Finding Your Voice: Writing in First Person
My book Living…The Testimony contains a concise version of my personal testimony—a nice short version describing how I believed I was married to the devil and how I eventually became possessed by evil spirits, and how I was finally introduced to Jesus. But for those who want to delve deeper into the life of a person who became possessed, I wrote my spiritual memoir Saving Mary: The Possession. I called my memoir ‘Saving Mary’ because Mary Magdalene was the woman from whom Jesus cast out seven demons. (See Mark 16:9.)
My spiritual memoir is told in first person immediate. The narrator is a shy, terrified seven-year-old girl. Personally, I loved writing in this style and tone. Going back into my past and ‘becoming’ the little girl helped me to remember a lot of the details regarding what took place. It helped me get in touch with my feelings. Also, this point of view enabled me to understand the deep wound that wreaked so much havoc with my psyche. Through writing, I became aware of why I acted as I did when I was a teen and why I was so drastically afraid of marriage as I got older. Ultimately, I didn’t want to write a book that simply said, “I dreamed I married Satan. And I believed it was true.” I wanted to show people how dreams like this can seriously disturb children with thoughts of darkness, gloom, and complete despair. As parents, we have to learn to listen to our children; we have to get smarter regarding the ways Satan reaches in and steals our kids. I wanted to show this through my story.
Many people say my book Saving Mary: The Possession reads as a novel, and they’re right. But this doesn’t mean it’s not a true story. Think of my book as a “non-fiction novel” or as “narrative non-fiction.” Or, just think of it as I do: “This is what my life was like.” For Christians, the point of view of first-person immediate is often the most difficult writing style to read. With first person immediate, you get life as it’s lived—without much filtering. In order to make the dialogue realistic, a writer has to stick to the moment of pain, or fear, or anger. That doesn’t always make for a pretty or a clean read. In addition to this, the main character is terribly flawed. In other words, she’s deceived by her spirit guide and she has little understanding about the spiritual realm—she’s learning as she goes. Therefore, she’s not someone you would want to take spiritual advice from (not yet anyway). Because of all this, some Christians may be offended by the material inside this book. Others, if they have had a similar traumatic life experience, might find the material difficult to read because it hits home just a little too closely.
If a reader wants to hear about my personal journey of discovering Jesus but doesn’t want to take the slow, meandering road of reading it up-close and personal in my spiritual memoir then I suggest they read Living…The Testimony. Of course, if you like captivating stories—then you need to read the memoir!
We testify in accordance with what we know and have experienced.
…It’s time to learn and experience more!
The first book in this thought-provoking series explained how testimony relates to the Bible; this book will help you understand how testimony relates to living. Living…The Testimony will not only encourage Christians to reflect on who they believe Jesus to be (and why they choose to believe this), but it will also correct current misconstrued ideas as to what the Christian testimony is all about.
- a testimony is not about church;
- a testimony is not about God;
- a testimony is not about faith in general terms;
- this book contains numerous testimonies that will strengthen your faith in Jesus.
A strong Christian testimony is one that continually grows in the knowledge of Jesus, continually shares that knowledge boldly, while at the same time performs good works based on Jesus’ teaching of love—all while abstaining from works of darkness.
Because a biblical testimony deals not only with our belief system, but also with the way we conduct our whole lives, our Christian testimony becomes our most valuable asset. It is life itself.
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Genre – Christian Living
Rating – G
More details about the author
Connect with Deidre Havrelock on Twitter
Website www.deidrehavrelock.com
Quality Reads UK Book Club Disclosure: Author interview / guest post has been submitted by the author and previously used on other sites.
