Author Susan Lyttek is talking about change, her interpretation of Psalm 23, and how it connects to her new release, Portal Watchers. (I have to say, this book/series sounds like it would make a GREAT movie!)
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
Psalm 23:4
For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Change and the issues of dealing with it have been a theme and an instigator in the last couple of books I’ve been working on. We know change happens. Some changes we look forward to, even if they mess up our status quo. Others, in fact probably most of them, we dread.
God, Sheep, You and Me
God knows we need to grow and become more and more like His Son. He also knows we’re like sheep.
Sheep resist change.
Now, I’ve never raised sheep, but I have helped herd them a couple of times. With my car. Trust me when I say, they don’t want to move. They don’t want the changes the shepherd has planned for their own good. Even honking a horn won’t dissuade the most stubborn of them from remaining in the rut it has found with a bit of brown grass and dirty water.
In light of what sheep are and how they behave, I’d like to say we totally miss the tone of Psalm 23. We see it as calm, reassuring and pastoral. We read it and see swathes of green grass, hear the birds chirping and feel ready for a nap. Uh-uh. It’s all about change. We should read it as an action-adventure novel.
Think about it.
It starts with the idea that we will not want. In order to not want, we have to follow the shepherd. First, he makes us lie down. Emphasis on the make. When sheep get agitated to the point that they no longer obey the shepherd, he will force them down, his hand on their backs until their breathing regulates and they see him.
From that point, he can lead them past water that might be brackish or poisonous, and they will follow without trying to drink. Before the next set of challenges, he will restore them with food and water. Then they follow him through narrow, craggy paths through the mountains, down into dark and dangerous valleys, and into the presence of predators. It’s only trusting the shepherd that makes any of the changes and obstacles good. Dwelling in his house forever is an attitude, not an absence of conflict.
In The Portal Watcher Series by Susan Lyttek, three young men (all around 14 as it begins) have their world upended. Without wanting to, they find themselves embroiled in prophecy and the instigators of change. Other than vague references, they don’t even know the Creator Tel who has singled them out for this fate.
But like the sheep that need to be forced down to see the Shepherd, the love of the helpless will use their inner characters to pursue good. Because as we know, when David says “surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life”, he means that God will follow him as well as lead him… Making certain he does what will change him and his world for the better. Or as David says in a later Psalm, You hem me in behind and before, and You lay Your hand upon me.
As Garth, Ne-tel and Bern find themselves hemmed in by their desire to protect the dinosaurs, change will happen and they will grow for their good. Whether they like it or not. And isn’t that how the best of changes in our lives often begin?
A world oppressed. An Ancient Prophecy
When Bern, Ne-tel, and Garth witness the appearance of a portal through which emerges a great flying creature, the three do not realize this is an event long foretold. These beasts, these dinosaurs, will be sent by the Creator Tel to aid his children in a time of great oppression.
Queen Subja rules Telantia with cruelty and malice. She controls the masses with her unnaturally powerful servants, the Vil. But the appearance of the three pterosaur eggs signals her reign over Telantia is nearing its end.
But the creatures have been sent to three young men. How they stand the face of such evil?
Sometimes the ordinary can accomplish the extraordinary.
You can buy Portal Watchers from Amazon, Pelican Book Group, and other major retailers.