Idle Tales: a reflection on the Easter service and my writing.

I was really moved by the Easter sermon that my pastor, Christina (yes, my church has a female pastor, its awesome) gave on Easter.

She began by telling the story of when Mary, the other Mary, and Johanna went to tend to Jesus in his tomb.  They were just planning on paying their respects (as you do with the dead).

"But something happens at the tomb that goes against everything they know to be true."

1. The tomb is empty.
2. There are 2 sparkly messengers there, telling them that there is dead among the living.

The women go rushing back to the disciples telling them what they have just heard.  And the disciples considered these "idle tales", and they did not believe the women.

An Idle Tale. The Greek word is Leros, usually reserved for the ramblings of someone who is suffering from delirium.

And this is when I started thinking about my writing.

We as Christians believe in this "Idle Tale". We believe in a lot of them.

"The dead come back to life? Maybe in a Stephanie Meyer novel.  Not in real life."

 How can you be so sure?

I think what makes Fiction so great, is that it has some sort of Truth.  That somewhere within its "Idleness", its delirium, there is something that we can hold on to. Something we can learn from.

Just like the Easter story.

It's interesting to me that the words they used to translate what the women said is Idle.  As if they were useless, as if they don't work. As if the audience knew that nothing would come from what they said.

I worry that my writing will be considered the same.  Crazy talk.  Meaningless babble.

But I'm a Christian.   I believe in a lot of "Idle Tales".

And I need to believe in my writing too.

I need to say to the Idle Tales in my head, the ones that say "Your writing is a waste of time." or "Your writing is bad." or "Nobody will read this."...

How can you be so sure?