When I think about telling people that I write horror stories, there’s a part of me that feels like I have to defend my choice to write in the horror genre. I’m not sure why I feel that way. However, with my OCD, the idea got stuck in my brain and has been rattling around my head for hours. I wanted to write about why I wanted to write horror.
The main reason for my doing almost anything is for the glory of God. I say that about my marriage and my life, but I haven’t ever explained it in detail. The other day a friend of mine had made me think about looking for the signs and signals that God gives us to show us the miracles in our lives. I remember responding to her by saying that I see miracles everyday in the eyes of my brothers and sisters in Christ. So, when I say that whatever I do, I hope that my life, my marriage, my writing, etc, glorifies God by expressing what a miracle life itself is. I hope when someone sees me or reads my writing, they see love. I know that it a crazy think to say that when someone reads a horror story that they will see love, but why not? If I create an artistic expression of life because I love life and hold it dear as an amazing gift from God, then is it really crazy to think that maybe someone will see it as such?
I started to think about how can anyone think about artistic expression in such dark times? Except, I realized that God never promised us that it was always going to be sunshine and rainbows. The world is filled with dualities good and evil, sorrow and happiness, and all the rest. If I want to be a true artist, then I should want to accept God’s creation as it is and celebrate it for the wonderful gift that it is.
In the Bible, when God created the world, the first thing He did was separate the light from the darkness. If it was the first thing He did, maybe it was important. In other cultures, in their creation stories, many of them also begin with a separation of the light from the darkness. When I write horror, I feel like I am contrasting the light in the world from the darkness in the world so that I can better appreciate both. I have found that when I have been my weakest, I have found my greatest strength. I believe that often the world is full of paradoxes. Sometimes when all logic tells a person to go one way, the best answer to do the complete opposite. I feel like horror is a great way to express that notion. Hopefully, I pray one day I can share that message with someone.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
