My friends,
People often ask where my story ideas come from. “It’s different every time,” is the vague answer. The more specific answer—at least for the story you just finished—is that the idea came directly from my wife, Darci.
Every summer when our sons were young, we took them to a small lake in eastern Washington state. At the end of the lake was a wall of cattails and beyond them, a vast bank of trees. One summer, Darci, Taylor, Micah, and I—along with family friends—punched through the cattails and found ourselves in a huge meadow on the other side. I told my boys we’d entered into another realm, one not of this earth. Every year after that we pretended we were exploring that extraordinary world.
One day when Darci and I were batting around story ideas, she said, “What if you did a story on the corridor? You could make it challenging to find and put something on the other side that will change the life of anyone who gets through.”
I loved the idea instantly and dove in to writing the story. As I wrote, Darci offered penetrating insight on the characters, setting, scenes I’d scratched out . . . everything.
So if you liked The Long Journey to Jake Palmer, thank Darci. If you didn’t, blame me.
Regarding the theme of the novel, it’s universal, don’t you think? Isn’t there a part of you that wonders if you’re enough? A part that doesn’t think there’s much good written on your label? There’s a part of me that wonders those things.
The good, no, great news is we are enough, in Jesus. There is no shame, blame, condemnation at all in him. That’s just one of the myriad proclamations written on each of our labels.
My prayer is you gather with close friends and take the time to read each other’s labels. That you take hold of those words and phrases and etch them deep in your heart, and that you step into more freedom than you’ve ever known before.
James L. Rubart
March 2016