![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/333\/2011\/08\/the-help.jpg\" "\\"the-help\\"")
<\/a>Wow, this is going to be a great book.<\/em><\/p>\nSorry family, you will be microwaving your own dinner tonight, mama is reading.<\/em><\/p>\nWow, that was an awesome book! If I know you, I\u2019m going to make you read it.<\/em><\/p>\nI kind of want to read that again.<\/em><\/p>\nI really wish I\u2019d written that myself\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nThis is the 5-stage journey of a really excellent book. Kathryn Stockett\u2019s, \u201cThe Help\u201d took me through every one of them when I first read it,\u00a0with an extra twisty 6th<\/sup> step thrown in the middle. The all-over chills moment when I thought\u2014that is \u00a0really powerful and profound and could change the world, if the whole world \u00a0would read this book.<\/em><\/p>\nThe somewhat awkward yet dynamic main character, Skeeter, is in the car by herself. She\u2019s having a bit of an inward meltdown (haven\u2019t we all had one of those while\u00a0 driving the car? Thinking \u00a0that we shouldn\u2019t be driving at that moment,and yet\u00a0 realizing, somehow, that the car is propelling us through it?). She is questioning her life, her family, and ultimately wondering what parts of her past she can hold onto and still be true to the person she\u2019s becoming. She\u2019s flipping through the radio and somewhere, through the static that usually surrounds her small Alabama town, she hears a few lonely strains of Bob Dylan. She\u2019s never heard him, or even heard of <\/em>him,
\nbut that voice grabs her, and she pulls over, not wanting to lose the signal (from Memphis, if I recall correctly).<\/p>\nAs she sits alone in her car and listens to the rest of the song, she \u201cfeels like she\u2019s heard something from the future.\u201d And, simple as that, she is transformed.<\/p>\n
Music can do that. Books can do that. The people who move in and out of our lives can do that. They give us a glimpse of a becoming future, and somehow move us there like cars on a dimly-lit highway.<\/p>\n
Skeeter was glimpsing the future on that (appropriately dramatic) dark and stormy night. Those few strains of Dylan turned out to be the voice of a generation, and, as it happened in the book, so did she. In that tiny stanza of music, she was glimpsing her own life; and the story that was unfolding in America, the story that would be hers to tell.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d say that Bob Dylan was a prophet in the real world. I\u2019d say that Skeeter was a prophet in the context of the story. I\u2019d call Kathryn Stockett prophetic for writing this powerful, world-shaping book.<\/p>\n
In the midst of all the alarmist dooms-day saying that\u2019s swirling in the air around us, all the Bibles flipped open to Revelation every time there is calamity on the news, and all the \u201cThis tornado is God\u2019s punishment for feminism and the gays\u201d (WTF??) that seems to be the subtext of our culture, it is important that smart people be able to point to some real examples of prophecy, and remember what prophecy is NOT.<\/p>\n
Prophecy is not a crystal ball and a cape. Prophecy is not the spooky parallels between stuff the Bible says and stuff that\u2019s happening now. Prophecy is not Sybill Trelawney in the divination tower of Hogwarts.<\/p>\n
Prophecy is more like Yoda. Or Mother Theresa. Or Bob Dylan.<\/p>\n
Prophecy is truth spoken for and about one\u2019s own time. Prophets have such deep insight about their present time, and articulate it so well and bravely, that sometimes their truth carries into the future. Like radio waves from Memphis. Martin Luther King, Jr.\u2014prophet. Ghandi\u2014prophetic. Oscar Romero. Harper Lee. (Yes, my kid\u2019s name is Harper).\u00a0\u00a0All prophets. All of them were so present and powerfully honest in their time that they were able to show us a glimpse of what was coming. That doesn\u2019t mean that any of them\u2013Isaiah, Jeremiah, or even Yoda\u2013 knew when or how the world was going to end.<\/p>\n
Our world is so full of fear and uncertainty, there is a desperate attempt to make it all
\nconnect and add up. \u00a0Many attempt to do that adding up with a Bible in hand, and a deep hatred of the \u201cother\u201d in the other.
\nThey also have a crystal ball, but their hands are full\u2026<\/p>\n
If you are reading my blog, you probably didn\u2019t need me to tell you any of this. But, when true prophetic wisdom comes to life in the pages of a book, or in music, or in
\nthe real and present world around us, it is always worth sharing. I am really
\nlooking forward to seeing\u00a0 \u201cThe Help\u201d movie soon. I want to see if they capture this scene as powerfully as it came off in the book. If you\u2019ve seen it, don\u2019t tell me! I don\u2019t like to see the future\u2026I just like to catch a glimpse of it, shining through the static from time to time.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, who are the other prophetic voices of our time? What is their present truth revealing about our coming future, and how are they moving us there?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wow, this is going to be a great book. Sorry family, you will be microwaving your own dinner tonight, mama is reading. Wow, that was an awesome book! If I know you, I\u2019m going to make you read it. I kind of want to read that again. I really wish I\u2019d written that myself\u2026 This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,23,344,120,301,11,59,12,24,25,26,345,346,347,27,348,60,214,68,349,350,220,224,351,105,352,353,354,117,14,9,355,356,357,32,102,44,10,242,358,244,200,107,16,22,1196,359],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith-and-community","tag-alabama","tag-arizona","tag-art","tag-bob-dylan","tag-change","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-community","tag-connect","tag-desert","tag-disciples-of-christ","tag-emma-stone","tag-end-of-days","tag-end-times","tag-faith","tag-future","tag-gifts","tag-harper-lee","tag-hope","tag-isaiah","tag-jeremiah","tag-kathryn-stockett","tag-literature","tag-memphis","tag-ministry","tag-mother-theresa","tag-music","tag-oscar-romero","tag-parenting","tag-phoenix","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-prophecy","tag-prophets","tag-radio","tag-relationships","tag-seasons","tag-simplicity","tag-spirituality","tag-the-help","tag-the-help-movie","tag-to-kill-a-mockingbird","tag-transformation","tag-vocation","tag-west","tag-worship","tag-writing","tag-yoda"],"yoast_head":"\n
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