THIS PRESENT DARKNESS - INTRO - WEEK 1

THIS PRESENT DARKNESS by Frank Peretti

Once upon a time a little boy was born to a Canadian pastor and his wife. Born with a noticeable deformity called cystic hygroma, the boy's tongue was very enlarged and tumorous in appearance. Black and bleeding it protruded out of his mouth, and despite multiple surgeries, the boy remained very small in size and became the recipient of endless bullying when he entered school. Gym class especially became an open invitation of nonstop harassment and physical torment for him. In those days there were no other options but to go to school, and the repeated useless chant of "just try and ignore the bullies" led to a beaten down existence. The boy fell in love with the idea of monsters. The often misshapen, misunderstood creatures that would rise up and overpower their enemies. He would dream of being able to perform similar feats. This went on through high school. Finally, everything came to a head. The boy, now a young man, ran into one of his tormentors in the store when he was trying to buy deodorant. The bully grabbed the spray deodorant and unloaded it directly in his face. Stumbling out the front door, the young man collapsed on the sidewalk and cried out to God. He begged for mercy. He just "couldn't take it anymore." The next day at school, he walked into his gym class and for the first time a teacher really looked at him, and asked if he was alright. The young man realized a door had been opened to him, and he later sat down and wrote out everything that he had experienced at the hands of the bullies. That day was a turning point in the young man's life. He was removed from gym class, given some new opportunities that allowed him to flourish. Of course, I'm sharing the early life of author Frank Peretti, and as I write this, I somewhat feel like I am writing a modern day version of Joseph. He didn't suffer as a result of his family, but an innocent young man received about every hardship possible. God had a plan for Frank Peretti, and it centered around his writing ability. He became known as the "father of Christian fiction in the modern era" as his writing ushered in an entirely new genre. His genre? Christian thriller. Taking his experience of good overcoming evil and adding the spiritual battles that ensue behind the scenes, Peretti writes from a depth that few can claim. Want to know more about his story? Check out The Wounded Spirit, one of the most powerful biographies written for teens in my opinion.

Buckle your seatbelts! We're about to pull back the curtain and view worldly events from a different realm - a spiritual one!