Winner of the American Christian Fiction Writer's Carol Award for Dauntless!!!

Monday, October 12, 2015

The Sneakiest Sin

While writing Chivalrous, I had the challenge of taking the nearly perfect spiritual paragon, Allen of Ellsworth from Dauntless, and giving him a flaw that he needed to overcome. As I considered my options, I decided to go with that sneaky character issue that tends to creep in when someone, especially a Christian, is pretty much doing everything right: the sin of pride.

The truth is that we all need a savior, and none of us are good enough on our own. But many Christians fall into the trap of thinking that they have to do things through their own strength and self-determination. It's almost as if Christ saved them once, and it's been their job to save themselves every day since.

Allen was easy pickings for that spirit of pride to creep in due to his subtle issue of insecurity. He had been born and raised a peasant. He had been told that his place was to do nothing more than work the land, and that he would never be good enough for fine ladies such as Merry and Gwendolyn. So when he was offered more than he could have ever dreamed of, it was easy for him to become confused and put his pride and sense of duty before that still, small voice of God that had always led and guided him in the past.

I've noticed that a few reviewers that hadn't read Dauntless weren't sure if they liked Allen because of that pride. And not surprisingly most of them mentioned that they were not Christians. It's easy for Christians to overlook pride, but the truth is, it is very ugly to those outside of the faith. I think pride, judgmentalism, and hypocrisy are the three main downfalls among Christians that the enemy uses to drive people away from faith in Christ. That is why it was so important to me to include this issue in Chivalrous.

Fortunately, Allen overcomes his pride just in the nick of time. But if you think you've got your act all together and that you're an awesome Christian, watch out! None of us are perfect. We all need Christ, and if we start to think we can do it on our own, chances are that sneaky sin of pride has crept in.


No comments:

Post a Comment