Dear friend,

If you’ve never read The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, and you don’t want spoilers, I recommend skipping to last week’s article.

Now that I’ve warned you, I don’t like books that have unsatisfying endings. I end up thinking about the book way too long, trying to puzzle why it made me feel that way. I find it’s usually because of the choices that the main character made.

Inspiration isn’t always for the creative parts of our lives.

Sometimes, the inspiration that we find is meant to change the way we live our lives. Sometimes, it’s meant to change the way we think.

The Book

The book that did it for me recently was by Pearl S. Buck. She wrote The Good Earth back in the 1930s. It’s a saga about a farmer in turn-of-the-century China named Wang Lung. It was a good book, but I felt disappointed. There was no sad or tragic ending, at least on the surface. Wang Lung got exactly what he wanted.

The thing about that time-period in China, is that they were a poly-theistic culture (meaning they had many gods/idols), and while Wang Lung did burn incense at the temple of his village gods, he didn’t actually trust in those gods. In fact, he blamed them for any misfortune that came to him.

The god that Wang Lung actually served, the thing that he put his hope and energy towards, was the earth. Wang Lung was a farmer to his very core. Just about everything he did was to acquire more land and more money to be able to farm the land he bought. His whole identity and inspiration for living was wrapped up in his land. Nearly every decision he made, good or bad, was with his land in mind.

Often, the thing we worship on the outside (in my case, God of the Bible) isn’t the thing we serve and derive our inspiration for living from.

The Lesson

I’m a writer. I’ve not always been a writer, but I have always loved stories. There have been periods of my life where stories engulfed the majority of my time and attention. They were periods when stories became more important to me than my relationship with God.

Even now, especially as someone whose job is to come up with stories, it can be difficult to submit my desire for a good story to the one who dictates the ultimate story.

James 1:5-8 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

When there’s something keeping you from fully committing to living for God, you are living a double life (or as James puts it, double-minded). You can live your life that way, but I don’t recommend it. Living two conflicting goals leaves you on shaky ground.

Wang Lung found that out the hard way. When he forgot his pursuit of being a good farmer, he made a choice that ended up with the long-term consequence of hurting his wife and his kids.

Honestly, I don’t recommend worshipping anything other than God, but I will give Wang Lung points for his commitment in the end.

I’m thankful that whenever I get distracted by the appeal of stories (or other shiny things), God is gracious in reminding me to serve him first. That when I find my satisfaction and inspiration in him, he is faithful to take care of the rest.

What competes with your devotion to God?

Sincerely,

R.J. Catlin