To Be Like You

Intro

This is a collection of short essays written by a young Christian.

When I decided to write a book during my gap year from university, it was my intention to write a novel. I have always wanted to create a great work of fiction. I daydreamed I would be known as an African Jane Austen or Daphne du Maurier, two of my favourite authors. I wanted my name to be world famous and stamped on the pages of history.

However, since my first year of university, every time I sit down to write it’s ‘Christian stuff’ (as I called it) that comes out. Initially, I found this frustrating. No one ever wins a Nobel Prize in literature for writing this stuff that most of the world doesn’t care about. Besides, growing up I found Christian books utterly and completely boring. Even the ones that were supposed to be interesting and life-changing were headache-inducing to me. I would think to myself: I don’t want to be obscure and boring too! I struggled with this issue to the point that I got so tired of trying to write stories that never flowed, and finally conceded to writing whatever ‘Christian stuff’ that came through.

In the course of writing, it became increasingly obvious that this book is not about my progress in faith and challenges as I originally fashioned it to be. It is now mind-glaringly obvious that this is about what God has to say to this generation – especially to Christians. I feel God orchestrating my every tap on the keyboard. Initially, I fought this guidance. I really wanted to write about me. Although the book is still rather personal in places, some of what I had intended to write about has fizzled out while others have taken a completely different shape. It reads much less of a diary than I had intended it to. I envisaged a piece of work that could be dubbed as a Christian version of Eat Pray Love; but God is on a mission and who am I to resist?

I would have liked to be more artistic and show off my literary prowess but I had to curb in creativity to avoid running the risk of perverting the words of God and changing them completely. So I have eluded cryptic messages and flamboyance in my writing so as to make the words clear to all reading them.

Apart from the first chapter, Mark 8, I have tried my best to write each chapter as independently and self-explanatory as possible, without necessarily having to refer to other chapters. That is why I refer to them individually as essays. This is not to imply that some write-ups are more important while others are negligible; but this is in recognition of the fact that we live such busy lives and tend to absorb information in little chunks and not continuous streams. This also acknowledges that some people may be drawn to specific topics or may prefer to read the book in an unorthodox order.

Anyway, read it whether you are Christian or not, or you have been in church for decades or you have never ventured into a church even for sightseeing. Test and prod what I have written. Don’t just drink it up and don’t just spit it out either; swirl it all in your mouth and take time to taste all the flavours.

And do share your thoughts. I value feedback.