In my older age, it has been fun to be a part of a peer group in a monthly memoirs writing class taught by Salisbury’s own Susan Shinn Turner. It meets at Trinity Oaks, and we have “prompts” to enable us to think and focus on possible essays. The one that intrigued me, was to write about a “particular decade in my life.” Seeing as I am into my ninth, I chose to write about the present.

Over the years, I have never found fantasy or make believe to be something I liked to write about. I have always focused on events, people, values, society and Christianity. To me, there is no point in writing about what is not real. Of course, that blends into my discipline as a proclaimer.

Because of dyslexia, I have always been a slow reader. I had to work at distinguishing words and sounds. That may have been helpful to me, for public reading and speaking is a must for any minister. I had to be deliberate and distinctive in my words to convey thoughts that were substantive. That mantra has been my motivation along with the need to allow others to hear and understand that what I was communicating had meaning and credence.

So in a life time of preaching, I always read to gain knowledge and insight — not simply to pass time. Make believe to me only seemed to obscure reality. I never fabricated stories in my sermonizing to bring the reader or listener to a conclusion that bore no resemblance to truth or reality. If I wanted to make a point, it had to be genuine and authentic. It wasn’t made up to make a good narrative, but an account to reinforce a vital and believable reality. That, for me, has always been my mission to proclaim the Christian’s belief in a Savior who really had power, love, caring and salvation to give.

In conversations, I often played with words, their sounds, and their meanings to come up with humorous twists or puns. Words are the vehicles of thoughts and ideas. It became a natural way of analyzing what was being said. My writing was based upon a sense that the darkness, evil, sin, pain, suffering, and death in the world are the antithesis of what our Christian rhetoric is all about. We have a message of light, grace, life, warmth, strength, goodness and hope. That’s what I wanted to proclaim.

Yet in this present decade of my life, the world and society’s proclamations seems to be negative, tragic, greedy and depressing. Nothing seems redemptive. I don’t relish fabricated accounts about “all is well because we have the strongest military, the greatest resources, the superior strength and the advanced technology.” I want to hear the message that there is a realistic answer to what the world has to say and what our Lord has to offer. Blame passed on to others is not our answer.

I need to be able to share with others that our Christian “Hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Blood and Righteousness,” as the hymn writer put it. We need not cower to prejudice, loneliness, fear, discrimination and exclusion. We are open to allow the reality of God’s story to be heard in our lives to make us whole, caring, and loving. The witnesses of old and the saints of today speak above the drone of society’s self interest and focus. They speak of acceptance and goodwill.

So the stories I want to tell are always real, not contrived, and convey the certainty of a God who came into our lives so that we might live true stories and not fantasies. After all, that is the good news that we as God’s Redeemed have to tell. It is the real news and not simply some fake news to reinforce and perpetuate a proclamation that is not conceived in truth. Jesus said, “I am the truth.” That is really the foundation of what I believe. Thank goodness it is still proclaimed, and we can choose to live graciously in that reality because it is the truth.

The Rev. David Nelson is a retired Lutheran pastor.