A few words from Melody
I’ve written a lot of young adult novels in the past decade. As a result I get a lot of amazing letters from my young adult readers. But I’m continually surprised at how many times I get a letter from a reader who feels totally lost when it comes to the Bible. And I wonder . . . how can that be?
Then I think back to when I was fifteen. I remember how I went from being an unchurched atheist to a sold-out believer. My life did a mind-spinning 180 turnabout, but I didn’t have a clue what to do next. As far as the Bible went, I didn’t know 1 Chronicles from 1 Corinthians, and being in church felt like being in a foreign country, not to mention it came with a whole new language. In other words, although I was found, I felt pretty lost.
But one of the very first things I learned as a new believer was that Jesus was not simply my new best friend, he was the foundation of my faith as well. And, trust me, I needed a foundation. I needed something strong and steady and immovable—something I could rely on even if the rest of the world was quaking and shaking. I wanted something so sturdy that I could build my entire life upon it. In other words, I needed a rock—and that Rock was Jesus.
This is a message I try to convey in my teen novels—by telling stories about contemporary people with contemporary challenges, I try to show my readers that they too need a rock to build their lives upon. And I believe that in these times, with instability all around us, we are more in need of a solid foundation than ever. We all need a rock to lean upon.
Being a young adult comes with a ton of questions. Questions like: Who am I? Why am I like this? Who can I trust? What can I expect? Who will love me? What will I do with my life? Lots and lots of question. And I believe that the Bible holds the answers to all those questions—and more. But sometimes the Bible can feel like a great big overwhelming book. So I had to ask myself, how can I help my readers to find the answers they’re looking for in the Bible? How can I make the Bible more user-friendly?
So I reflected back on my own life. Remember how I went from a heathen to a Christian as a teenager? Not having gone to church (like a lot of my new Christian friends had done), I realized that I was ravenous for God’s Word. As a result, I started to read and read. It was as if I was trying to devour the entire Bible. I read it from cover to cover (well, except for portions of “begetting,” etc., which I didn’t get). I took Bible classes, attended Bible studies, listened to teaching audios. I even memorized whole chapters of Scripture. Okay, I’ll admit that I was a little obsessed—but it felt like I was starving and couldn’t get enough.
As the years passed, I became more and more comfortable with the Bible. In fact, I got more comfortable with the whole Christian culture in general. Things like attending church and fellowshipping and worshiping became second nature to me. In fact, after a lot of years, it all became a little too comfortable. I knew a lot of the Bible by heart, I taught Bible studies, and I spoke nearly perfect “Christianese.” As a result, I started to take spiritual things for granted. And this bothered me—a lot.
So, what did I do? I went back to Jesus. I went back to that old foundation—the Rock. Instead of trying to “become smarter” or trying to become more “theological” or trying to get a better grasp on the Bible, I decided to go back to Jesus. I got myself a redlined Bible (the kind where Jesus’s words are in red type), and I only allowed myself to read the red lines—the Jesus words. And I was so blessed.
So that’s the whole point of Devotions for Real Life (a compilation of three previously published books). This big book contains all the Jesus words—the very words that I have built my life upon. And I hope you will find these words to be foundational for your life too!