The Flog – The Fabry Log

I went to the Farmer's Market this morning with Shannon because Andrea wasn't feeling well. Cabbage, carrots, onions, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and 10 dozen eggs.

$240. This is what we eat. This is our life.

Before heading home, I was intrigued by a new vendor. Actually an old vendor with a Shriner's hat and a wrinkled face. He was selling Vidalia onions. Straight from Georgia.

"They brought them by 18-wheeler," he said with a cute accent.

Pat Conroy has a great story about Vidalia onions, how they taste, how people fawn over the first crop each year. I have had Vidalia's before, but this seemed a purer crop to me, closer to the ground than the grocery. I forked over the $10 for 10 pounds and the man smiled.

Saturday is cleaning day at our house. Andrea and the girls/boys work hard to vacuum and launder the whole house. I help out, but my major task today was my office.

At 2 PM I started getting hungry for lunch. What do have?

I found the biggest Vidalia onion and cut it up. I threw it in a skillet with some oil, then cut up some cabbage. What should I put in there to help it out?

Pondering that question, I picked a sliver of onion from the spatula as I turned the concoction. Someone had put sugar in the pan. I was sure of it. I tried another sliver. Sweet. Like honey.

Wait. There was no sugar in the pan, that was the onion.

I cracked two eggs and spread them over the skillet, simmered and turned it, then mixed in a little butter/salt/pepper.

Even though they were carried on the back of a truck all the way to Arizona, I feel like I'm in a field in Georgia, among the first at the harvest.

I've always thought of the forbidden fruit as an apple. Perhaps the Garden of Eden was somewhere in Toombs County.

God, I don’t understand the mystery of it all. I can’t comprehend why you would care enough for me to send Jesus Christ to pay the penalty of my sins. But with all my lack of understanding, I am willing to yield to you completely. I trust in Jesus’ death for me, and I believe he rose to give us new life. I accept the promise you made in John 3:16, which tells us, “Everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

I do believe, Lord, and I accept all that you have for me: your forgiveness, your leadership, and your help through life’s ups and downs. I want to become your child. I am yours—body, mind, and soul—and I know that you are mine. Thank you for forgiving my sins and, even now, starting to guide me into this new life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

So much of writing a story is having the confidence to keep going even though voices in your head tell you to stop. No one will read this. No one will care. Who are you to write anything? Move on to something else.

Those voices were strong when I began writing Almost Heaven. After all, the main character is not a celebrity. He’s a loner. An almost invisible guy you wouldn’t be able to pick out of his high school reunion picture. He lived his whole life in West Virginia. In a holler. Unknown by most of the world.

Except there was something compelling about Billy Allman. From the moment I heard his story and began to piece together the plot of his life, I was captivated. Every day I went to my closet (literally) to find out what was going on in his life. Billy was a real man who died two years ago. His story forms the backbone of the book.

The other compelling angle the story took was the perspective of the angel sent to aid Billy and watch his every move. I don’t believe everyone has a guardian angel. At least, I’m not sure everyone has one. But I do know that God uses the angelic realm in our realm, and to be able to pull back the curtain a bit also brought me to the computer and encouraged me about my own life.

Yesterday I heard that the book won an award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. The other novels nominated were fantastic. There are no “losers” on that list. But when I heard Almost Heaven was chosen, my first thought was, “Yay Billy.” And my second thought was, “Thank you, God.” He delights in choosing simple, humble things. He has a plan and purpose for every story, yours and mine included.

Maybe you feel like Billy today. I’m not sure if he ever won any award in school or in life. Was he patrol of the year? Did he win at the spelling bee? I don’t know. But I do know that because of his relationship to God through Jesus, he was guided and sometimes dragged for God’s glory. And that makes a compelling story for any life.

Yay for Billy. Thanks to God.

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To view the complete list of 2011 Christian Book Award winners and finalists, click here.

A listener emailed to tell me about the loss of her beloved pet after 16 1/2 years of companionship. Here's her tribute to Mister Kitty.

Even after we left the home, they wouldn’t dare paint over our basketball wall.

My wife, Andrea, was asked last year to be part of a devotional project and I’m excited that the book is available now. There are many great authors/writers/thinkers included, but I am partial to her one-page devotional on “Illusions.”

Andrea and I talked about this topic on the 3/29 Chris Fabry Live! program. If you missed it, click here to listen to the podcast or stream.

Check out the resource and begin your own 90-day Tending of the Soul!