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148. Why Do Some Christians Revile ‘The Chosen’? | with Josiah DeGraaf and Jenneth Dyck
Fantastical Truth Podcast, Feb 7, 2023

Into the Darkness
Reviews, Feb 3, 2023

The Chosen Succeeds Where ‘Woke’ Stories Fail
Jenneth Dyck in Articles, Feb 2, 2023

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The Wayward, Tabitha Caplinger
Fortified, V. Romas Burton
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Calor, J. J. Fisher
Once Upon A Ren Faire, A. C. Castillo
The Genesis 6 Project, Michael Ferguson
Exile, Loren G. Warnemuende
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148. Why Do Some Christians Revile ‘The Chosen’? | with Josiah DeGraaf and Jenneth Dyck
Fantastical Truth, Feb 7, 2023

147. Why Can Christians Celebrate Stories about Merlin and King Arthur? | with Robert Treskillard
Fantastical Truth, Jan 31, 2023

146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV? | with Keith Lango
Fantastical Truth, Jan 24, 2023

145. How Did Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ Shape Christian Fantasy? | with Rebecca K. Reynolds
Fantastical Truth, Jan 17, 2023

144. Which Top Six Fantasy Franchises Gave Fans Grief in 2022?
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143. Which Top Ten Lorehaven Stories Proved Most Popular in 2022?
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Into the Darkness
“Charles Hack’s Into the Darkness summons a close-range science fiction story, focusing on the personal challenges of space warfare among alien cultures with a steady pace and serious tone.”
—Lorehaven on Feb 3, 2023

A Crown of Chains
“A Crown of Chains creatively retells a biblical tale to explore themes of providence, racism, faith, and fidelity.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 27, 2023

Lander’s Legacy
“Lander’s Legacy stacks modern thrills and complex characters on a foundation of biblical what-ifs.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 20, 2023

Prince Caspian
“Pacing starts slow but creature lore grows in C. S. Lewis’s sequel, introducing practical tyrants and talking-beast politics into a Narnian resistance.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 13, 2023

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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Observations: Eternity’s Student

Happy Wednesday! Well, I’ll tell you what’s happened over the last two weeks. First, I’ve finished off my insanely long Doctor Who series. Second, I had to have my OS reinstalled and I’m still trying to put everything back into […]
Kaci Hill on Jun 29, 2011 · Series: Lord of the Time Lords, Observations of a Youngling
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Happy Wednesday!

Well, I’ll tell you what’s happened over the last two weeks. First, I’ve finished off my insanely long Doctor Who series. Second, I had to have my OS reinstalled and I’m still trying to put everything back into place. Third, I felt a bit ill for a couple days. Fourth, and most interesting, I had discovered though someone’s Facebook invitation that Steven James was speaking in San Antonio and attended that seminar over the weekend.

I’m on record saying God laughs, most of the time, and regularly at my expense. He has his own way of speaking to each of us, and, well, more often than not he uses images and storytelling to make his point with me. But often we don’t really notice when he’s teaching us until he informs us of the test results. Because, you know, he is that good.

Well, he certainly had a thing or two say to me, more than I can really reduce down to a blog post: things on presumption and pride, selfishness and forgiveness, divine appointment and humility. All of it, though really bundled into maintaining a teachable spirit.

For instance, two weeks ago, I made some comments about violence in Doctor Who. In general, my assumption has been that our culture has become so saturated in it that we’re desensitized to it. However, at the seminar, Mr. James made the comment that “We live in a culture of muted violence.” For example, a newscast might spend twenty seconds on a flood that resulted in thousands of people dead, wounded, and/or homeless, but immediately switch over and spend fifteen minutes on sports or celebrity gossip. He went on to say that “the reason tragedies don’t shatter us is because our hearts our frozen.” If “tragedy is a matter of proximity,” then our job is to bring that tragedy as close to the reader’s face as possible, to shatter the ice, as it were.

It was a new way to look at it, at least for me.

Teachability.

I had a history teacher in high school who was always studying his field. One of us asked him about that one day, and he said, “I’ll tell you what my professor told me: ‘I’d rather you learn from a flowing stream than a stagnant pond.'”

For me, being a Christian as long as I have leaves me forever on the edge of a heart that says, “You can’t teach me anything from this book that I don’t know. I know everything there is to glean from Scriptures.” And I’m learning the more comfortable I get in a particular field: writing, tutoring, substitute teaching, editing…The danger is to think I’ve learned it all and haven’t anything else to learn from anyone else, for my heart to turn to stone. At that point, I’m useless to everyone. I’m not listening to God, so he can’t teach what I won’t learn. And I’m no use to anyone else because even if I had something to say, who’s going to listen?

Teachability.

One thing (among many) I’ve learned by people watching is that even writers with dozens of books under their belt and a steady, sustainable business are always learning, always honing, always improving. The process is alive, in constant motion, churning, twisting, rising, falling, so that everything in and around it feels its presence.

We’re always learning. My favorites are the books written for the sheer challenge, for the success of something new, untested, untried. If they fail, they fail. But when they succeed, they’re awe-inspiring.

So, time for something new, at least from me.

What are you reading?
What’s inspired, influenced, or altered your perspective?
What are you learning?
Moreover, who’s your teacher?

Enjoy the day.

Kaci Hill
Kaci is the co-author of Lunatic and Elyon with New York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker. She's also substitute teacher with a little editing and tutoring sprinkled in for grins. She lurks on Facebook, Twitter, a blog she dubbed Life in the Veil Betwixt the Realms, where she continues to explore the threshold between reality and fiction and everything in between.
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  1. MGalloway says:
    June 29, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    I’m currently listening to an audiobook about cave exploration…and well…I’ve learned that in some instances, people can spend up to 2-3 weeks at a time exploring, camping, climbing cliffs, and scuba-diving through lakes. The startling part is that they spend all that time undergound.

    As far as the Bible, everytime I start thinking I’ve got a handle on it, God shows me otherwise…so He will always be a teacher for me. For example, I’m continually discovering new connections between the individual books as well as individual passages.

    It reminds me of a quote Dr. Adrian Rogers once made…and I’m paraphrasing here…but something to the effect that when he started out teaching the Bible, he couldn’t figure out how he could make it last a year. After fifty years of preaching, he realized he would never get to the bottom of it.

    Reply
  2. Galadriel says:
    June 29, 2011 at 5:20 pm

    A good thing to remember. It’s easy for me to get tired of certian areas, especially Bible things.

    Reply
  3. Kaci Hill says:
    June 29, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    Amen to that. I’m unfortunately known to mysteriously not show up if I know two or three subjects are going to be the sermon topic.  I know it’s bad…

    Reply

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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