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LIFE MEETS THEOLOGY:

A Literary Lesson

by Greg Williamson (c) 2007

COPYRIGHT RELATED INFO

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS

ARE FROM THE  New American Standard Bible.

LIFE: In The Waltons episode titled "The Literary Man," John-Boy Walton encounters a drifting writer who encourages John-Boy to make writing the absolute priority in his life -- more important than comfort, health, and even family. Since John-Boy's two greatest loves are his writing and his family, it doesn't take long for a crisis to develop. And since he cannot bring himself to turn his back on his family and head out into the world looking for the one big story he was born to write, John-Boy concludes he does not have what it takes to be a professional writer. Deeply distraught, he decides to retire his journal and never write again.

To his credit, the drifting writing, A. J. "Andy" Covington, learns of John-Boy's decision and confesses that he (A. J.) is not a genuine writer. To be sure, A. J. is a good, kind, hardworking man who has seen a lot and done a lot. He has spent time around some famous writers. And he talks the writer's talk. But in the end that is all he does -- talk. By the time he sits down to write, any semblance of a story has vanished. Having turned his back on his farming family when he was about John-Boy's age, A. J. doesn't want to see John-Boy make the same mistake and become the aimless, drifting writer-wannabe that A. J. had become.

And so A. J. encourages the fledgling writer to keep journaling. To keep writing about what it's like growing up in a poor but loving family scratching out a living during the Great Depression.

And that is what John-Boy does.

THEOLOGY: John-Boy had a firm foundation: he had a deep-seated desire to write -- to put down in words his deepest thoughts and most intimate feelings -- combined with a loving, supportive family who encouraged him in his dream to be a writer. John-Boy used all his faculties: he wrote, but he also went to school, worked on the farm and in the sawmill, and spent lots of time with family and friends. And John-Boy thought of others: he was even willing to sacrifice his writing for the family that loved and depended on him.

In the opening verses of the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul calls the Philippian believers to holy harmony. What does that look like? You guessed it: a firm foundation, all our faculties, and thinking of others.

 

[a firm foundation:] (1) Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, [all our faculties:] (2) make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. [and thinking of others:] (3) Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; (4) do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. (PHILIPPIANS 2:1-4)