Saturday,
January
18, 2003
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M. (ANS)
-- Author Ted Dekker is clearly one of the most gripping storytellers
alive
today. He creates plots that keep your heart pounding and palms
sweating
even after you’ve finished his books. (Pictured: Book cover, Blink).
“Blink” is
Dekker’s latest
novel. I found it buried deep in the Christian books section of a large
secular book store, but that’s not where it belongs. Its quality far
exceeds
the other books prominently displayed at the store’s front entrance. If
you haven’t done much reading recently, do yourself a favor. Buy
“Blink,”
and be prepared for the read of a lifetime. (I guarantee that you won’t
even care that much about your favorite programs on television. They’ll
seem pretty shallow once you get involved in Dekker’s world). But buy
the
novel while you have the opportunity. If you “Blink” more than once you
may be out of luck and end up having to wait for a reprint.
Here’s a little
taste of
what’s in “Blink.” Describing the book, its back cover reads:
“Seth Borders
isn’t your
average graduate student. For starters, he has one of the world’s
highest
IQ’s. Now he’s suddenly struck by an incredible power – the ability to
see multiple potential futures. Still reeling from this inexplicable
gift,
Seth stumbles upon a beautiful woman named Miriam. Unknown to Seth,
Miriam
is a Saudi Arabian princess who has fled her veiled existence to escape
a forced marriage of unimaginable consequences. Cultures collide as
they’re
thrown together and forced to run from an unstoppable force designed to
kidnap or kill Miriam.”
Reading “Blink”
will mentally
and spiritually invigorate you by challenging you to think in a way you
enjoy. After finishing the novel, I felt like I’d been through a series
of very intense college level philosophy and theology classes – with
one
difference. When I was taking those classes at school a few years ago,
I was usually yawning and couldn’t wait to get home. After “Professor”
Dekker was finished, the adrenaline was still flowing and I couldn’t
wait
to come back for more.
Dekker told me,
“I like to
bring people into a story that really captures them and then while I
have
them there introduce them to concepts.”
In “Blink,”
Dekker does just
that, dealing with the concept of “multiple futures;” if this doesn’t
happen
that will happen.
Dekker told me,
“There is
a sound theological basis for such a phenomenon. It addresses the
openness
of God and whether God knows the future on a popular level. It (deals
with)
the problem of there being more than one future if there is a God who
has
a singular future. If God knows the future then how can it be changed?”
Dekker tackled
that issue
in “Blink” by showing how the prayers of a man dramatically affected
the
future. “I can pray to God and the future can change,” Dekker said.
I wanted to
know a little
more about the man whose novels affect me so profoundly and result in
me
pedaling vigorously on the exercise bike at the gym about twice as long
as normal.
A few days ago,
Dekker was
kind enough to take some time out of his busy writing schedule (on
average
he writes ten hours a day six days a week) to chat with me. He told me
that his writing, which he classified as a calling, “consumes” him.
“I wanted to
take people
from unbelief to belief–the single most interesting journey that any
man
can make and reveal God’s character through gripping stories that
capture
the imagination. I’ve heard that God is quite an intelligent fellow and
He chose fiction as His primary paradigm when He came to earth. In his
three years of speaking, He chose fiction for over half the lessons He
delivered. Yet over half the church rejects it as a serious tool for
communication.”
Dekker, who has
only been
on the market for about 27 months, already has seen phenomenal growth
with
350,000 copies currently in print. “I’m in the business of shaping
culture
through the use of story.”
He’s not
exaggerating, either.
Pointing out how few hours the average pastor has to influence his
congregation,
Dekker said “The average novel takes seven hours to read and is read by
three people. In the last two years, people have spent seven million
hours
wandering through the worlds I have created.”
Dekker’s novels
are a compilation
of things that fascinate him about God. He’s not writing, either, just
to fulfil a publisher’s demands so he can sell more books and generate
more royalties. There’s a definite purpose to what he does. “I want to
get people to ask the right questions. One thing that distinguishes my
fiction is that it’s designed to get people to ask the right questions
rather than stand up and cheer. I want to strengthen people’s belief by
bringing them to the point of doubt. Some of Seth’s arguments (in
“Blink”)
are quite compelling.
It’s obvious
that Dekker
is a very thoughtful man. He told me,
“I love
engaging ideas and
people’s minds. I was discussing theology when I was 12 years old. I
was
talking about predestination and the character of God, debating and
giving
input. I was bred in the environment where theology and ideology was
very
important. My parents and other missionaries expected me to give my
input.
I gave my first sermon when I was in the eighth grade. I have a window
into the worlds I create.”
Despite his
intense love
for writing, Dekker is still a family man with his feet planted very
firmly
in reality. He’s been married for almost 20 years to his high school
sweetheart
whom he praised, saying “Without the right partner, a person can never
write. You can’t write during commercial breaks.” He also has four
children
ranging from six to 16.
When he’s not
writing, Dekker
likes to relax by going out to dinner with his friends and watching
movies.
However, there’s one activity he doesn’t do any more. “I used to race
motorcycles
till I broke my back. I used to love the rush of screaming up to the
jump
on a dirt bike.”
Dekker has a
recipe for successful
writing in particular and success in general. “You keep writing and you
get better. If you want to succeed where other people haven’t
succeeded,
you must be willing to do what other people are unwilling to do.”
Dekker, the son
of missionaries,
grew up in the jungles of Indonesia. After a stint in corporate
marketing,
he has put his religion and philosophy degrees to work, writing
best-selling
novels such as Heaven's Wager, When Heaven Weeps, Thunder of Heaven,
and
co-authored, with Campus Crusade for Christ's Dr. Bill Bright, the
best-selling
novels, Blessed Child and A Man Called Blessed. He and his wife,
LeeAnn, along with their four children, live in the mountains of
Colorado.
Jeremy Reynalds
is a freelance
writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's
largest
emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or
http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction.
He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New
Mexico
and is pursuing his Ph.D. in intercultural education at Biola
University
in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and lives in
Albuquerque,
New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at
reynalds@joyjunction.org.
Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A black and white JPEG
picture
of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at
assistcomm@cs.com.
ASSIST
News Service (ANS)
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