Amy Boucher Pye

Author: Amy Boucher Pye

  • Devotional of the week: Love, love, love (5 in 1 Peter 4 series)

    Photo: Dustin Gaffkey, flickr
    Photo: Dustin Gaffkey, flickr

    Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8

    Recently I was texting a friend, and the auto-correct turned my words into, “I’m paying that God will give you strength today.” Imagine if we had to pay God to answer our prayers! Thankfully no payment is involved, at least by us. God’s never-ending love involved his Son giving his life as payment instead. His love covers a multitude of sins.

    Of course, Peter is not talking specifically about God’s love here, but the love we as his children should show each other. As we live in the light of eternity, we are to cover our relationships in a thick spreading of love – one that is thicker than dollops of cream and jam on a scone. We know the root of this love comes from God’s love for us.

    One of my friends at times is tempted to despair that people in her family will never change. She sees a controlling and self-centered father, a mother who acquiesces and an immature sister. And that’s not even describing her husband’s family. Although she sets boundaries in place, she also prays regularly for her family, that God would break through with his grace and love. She extends love, letting it wash away that multitude of sins.

    Is there one person you could show extra love to today? Perhaps you could spend some time asking God to reveal who that might be, and how you could love them.

    Prayer: Father, we love because you first loved us. Help us to be your hands and feet – and heart. Amen.

  • The Irrational Author Ego

    If you’re a writer, how do you handle criticism? I’m guest posting today at the Association of Christian Writers’ website, sharing the story of how I felt when I received feedback on my book, Finding Myself in Britain. Not a pretty sight.

    2349632625_4eba371b56_zAt Friday, 5pm, I met my deadline. Having pressed “send” to my dozen reader reviewers with my manuscript, I was pleased to finish the first draft. I’d done a fair bit of rewriting on the manuscript already, passing my chapters, one by one, to my publisher for comment and critique. He unearthed hidden agendas that needed axing and quirky ways of stating things that needed rephrasing. Surely, I thought, the worst of the rewriting was over.

    On Saturday at 3pm, I spotted an email from one of the reviewers. As I opened it I glimpsed her warning for me to “buckle up,” for she said she didn’t take a measured, British approach in her critiques but would be straight with me – yet she thought my baby was beautiful and wanted it to fly. I skim-read her thirteen pages of comments, the anxiety building in my gut, and took myself to bed.

    Read the rest over at the ACW website.

  • Devotional of the week: Divine Conversation (4 in 1 Peter 4 series)

    “The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” 1 Peter 4:7

    roller-skates-415389_1280I’m passionate about prayer, including leading retreats called “Adventures in Prayer.” Why? Because prayer opens up a divine conversation, and wonderfully, the Lord loves to meet us. The ways he reveals himself delight, like the time I was in a listening-prayer group with people I didn’t know, and one of them had a picture for me of roller skates. Sounds odd, but I immediately understood what the image meant – the roller skates symbolized the public speaking I was soon embarking on. Although I felt fear and trepidation when strapping on the skates (standing at the podium), once I got rolling, I’d feel the wind whip through my hair in exhilaration. I knew I was to trust God, including giving up my word-for-word scripts. That picture ushered in a new joy and freedom in my speaking.

    Sometimes prayer is freeing and joyous, like that clear image, but sometimes we are sober of mind. Here Peter alerts us that the end is near, so we should be alert and pray. We might have before us heavy matters: a friend experiencing a crushing loss; a son facing depression and difficulty; a family member holding a grudge against us. As we take these issues to God, asking for his grace and mercy, he will bring us hope, relief and signs of joy.

    Father God, I give you my concerns and delights. I know you hear me, and that you love me. Amen.

  • Devotional of the week: Our Life’s Story (3 in 1 Peter 4 series)

    darrowobituary04They will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 1 Peter 4:5

    Some time ago, I was asked to draft, in advance, an obituary for a Christian leader. The task weighed on me, for not only was there no immanent deadline (thankfully, the person was in good health), but I recoiled from summing up the life of another. Finally I dedicated some time to the task and wrote a draft, although later I heard that it wasn’t what they had in mind.

    Have you ever thought what you’d like for your obituary? Or what you’d write for one close to you? After my failed attempt, I read a friend’s lively and touching memories of her husband, who had died of cancer. After reading her short account I felt like I knew him, realizing also where my draft of the obituary came up short.

    Even more daunting than writing an obituary will be giving our account of our life to God. Do you imagine the scenes flashing before you of every stinging comment, indiscreet action, or prideful boast? I know we will be judged for our sins, but I also know that Jesus will be there standing in our stead, our advocate and ambassador. Yet his redeeming us doesn’t give us license to sin all the more. For as we become more like him, we shrink from that which is unholy as we yearn to bring glory to God.

    Prayer: Lord Jesus, may my life’s account be filled with stories of hope and redemption, for your sake. Amen.

  • Devotional of the week: New Self (2 in 1 Peter 4 series)

    Photo: by Neji, Creative Commons
    Photo: By Neji, creative commons

    For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do… 1 Peter 4:3

    Last week we talked about suffering and death being out of fashion in our Western world. So too is judgment. Many Christians today fear making public their views on matters of ethics, thinking they will be branded judgmental or fundamentalist and therefore excluded from the conversation. Others fear sharing their faith and calling people to embrace God, for they don’t want to name another’s sin or selfishness. But Peter, like Paul, calls us to leave our old lives behind.

    We become new people at our conversion, but we have to keep putting on these new selves daily as we put on Christ. We can easily be allured back to our old selves – perhaps with drunkenness, or gossip, anger, bitterness… the list goes on. But God doesn’t want us stuck in our former ways of behaving. He lives in us through his Spirit, giving us the power to be transformed. To resist the drink or nasty whisper or hastily exclaimed words of anger. As we ask God to change us, moment by moment, he will. He delights to make us more like him.

    Our behavior will speak more loudly than our words to those around us. Like Peter, they will notice that we’ve put our past fully behind us, no longer slaves to detestable practices. Though we may struggle still, the light of Christ living in us will be revealed.

    Prayer: Triune God, though you are the judge, you are merciful. Help me to choose life today. Amen.

  • Interview with Julie Klassen

    Lovely to feature this interview with Julie Klassen (originally published in Woman Alive), who just won the fiction award for the Minnesota Book Awards with her book The Secret of Pembrooke Park. This makes me happy on many levels, not least because Minnesota is where I grew up but also because I was a reader of her book when it was in manuscript form, reading it through quirky Anglican eyes!

    Julie Klassen_author photoWhen I look back, I see how God graciously led me to become an editor. I learned so much from working with other editors and talented authors – things that taught me not only about writing but about how to craft a full-length novel. I am thankful for my years with Bethany House Publishers. But, I am also thankful that I could hang up my editorial “red pen” and focus on my writing. Two benefits I’ve especially enjoyed are having time to read for pleasure and developing friendships with more authors.

    I think many of us, regardless of our place of birth, are swept away by the romance and chivalry of Jane Austen’s time. In fact, when I visited the Netherlands last year, I met with members of the Jane Austen society there. And last autumn I attended the annual meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America with attendees from several countries. Miss Austen (and Mr Darcy) fans are everywhere!

    I have loved all-things-British ever since I read The Secret Garden and Jane Eyre as a young girl. But like so many women, it was seeing Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice that inspired me to read all of Jane Austen’s novels and cemented my love of the Regency time period. I find it a romantic time – with gentlemen in tail coats and tall boots and women in those lovely gowns, the courtly balls, and the chivalry where the mere touch of gloved hands during a country dance sparked romance. Sigh. It was also a time when church attendance and family prayers were commonplace. (After all, Jane Austen herself was a clergyman’s daughter.) Whatever the reasons, I am thankful so many readers are drawn to the era as I am.

    When I am up for an award, I am always anxious when awaiting the big moment. Of course it’s a thrill to win, but that emotion is rapidly overshadowed by amazement and gratitude. I believe God has given me this gift, and I’m so thankful to be able to use it for His glory.

    When I first visited the UK, while other tourists were visiting the London Eye or Buckingham Palace, I dragged my long-suffering husband to places like the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and the Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. After all, I was researching my second novel, The Apothecary’s Daughter. On our second trip, when researching The Maid of Fairbourne Hall, we focused on visiting houses with their servants’ areas intact, such as in Bath or Newport. We also visited Devonshire and Cornwall where I pinpointed the setting for The Tutor’s Daughter.

    I finally have “a room of her own,” as author Virginia Woolf described as necessary for fiction writers. For years, I simply wrote wherever I could find a quiet place – the dining room, while the kids watched TV in the living room, or tucked upstairs in our bedroom. Indeed, I wrote my first several novels without my own room, so I don’t know that I agree with Virginia Woolf, but it sure is nice having my own space.

     

    Julie Klassen is an award-winning author of historical fiction. She enjoys travel, research, BBC period dramas, long hikes, short naps and coffee with friends. She lives with her family in Minnesota.

  • Devotional of the week – Like Christ (1 in 1 Peter 4 series)

    Time for a new devotional series! Let’s delve into some of Peter’s first letter, written probably around the year 60 by Peter, with the help of Silas. Peter writes to the Jewish and Gentile Christians scattered throughout much of Asia Minor. Over the next weeks we’ll be looking at 1 Peter 4:1–11 in depth:

    Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. 2As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. 5But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.

    7The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

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    Since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude… 1 Peter 4:1

    The sight arrested me. The angels I was used to seeing were cute and cuddly – babies with smiling faces. This angel was no baby, but a skull with wings below it.

    My first visit to Rome imparted many rich memories, but the image of that angel made a lasting impression. For in our sanitized Western world, we often are shielded from the realities of suffering and death. For instance, when a member of our family dies, we no longer lay them out in our front rooms. Nor do as many women die from giving birth (thankfully). But all the people I’ve met have suffered in one way or another, and one day we all will die.

    So although we run from suffering and death, how can we yet be like Christ? Peter tells us to arm ourselves with Christ’s attitude, that our suffering may be the means of us being done with sin. As we turn to God in our pain and confusion, he transforms us. He may not relieve the situation we find ourselves in, but his loves changes us, including our perspective. He gives us strength and hope to persevere.

    How can Christ meet you today in any suffering you might be enduring, whether physical or emotional? Look to him for relief and sustenance.

    Prayer: Lord God, we run to you with our fears, hurts and disappointments. When we suffer, relieve us. Amen.

  • The Bible: God’s Word for Life, Love, and Change

    Photo: Savio Sebastian, flickr
    Photo: Savio Sebastian, flickr

    Today I have an article on Sacred Reading over at the Kingdom Life Now magazine. Here’s a taste.

    Recently I led an exercise of meditative reading of the Bible. Four times I read the passage of Isaiah 43:1-8 with instructions to the women with a different emphasis in engaging with the text each time. About a month later, I was humbled to hear from one woman about how God spoke to her through the exercise. She said how she and her husband had been to Brunei in Southeast Asia a couple of weeks before the conference in Somerset, England, to visit their daughter and family (including three young grandchildren), who have lived there for the last seven years. While there, she learned that her son-in-law decided to apply for teaching jobs in Belgium, Singapore, and Oman. With Belgium being far closer to home, she and her husband were hoping this would be their final destination. She said,

    When you read Isaiah to us the only sentences that I heard were verses 5 and 6, where it says, “I will bring your children from the East and your daughters from far-off lands.” How relevant to me were those words and I held onto them as a promise to me from God – that He was telling me that my son-in-law would get the job and my family would come close. I was so convinced that I told others what God was saying. So imagine the great joy when we heard on that he had been offered the job in Belgium and they were to start in September! No more 17 hour flight to see them! God truly had gathered my children from the East and my daughter from a far-off land.

    She said that although before my talk she had never heard of lectio divina – a Latin phrase for the act of sacred reading – but now she had come across it several times.

    Change Agent

    This ancient practice of a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures moves what can be a merely rational process deep into one’s heart, for as we chew over a piece of Scripture, it sinks into our being. We begin to slow down, receive, and make a personal response. Continue reading.

  • Devotional of the week – for writers

    On the 13th of every month I’m blogging over at the Association of Christian Writers’ blog. Here’s a taster of today’s entry. For last month’s, on riffing to Psalm 23, click here.
    Photo: le vent le cri, Flickr
    Photo: le vent le cri, Flickr

    “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us… With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you … so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:1-4, NIV, abridged).

    My heart felt ripped open when my job as a commissioning editor at a large Christian publisher was eliminated. I loved my work in coaxing writers to pen their creations – books that only they could write – to God’s glory. But the international market couldn’t support my job and so I had to bid it – and my authors – farewell. As I was leaving, the head of publishing said, “You’ll never know how many people’s lives are touched through the books you worked on. They’re God’s ambassadors.”

    I’ll never forgot his encouragement, for he gave me perspective during a painful time. And indeed, as writers we’ll never fully grasp the impact of our words. Sometimes a reader will share encouragement, but often we write and press “send,” not knowing if and how God will use our labors. Read the rest.

  • A conversation about publishing on World Book Day

    IMG_2619 newI had a lovely time on Premier Christian Radio yesterday chatting about writing and publishing for World Book Day.

    In prepping for the interview, I found out that World Book Day is celebrated in over 100 countries. Many countries celebrate on April 23 (Shakespeare’s birth and death day!); that’s when the UK marks World Book Night (with the stealth distribution of books among other things). They moved the celebration of World Book Day to March 5 to accommodate schools, as the latter date is often during the school holidays. Many schools participate in the schemes where children receive a voucher toward money off books.

    Here is the interview, in which we talk about whole host of writing tips and things to consider about finding an agent and publisher.

    You can see some of my other writing posts here, including how to write a devotional and advice to a newbie writer.