And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that wereupon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.( Judges 15:14-16 )
This is something that I have wanted to write about for a very long time. I first began to understand this call when I was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2013. I found my way there as part of a mission team when I was seeking guidance from the Lord about what it was that I was supposed to be doing in His service.
I remember a preacher at Beza International Church proclaim: “there is a book in you that no one else can write.” I knew what book had to be writen. From there our mission team travelled north to Kombolcha where we spent a week with the children and staff of a carepoint. On the journey there we stopped at a gorge in the mountains which is the natural habitat of the Orangutan. Our hosts told us about this thing they do where folk take a sheet of paper and write what it is they intend to do, or what they see for the future. The idea being that after a set period of time we would read the letter again and see what progress we have made.
The letter I wrote to myself was an attempt to confirm in my mind that I had just been given spiritual guidance to finish my novel, Biblio’s Blood. I wasn’t convinced and I knew it. I knew that the real book that God had called me to write was Matty’s Paradigm.
I was unsettled in my spirit and really needed to talk through the fact that my call seemed very clear, but I was uncertain of what the call was. On the return journey from Kombolcha to Addis Ababa I sat on the back row of the bus. Our Pastor, Rob, got on after me and as he looked around for a place to sit he either had a sense that I needed to talk, or he saw a pleading look in my face and he came to sit with me at the back. Over the course of the 10 hour journey I poured out my heart to him and explained that it was necessary to write a book that was going to upset everybody.
Literally everybody. It would require making a frontal assault on science, but there would be collateral damage: mainstream theology. It was going to be like Samson and his jawbone. Indiscriminate. Rob listened and was very supportive, though he didn’t offer any advice or a judgement, for which I have always been grateful. It took another 2 years after that before I really got going with this work.
I seriously doubt that this book is going to make anybody happy. Yet I no longer doubt that it has to exist. I am so thankful that, unlike Samson, my calling isn’t to slaughter people, just ideas.
Matty (Headwind) 