LEAPS OF FAITH, by Rob and Karina Fabian is an anthology of faith in action, and in science fiction. It is an interesting work, much like INFINITE SPACE, INFINITE GOD, which they also compiled. Written by different writers of varying degrees of public exposure, I'm sure you'll find something in here that you'll like. If you're like me, you'll probably find this a bit "too Catholic". Don't get me wrong. I truly believe that if a Catholic has called upon the Lord then they are saved, or born again, whichever term you'd like to use. I did find the exclusion of other denominations a bit disturbing, and some of the traditions of the elders that have displaced the teachings of the Catholic Church have also bothered me. However, having said all of that, at least 75% of these stories show, not only great story writing, but good, solid Christian teachings.My favorite is, well, I had a couple running neck and neck. I'll only give you one of them though. "God's Gift", by Greg Beatty, who incidentally has 2 stories in this work, both of which I found great merit, is the story I'm going with for my favorite. Here is a man working on FTL transportation (that's faster than light), and he's come up against a wall. When he experiments with it he gets up to a certain point and then there are all kinds of terrible results. Given the ultimatum of success or being the next person to travel in his FTL machine, the scientist works feverishly at overcoming the problem. What happens next is beautiful. A failure turns into a victory. To tell you more would be to take the story away from you, and I don't wish to do that. This story is so good that you've just got to get this book if only to read this one story. It's that powerful, wonderful and marvelously written.
Funny thing is, this story reflects true life more than we'd like to admit. I've heard preachers say, "We raise our hands because it's a sign of surrender. And that's what we must do, surrender to the Lord." I've found in my own life that it's when we come to the end of ourselves that we frequently find ourselves nose-to-nose with God. He's been there all the time, but our pride has hidden our ability to see Him. There's a song where the writer suddenly realizes why God has taken so much away from them, "Because You cannot fill hands that are already full." So do a spiritual check of your life. Are there things in there that are keeping you from enjoying the fullness of God? I'll be the first to say "Yes". So what are we going to do about it? Do we dare go on like this, carrying our burdens as if we were meant to do penance of some sort, or do we drop them at the Cross and let Jesus take them. The choice is ours. It may not be the difference between salvation and damnation, but it very well may be the difference between enjoying the full blessings of coming into God's presence as His child, and being cut off from His fellowship...sort of like a "time out". You see, God disciplines the children He loves. So if you aren't getting disciplined then there's a good chance that you aren't His child. In fact Scripture says you aren't.
David Brollier
Don't forget to visit Rob and Karina's site at:FabianSpace
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info.
By the way, I know of at least one of these sites that will be having multiple posts, including a live interview with the compilers of this anthology. I'm not going to tell you who it is. You're going to have to find that out for yourself. After all, this is a game of Tag.
