Funkyah via Compfight
If a protagonist wakes up fully rested, eats breakfast, enjoys his day at work, comes home to his lovely wife and kids, fiddles on some project, and goes to bed, we might think one of two things:
1.) This is a terrible story.
2.) Uh-oh, everything’s going to hit the fan soon.
We expect conflict in the story. If our hero doesn’t get thwarted or beat up or dumped or magically teleported to a far-off land, we’re disappointed. We reach for a different story.
But if life thwarts us or gives us a black eye or dumps us or magically teleports us to a far-off land (or just another state), we’re liable to throw up our hands and ask God what we did wrong.
Interestingly, the Bible tends to find value in suffering. And perhaps there’s something to that. Heroes aren’t often made in a story without conflict, and maybe, just maybe, God thinks we’re hero material.
Wow. Profound. I’ve had similar thoughts. It doesn’t always make things easier, but it helps.
No, it doesn’t make it easier on the ground. I had some bits of thoughts on that end to put into another post, but it hasn’t come together yet. Maybe someday.