Sarah L. Frantz's Blog, page 8

📖🛳️Announcement!

Hi, Everyone!

I am working on formatting my short story, Ash Island, for publication. If anyone is interested in being on my book launch team, please drop your name below!

Back Cover Blurb: (rough draft)

When Christa Lea sets out on her first solo assignment she has no idea what it will cost her.

Shipwrecked on Ash Island, Christa Lea wrestles with grief and loss.

Will she succumb to bitterness or turn to her Abba Father in trust?

Like my debut novel, I hope to make this a fun experience with free ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) for those who sign up as well as book swag & give aways!

It probably won’t drop until later this summer, maybe July at the earliest!

Thank you for considering being part of my team!

Monday Morning Washing in His Word

Job 11

Zophar the

Naamathite answers

And again

Who asked?

Job may

Have expected

This consolation

From Zophar

Feeble as

It is.

FROM THE SWING FICTION FEATURE FRIDAY: A TIME TO MOURN

By Adam David Collings

What is not to love about this short story? In a word nothing. A wonderful, fantastical premise. A down to earth nerd with present parents. A girl he is falling for.

Adam writes a wonderful redemptive arc laced with heroism, self-sacrifice, and obedience. Biblical principles underscore the storyline without being preachy.

And again, I cried.

You can read more about Adam’s work here, here and also here.

Ben Avery edited this diverse, edgy, eclectic, thrilling, masterful anthology inspired by Ecclesiastes 3.

If you love an anthology and want to add ours to your library, you may purchase your copy here!

It is available in Kindle, paperback, or hardcover!

Or you can visit my Etsy, Somebody’s Luggage to find single signature author prints by me in hardcover and paperback.

(And please consider following our anthology authors on Amazon and/or Goodreads if this is your jam.)

MONDAY MORNING WASHING IN HIS WORD

Job 4

Eliphaz’ rebuke

Pours forth

No judgement

for innocent?

Job sits

in ashes

In grief

in pain

Job’s desire

for unbirth

Has purchased

Him this?

FROM THE SWING FICTION FEATURE FRIDAY: A Time to Laugh

by T. W. Clawson

Sometimes we think the most important memories in another’s story are the large life-altering events like graduations, first dates, marriage, births when really it is the profound moment of being seen, heard, and appreciated.

T. W. ‘s tale takes us on a whirlwind of emotions as a husband tells his wife goodbye…

(Sniff…. me gently crying at the end)

Come learn more about Mr. Clawson on his website.

Ben Avery edited this diverse, edgy, eclectic, thrilling, masterful anthology inspired by Ecclesiastes 3.

If you love an anthology and want to add ours to your library, you may purchase your copy here!

It is available in Kindle, paperback, or hardcover!

Or you can visit my Etsy, Somebody’s Luggage to find single signature author prints by me in hardcover and paperback.

(And please consider following our anthology authors on Amazon and/or Goodreads if this is your jam.)

Monday Morning Washing in His Word

Esther 10

Mordecai’s account
In the annals of the kings
He had sought their good.

Monday Morning Washing in His Word

Monday Morning Washing in His Word

Esther 3-4

“But he thought it beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai alone.”

NRSV, 2010

So seeks

Jews destruction

Mordecai’s law

Of God

Forbids offering

Obeisance to

Mere man…

mere man.

King Ahasuerus

Becomes pawn

In chess

Game of

God’s Good

Vs. Evil

Mere woman

Satan’s archetype

Esther requests

Trinity fast

Her life

Their lives

Intertwined and

Judged dead

She fasts

Mordecai fasts

Susa’ Jews

Fast too

“After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”

NRSV, 2010

Lewis’ Problem of Pain

Almost daily.

My dad speaks to me of goodbye, thanking me for caring for him — of a final separation that is drawing near.

Sometimes he feels it more than others, I see him squinting into the void, as though seeing death approach on the horizon.

He had a vagal response last Friday night… while our son was proposing a few states away and we were excitedly waiting to hear if the answer was yes.

If you have never witnessed a vagal response in an elderly person, I hope you never do. It looks like death — breathing halts, unresponsiveness cloaks their open eyes and body, a grey pallor settles in if it persists more than a minute or so.

My husband and I both thought he had passed. I was standing behind his wheelchair, my arms around him, one holding his forehead upright to open his airway, the other patting his chest trying to wake him, talking to him loudly. I hitch in a breath, cry, and keep calling him back.

C.S. Lewis writes in The Problem of Pain about the universal experience of grief in the reality of death. I see its title on my book shelf this morning and draw it out. I haven’t read it in an age.

Its first copyright was 1940, but its words are as fresh as if written yesterday and I feel led to put it next to my bible, to make it my company keeper as part of my morning devotions.

In the Preface C.S. Lewis speaks of the inability to write of death, as though one needed credentials to speak of such a thing.

I’m afraid we all have experience if we have lived for any time on this planet. Lewis further explains he means from a theologian’s perspective. He who has read more than I could ever imagine or dreamt of is hesitant to write an essay about pain.

And I feel that in my bones.

And from a Christian perspective. That seems to be his salient point and we haven’t even begun his book which attempts to address universal sorrow with our universal hope in Jesus Christ.

So, I will re-read it during this “long season” of letting go of my dad who isn’t defined by his dementia and post-stroke symptoms, but who is captive to it. And I, with him.

“I must add, too, that the only purpose of the book is to solve the intellectual problem raised by suffering; for the far higher task of teaching fortitude and patience I was never fool enough to suppose myself qualified, nor have I anything to offer my readers except my conviction that when pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.”

~ C. S. Lewis (The Problem of Pain)

My dad came round. He didn’t remember a thing about the episode.

And our son calls afterwards, “She didn’t say yes… she said absolutely.”

And His presence saturates the moment, His tincture assuaging our trembling hearts.

And God is good all the time.

Monday Morning Washing in His Word

Nehemiah 13

Nehemiah’s reforms, For Jerusalem

Tobias in, God’s court

Nehemiah grows, Angry, Cleansing

Vessels returned, Rightful place

Godly treasurers, Appointed priests

“Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.”

(NRSV, Zondervan)

Sabbath breakers, Selling products

Nehemiah questions, Ancestors’ errors

Gates shut, Merchants outside

Levites guard, Holiness kept

“Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.”

(NRSV, Zondervan)

Mixed marriages, Brought division

Various languages, Supplants Judahs

Should Solomon’s, Sin Repeat?

High Priest’s, Son Chased

“Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priests and the Levites.”

(NRSV, Zondervan)

Cleansed from, Everything foreign

“Remember me, O my God, for good.“

(NRSV, Zondervan)

FROM THE SWING FICTION FEATURE FRIDAY: A TIME TO WEEP

by Jered Gering

This wonderful speculative fiction/time element story effortlessly swept me into a spiritual battle that had me alternating between weeping and holding my breath. It encouraged my heart greatly… to keep praying… keep loving… keep weeping….

The beauty of Jered’s angelic host was displayed through their ongoing love and obedience to God. This was a spiritual battle of epic proportions and I loved it!

You can find Jered’s website here, Facebook here, on instagram here and YouTube here!

Ben Avery edited this diverse, edgy, eclectic, thrilling, masterful anthology inspired by Ecclesiastes 3.

If you love an anthology and want to add ours to your library, you may purchase your copy here!

It is available in Kindle, paperback, or hardcover!

Or you can visit my Etsy, Somebody’s Luggage to find single signature author prints by me in hardcover and paperback.

(And please consider following our anthology authors on Amazon and/or Goodreads if this is your jam.)