Flash Fiction: Never Too Late

This is another flash fiction story I wrote.

Never Too Late
by Tom Farr

Wendy wanted to rush at the man standing over her son's bed, but the gun aimed at her face and the knife held to Billy's neck caused her to stand planted in the doorway. A villainous smile crossed the man's face.

"If you do anything to hurt him, I swear..."

Wendy could feel the rage well up as the man laughed and made a pinprick cut with the knife into the flesh of Billy's neck.

Billy screamed, and Wendy began moving toward him when she felt a searing pain in her right thigh. A loud pop rang throughout the room. Wendy collapsed, staring at the dark gash where the bullet went in.

Billy was still screaming, writhing in the bed.

"Shut up, or I'll shoot her again!" the man said.

Billy stilled. "Mommy..."

"Mommy's okay, sweetie. Just listen to what the he says." To the man, "What do you want with us?"

The gun was leveled at her face again. "I want him to show up. He can end all of this by merely coming here. We'll leave together. And you and Billy will never see me again."

It can't be that simple, can it?

"Are you going to hurt him?"

"If he doesn't show up, Billy dies. Don't you think he'd be willing to make that sacrifice?"

The man threw her a cell phone. "Call him."

Wendy made the call. No response.

"He didn't answer."

The man frowned. "Bad news for you."

The man laid the two weapons down and reached into the inner pocket of his black jacket. Wendy saw a syringe in his hand.

"What are you going to do with that?"

Before he answered, the man jabbed the syringe's needle into Billy's leg and injected its contents into the boy.

"No!" Wendy lunged toward the man on her good leg, but she was met with a back-arm to her face. She fought the need to black out.

The man trained his gun back on her. "That was a very lethal virus. My own design. Billy has exactly one hour to live. More like fifty minutes, really, because in the last ten minutes his body will be ravaged beyond anything anyone could possibly survive."

Wendy felt her body shaking.

"Please..." she said with tears blurring her vision.

"There is an antidote." He reached back into his jacket and pulled out another syringe. "Get him here and Billy will be okay. If he doesn't show up, Billy dies."

Wendy grabbed the phone again. She waited as it rang.

Why isn't he answering? He always answers.

She finally got voicemail.

"Dad! You have to answer...please answer...Billy is going to die if you don't get to my house now...Nate is going to kill him...please Dad!"

She heard herself screaming the words, but it felt futile. She threw the phone on the ground.

"You can't do this, Nate. Please just give him the antidote."

"No! Either Dad shows up to save the day from his prodigal son or Billy dies."

Wendy sighed. "Will you just let me close to him?"

Nate stepped aside as Wendy came to Billy's side. She held his hand and watched his chest rise and fall. Unconscious had already set in. Nate kept the gun pointed at her.

Please, Dad. We need you.

Wendy looked at the clock on the wall next to the door. Thirty minutes had passed, and nothing from her father. Why was he ignoring her?

She grabbed the phone to call again.

"Hello?"

"Dad? Tell me you got my message."

A pause. "It's going to be hard to understand, baby, but I'm not going to make it."

Wendy froze. "What do you mean?"

"I know it's going to hurt, but I promise it's going to be okay."

How can it be okay if Billy dies?

The call disconnected.

Wendy felt her breathing quicken. "No...Why would he do this? Why wouldn't he come?"

"Either he doesn't care," Nate said, "or he's a coward and powerless to stop it. Either way, Billy dies."

"Please...I'll do anything."

A smile crossed Nate's face, and Wendy thought that maybe he would have mercy.

"I know you would," he said, "but the one person who could do something about it failed you."

Nate lifted the gun and brought the butt of it down on the back of Wendy's head. She crumpled to the floor as everything went to black.

When she woke up an hour later she found Billy's tortured body lying on the bed. Nate was gone. She began sobbing, begging Billy to wake up.

She heard the front door open and close. She grabbed the knife that Nate had left on Billy's bed and prepared to use it on whoever was in the house.

"Wendy?"

Dad?

Her father walked into the bedroom. "I'm here, baby."

Her father leaned down in front of her. She began to pound his chest with her fists.

"You're too late! Why didn't you show up? If you would've just came, Billy would still be alive! Why weren't you there for me?"

Wendy buried her face in her hands and begged God to let her die. Her father was too late, and now her son was dead.

She felt a hand on hers and heard a tiny voice,"Mommy, I'm okay."

Through blurry eyes she looked up to see Billy standing in front of her. Fully alive.

She looked up at her father. "How?"

He smiled. "Too late isn't always too late."

Review: Rumors of God by Darren Whitehead & Jon Tyson

Many of the most life-giving aspects of God and Christianity exist as mere rumors in the eyes of many in America, followers of Jesus or not. Authors Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson in their new book RUMORS OF GOD suggest that people's imaginations have been taken captive as everybody chases after the same individualistic American dream, yet left completely dissatisfied. There are rumors of another dream, one that wraps us up in the life of God and causes us to bring us hope for this dream to the people of a dying world.

Whitehead and Tyson explore the rumors of...
• Generosity
• Love
• Grace
• Freedom
• Commitment
• Community
• Justice
• Hope

While these things exist as mere rumors in the eyes of many, Whitehead and Tyson give us great hope and practical steps to prove these things as a reality through our lives.
I loved the personal stories the authors shared throughout the book, and their insights were very eye-opening on things like generosity and community. My favorite chapter of the book was the chapter on justice. Like the authors, I didn’t quite realize how much the fight against injustice is an integral part of the gospel of Jesus.

The book makes the incredible call to beleivers everywhere to show the world that the rumors about God’s existence, God’s love, and God’s redemptive plan are true.

Review: Vigilante by Robin Parrish

The streets of New York City are overrun by organized crime. Many of the city's police officers are corrupt. Families are being torn apart, and people are dying. Hope is lost. All over the world people are suffering as the wicked roam free, devouring whatever and whoeverk they want.

The world needs a hero to show them a better way, and one man personally takes on the challenge. A man with incredible skill and a firm faith. A man convinced that for people to change they need an example, a symbol to inspire hope and motivate love in action.

Robin Parrish's latest novel VIGILANTE is about this hero. Highly trained military soldier Nolan Gray is tired of the wicked having their way and has faked his own death to reemerge as a vigilante superhero in New York City known as The Hand. With the help of a retired general named Branford, a gadget expert named Arjay, and a nurse named Alice who was rescued from an abusive home life, The Hand daily makes his way through the streets of New York doing good for people and inspiring hope.

The Hand seems nearly unstoppable until the night a tragic accident claims the lives of the wife and daughter of the city's most powerful crime boss Yuri Vasko. Believing The Hand to be responsible, Vasko vows revenge and pushes Nolan to his limits. Can this one man really change people for the better or will evil win in the end?

Parrish has been one of my favorite authors since I picked up his book RELENTLESS in a book store 3 years ago to see what the book was about. I couldn't put it down until I read through all three books of the DOMINION TRILOGY. With each book it's clear that he's getting better and he has an incredible ability to craft a truly interesting and emotionally-driven story.

I loved VIGILANTE because I've always loved superhero stories like Superman and Batman, and Parrish's hero is well-crafted and memorable. It would be great if the story could achieve widespread appeal beyond just a Christian audience because the story is so compelling and inspiring.

VIGILANTE is great because there's nothing supernatural about the hero. Nolan Gray is a man who has been stretched more than any human being should and is resilient and resourceful as a result. Nolan is also surrounded by a great cast of characters who care about Nolan and his cause, as well as a very resourceful villain who helps define The Hand as a hero.

Throughout the story Nolan struggles with the nature of the evil he's trying to stop, as any human would. It prompts the question, "Can a flawed man truly stop evil without succumbing to it himself?" Parrish handles this tension in a way that is completely unpredictable and kept me turning the pages.

I loved the story and it would be great if Parrish wrote a sequel to The Hand's story. The Hand could join the ranks of all our favorite superheroes.

I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishing.

Review: The Writer's Manifesto by Jeff Goins

Some people wake up every morning with an intense desire that won't go away. Though many of them make countless excuses why they shouldn't do it or that they'll have plenty of time to do it later, it's still there, and many don't know what to do with it. The desire often verbalizes itself in the form of, "I want to be a writer someday." The problem is the word "someday." As long as we keep saying that we'll be a writer someday, it always remains a mere possibility in our future.

If this is where you find yourself, Jeff Goins' concise book THE WRITER'S MANIFESTO is a call to action. Writers write because it is what they love to do. It's not about getting published or being known; it's because we have a relentless drive to create. And we're called to honor that drive by "showing up" and simply beginning each day to write. Goins gives writers the courage to say, "I am a writer today."

For years I told myself that I was going to be a writer someday, even as I would write every now and then when inspiration would strike. Then I realized if I wanted to be a writer, then I had to start writing regularly. So I did, and the feeling of creating and exploring is incredible and freeing. This is the call of THE WRITER'S MANIFESTO.

It's a quick and easy read, making its point thoughtfully and clearly, and freeing a writer up to create.

For more information about Jeff Goins he blogs regularly at jeffgoins.com.

Review: Why God Won't Go Away by Alister McGrath

In WHY GOD WON’T GO AWAY author Alister McGrath explores the beliefs of a movement of militant anti-theistic thinkers known as the New Atheists. This movement’s leaders are known as the Four Horsemen—Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins. Unlike atheists of the past who haven’t believed that God exists but have at least been tolerant of those who do, members of the New Atheism are characterized by their firm attack on religious belief. In fact, people like Christopher Hitchens have labeled religion as inherently evil and the cause of the world’s most significant tragedies.

McGrath engages the New Atheism in three areas—violence, reason, and science. Tackling violence, he shows that religious belief, while sometimes a cause of tragic violence when abused, isn’t the sole source of violence in our world. Using examples from history, he shows that atheism when abused has been just as much a cause of violence. The New Atheism relies on reason and science and propose that since belief in God cannot be proven by either of these, he cannot possibly exist, yet McGrath shows clearly that reason and science are limited on what they can do. For example, science cannot speak on issues of meaning or value. Reason can only take you so far. However, he does show that belief in God can actually be rational, using examples of philosophers of religion such as Alvin Plantinga and his idea of the “other minds.”

McGrath does a great job of showing how misguided the New Atheists are. They staunchly oppose religious belief as inherently evil, but provide no solutions of anything better. Their belief, which Christopher Hitchens asserts is not a belief, seems to be really more about what they can tear down than what they can construct. As McGrath shows, this is a shaky foundation on which the New Atheism is struggling to survive. As he explores the works of the Four Hoursmen in particular, it’s hard not to get a sense a deep resentment and anger by these men toward the God they claim doesn’t exist. And their hatred and insulting remarks toward those who believe in God aren’t endearing to a movement that seems to be seeking to rid the world of its evils.

WHY GOD WON’T GO AWAY is a quick and informative read about a crucial issue, and McGrath comes out making his point clearly and respectfully.

I received this book for free from booksneeze.com

Review: Erasing Hell by Francis Chan & Preston Sprinkle

Is there a hell, and will anyone really go there when they die? The thought is terrible, and it is one of the hardest things to swallow for most people trying to conceive of a loving God as Christianity tries to present him. It doesn’t make sense to us. If God loves us, why would he send us to hell for not believing in him in this lifetime? If we could just have another chance when we face him after death, then surely seeing him with our own eyes would be more than convincing for us to change our minds, so why won’t he give us that? How is that fair? How is that God showing us he loves us? On a smaller scale, why would God send me to hell for telling a lie if that was the only bad thing I ever did in life? Would God really send a good person to hell? What does that mean for the people I love the most?

Hell is a terrifying concept in anyone’s mind, but what if we’ve gotten it wrong? Those are the kinds of questions asked by author and pastor Rob Bell in a controversial book LOVE WINS, and the kind of questions author and pastor Francis Chan tries to answer in his latest book ERASING HELL. I haven’t read LOVE WINS, so I can’t speak authoritatively on it, but it seems that the controversy surrounds Bell’s cryptic proposal that punishment in hell may not last forever and that, in the end, God’s love wins over the hardest of hearts. Though Bell never makes this statement outright in the book, his belief seems to be that, in the end, everyone ends up in heaven. That sounds great. If that’s true, then we don’t have to worry about hell, or about believing in Jesus for that matter because God will win us over in the end.

But, as Francis Chan points out, on this issue, we can’t afford to be wrong. People’s eternal destinies are at stake. Chan with co-author Preston Sprinkle take us on a journey through the biblical text as well as what the Jews in Jesus’ time believed about hell to show us what Jesus confirmed about hell in his own teaching. It turns out that hell is a reality that Jesus wanted to make very clear to people, and for good reason. Jesus and the biblical authors warned about hell so often because they wanted to prevent people from going there. In fact, Jesus suffered and died as punishment for sin so that no one would ever have to suffer for their sin in hell themselves. But, as the book clearly shows, sometimes people reject Jesus and what he’s done for them, and they take on the punishment for their sin on their own in hell. In all this, the authors reveal a God who loves people enough to warn them about hell and give them a way out of it, but it must be chosen in this life. After all, changing our minds after death when we’re in hell would only be coercion and not a genuine faith in Jesus.

Chan and Sprinkle’s journey through the text is very compelling, highly accurate, and thoroughly sobering in light of what God says about us and the people we love and the people we see everyday. If hell is real, then there are people all around us everyday who are on a trajectory toward it, and Christ followers cannot, with integrity, stand by and not do something about it.

The book seeks to answer…
What the Old Testament taught about hell
What Jews of Jesus’ day believed about hell and whether Jesus refuted or confirmed their beliefs
What Jesus said about hell
What Jesus’ followers said about hell
Why it should matter to us
What we should do about it

Chan’s writing style, as always, is warm and inviting. As you read, you can sense the emotion poured out on the page as he was writing, revealing a deep passion for Jesus and the people he loves throughout. The book was a thoughtful look at what hell is all about, and I came away from the book just wanting to love people more, to show them that Jesus loves them and died so they wouldn’t have to go to hell. Christians often turn people off to following Jesus by coming off as judgmental and unloving when they speak of hell. But, as I read Chan’s book, I felt that it was clear that Jesus talked about hell so much because he wanted to drive us to show people the way out of hell. He wanted to keep people from going there. The reality of hell is meant to shake us out of apathy, to understand why people need Jesus and his sacrifice, and to lovingly lead people away from hell and to a relationship with Jesus that results in eternal ultimately satisfying life.

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

The greatest stories reflect something bigger. A desperate longing in all of our hearts for redemption and for freedom from the evil that threatens to undo us at every turn. The greatest stories are about the epic struggle between good and evil, a form that's lasted for thousands of years, yet we never tire of it. Because it's our story. We suffer. Something plagues us, and we need a hero to set us free from the most despicable of evil.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 was the end of one of these epic stories. Throughout the books and the movies based off of them, Voldemort has represented an oppressive evil that has grown and threatens the world's existence. But there is one who is prophesied and destined to defeat him, and he is the hero of our story - Harry Potter. The tension mounts to it's highest peak in HP7.2 as the questions of Harry's future and the future of the world hang in the balance. Will Voldemort kill Harry Potter and become the most powerful man in the universe, free to destroy anyone be pleases? Will evil win? Will good even stand a chance? What will the cost be to rid the world of its greatest evil?

The movie was brilliant, a very compelling ending to the story. I read the books a few years ago, and I was instantly hooked. There's not many stories that compare to J.K. Rowling's masterpiece in my mind. I think most people who read the books would say that the books were better. I would have to agree. There's so many intricate story threads woven throughout the books that the filmmakers just didn't have the time to focus on. (There's a lot more Dumbledore backstory in the book). Yet to see a movie try to capture what the books were about was incredible, from the intensity of their hopeless situation in the beginning to the climactic battle at the end.

SPOILERS AHEAD

There were several things about the movie that were high points for me. I loved seeing Professor McGonagall step into the role that she did as protector of Hogwarts. It was great to see the reunion between Harry, Ron, and Hermione and the rest of Hogwarts. It was good to see some brief reappearances of some old characters like Sirius Black, Harry's parents, and of course, Dumbledore. Severus Snape's climactic death scene was very emotional, as well as the deaths of some of the core characters of the story. Harry Potter's determination and care for others were something we should all strive for in the fight against evil in our world. I loved that Weasley mom was the one to fight Bellatrix LeStrange. Finally, the scene at the end 19 years later was one of my favorites in the book.

There were also some things that could have been better. Snape's revelation as Harry's protector near the end seemed very rushed, especially compared to the book. It didn't seem real clear whether Harry died after Voldemort's Avada Kadavra curse or not. No one ever had the revelation that Harry's invisibility cloak is one of the Deathly Hallows or that Harry's father was one of the descendants of one of the three brothers of the Deathly Hallows. Voldemort's death seemed a little anti-climactic in that it wasn't clear that he died until he started disintegrating.

I think there's a reason why people write stories about someone having to die in order to destroy evil. C.S. Lewis said something similar. It seems like messianic sacrifice has been written into the fabric of our world as the one solution to evil. It seems quite clear, to me at leadt, that Harry was a Christ figure in the story who died and was resurrected so others might live. The stories that people write are never meant to replace the actual story or to reinterpret it. The stories are meant to reveal our desperate need for redemption and a hero to provide that redemption. While I don't think HP7.2 will send everyone to the Bible looking for a hero, I think it gives us a great opportunity for conversation about what we need most.