. This means I have exercise books full of thoughts on Bible verses. When I want to write a series of devotions from a particular Bible book, I find the exercise book where I’ve written about that book of the Bible. At the moment, I’m writing devotions on Luke from notes I made in 2017.

When I’m writing a book-length manuscript, I look for a theme that I can break into ten chapters and as I approach each chapter, I look for one overall idea with three points.

My biggest challenge is not to rush. I’ve come to accept that it takes as long as it takes. If I rush the process the standard of my writing suffers. I loosely aim to write or edit 4,000 words a week for three weeks of the month. (The fourth week I write articles for my blog.) I hold this goal lightly and if it doesn’t happen, that’s okay. 

It helps me to have a routine. Most mornings I write or prepare sermons (which is quite similar). In the afternoons, I shop, exercise, read, socialise, do housework etc. It’s been difficult to explain to my hairdresser why I don’t like appointments in the morning!

Question 5: What is your favourite Writing Craft Book and why? 

My favourite writing craft book is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, not because it was brilliantly insightful but because it was so funny, despite the bad language. However, she did also share some useful thoughts, particularly about not taking yourself too seriously as a writer. I have trouble finding craft books that address the genre I write which is Christian living, but not creative non-fiction. I enjoy reading about other authors’ processes. The first one I ever read was Stephen King’s On Writing which was helpful, again, despite the bad language.

Question 6: If you were to give a shout-out to a CWD author, writer, editor or illustrator – who would they be?

I like to give a shout-out to some writers I met at the beginning of my connection with Christian Writers who are still part of CWD particularly, Jenny Glazebrook, Jo-Anne Berthelsen, Nola Passmore and Penny Reeve. These writers have inspired and encouraged me by their faithfulness and persistence over many years. In the early days of Omega Conferences, I remember their willingness to run workshops for a pittance, yet they always came fully prepared. They shared not only their talents but their love of words and their heart for God. They have been good role models for me.

Question 7: What are your writing goals for 2021? How will you achieve them?

I have been given a place in the 2021 Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing and Communication course run by Tabor College. So my goal for next year is to complete the course! I also want to keep writing three articles a week for my blog. Every other writing project is going to be put on hold.

I’m looking forward to doing this course and curiously, I only felt confident to undertake it because of receiving the CALEB Award this year. In about June I received feedback on my CALEB entry from the first-round judges, which was mostly positive and the few negatives were things I could easily fix. When I received the feedback from the second-round judges, there were again lots of positives and a few negatives. However, this time I wasn’t sure how to fix the negatives yet I also knew they were things that needed to be fixed. Still, there were enough positives to give me the confidence to pursue further study. 

Question 8: How does your faith impact and shape your writing?

Without my faith, I would have nothing to write about! 

I started writing regularly when my husband became a pastor and he asked me to write a devotional article once a fortnight for the church newsletter. At the time, I thought it was a huge commitment and how would I ever find enough to write about? Three years later, we moved to a church that had a newsletter every week, but at least by then, I could recycle a few thoughts from the previous church. 

Over the years, I’ve felt a growing sense of my writing becoming a ministry rather than just a hobby.

Susan Barnes likes to write devotional thoughts on Bible passages, book reviews and inspirational articles. She loves to challenge people's thinking and regularly posts on her blog/website. You can receive her free ebook, 10 Things My Children Taught Me About God when you sign up for her newsletter.

Greater Expectations

Each day starts off with certain expectations but what of our expectations of others. Do we have greater expectations of Christians than we do of other people? I think so. Just recently I have found the behaviour of some Christians hard to understand.  

In one case, a Christian friend and I had a difference of opinion that ultimately resulted in severing the friendship. That argument and what was said, was something between us and no-one else. To me it was something between the two of us and it went no further.  It didn’t concern anyone else. However she chose to relate details of the argument to others.  As we know the person telling the story invariably tells it from their point of view, so it looks like they are the one wronged.  Listen to anyone tell the story of an argument and you’ll see what I mean.

In another situation another Christian related a couple of incidents to me.  What struck me as she related the tale was the bitterness and resentment towards the other party involved in the dispute.   The situation had happened many years ago but she had not let go of it. Looking at it from the outside, it is often easy to see there was probably right and wrong on both sides.

Even though in each case the people involved were mature Christians, they struggled with their emotions and behaved in a manner that I found disappointing. The truth is we have greater expectations of Christians. Then I realised how often my actions and behaviour are also disappointing to God, to others and to myself.  How often I let Christ down and do not live up to those greater expectations.

When you look at the bible it never shies away from showing us people’s faults and times when they fail Jesus. Think of some of the disputes we see in the New Testament. There is Paul when he challenges Peter over his attitudes and hypocrisy regarding Gentiles, Galatians 2:11-21. Or Paul and Barnabas when they disagree over John Mark and his role in ministry and so go their separate ways, Acts 15:36-41. Yet no one would deny Paul was a mighty servant of Jesus.  God is always able to use any situation, even disputes, to further His kingdom.

So what does this have to do with writing? Whether we are writing fiction or nonfiction we need to show complex characters not stereotypes. Characters who struggle to make decisions, who struggle to get it right, characters that disagree and make unwise choices. As readers we need to see that even when Christians do not act as we might expect, when they harbour grudges and resentment or gossip about others, His plans are not thwarted. He can still use those imperfect people to further His kingdom.

A minister once told me and the rest of his congregation ‘if you are not having struggles sin your Christian life, then there is something wrong. Satan doesn’t think you're worth bothering with because you’re not an effective Christian.’  Let’s come back to Paul. How often did he struggle between the human nature and the godly nature and do things he didn’t want to do? Don’t believe me? Have a look at his words in Romans 7: 14-25.

In some Christian books I have read in the past, making the right decision and behaving in a godly manner comes too easily to the Christian. That makes it hard for a lot of our readers to identify with if they don’t find the Christian life and making the right choice that easy. The truth is the Christian life can be a struggle at times. So it is important we show the conflict and struggles that go on within, the time when characters doubt and make wrong decisions as well as the ultimate triumphs. I’d love to hear examples of recent books where you have found the main character has made unwise decisions and struggled with doing the right thing, while still being able to be used by God or changed by God.

 

Dale writes fiction and poetry and had recently submitted a 365 day devotional /commentary  tentatively titled A Day at a Time to a publisher. Now she's working on another novel. You can find out more about Dale at www.daleharcombe.com and you might like to follow her blog at Write and Read with Dale http://orangedale.livejournal.com/