Where There Is Hope

In the mid-eighties, during our college years, some women who worked with my husband at his summer job gave him a plant as a parting gift before he returned to college. It survived many moves, but a couple of years ago started taking a turn for the worse. I salvaged two sections and repotted them, but one died within a few weeks. The other managed to hang on, but went through some tough times, including a fall that broke off one of its remaining two leaves. I am also ashamed to say that I forgot about it often and it went without water more than it should have. Finally, it got so bad that I almost threw it away.

In the end, however, I couldn't bring myself to abandon it, so I decided to give it one more chance. I potted it in a larger container and covered it with more protective dirt. I moved it to a new window where it had a different view of the sun and where I would see it every day and hopefully remember to water it.

This is that plant a few years later:

It flourished and a couple of years ago needed to be repotted into three separate containers. Today it was time to repot again:

One of the runners was 25 feet long!

Today was difficult for them, but trauma always is. Through it they will be stronger and healthier, reaching far beyond anything that attempts to contain them. They will be able to continue to grow because of what they endured today.

You may have someone in your life who is struggling. Someone who seems beyond help, no matter how much you love them. But where there is life, there is hope. No matter how desperate things seem, there is always hope. Never give up.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

Denial Is So Much Easier . . .

I can’t believe it’s been nearly two years since I’ve blogged! My last post was on Netflix’s Cuties, and it resulted in a woman named Vicki Dalia reaching out to me and inviting me to read The Long Shadow of Darkness: A Season of Remembering and Healing, a book that she coauthored with her husband, Jody. I assured her that I would do so, and—while I may be slow—I’m at least true to my word! I finally finished their work this morning, and I wanted to share my thoughts about both it and the subject matter.

This true story is often difficult to read because the subject matter (sexual abuse, ritualistic abuse, Satanism, and child sex trafficking) is difficult to process. Awareness about such abuse, however, is the first step in preventing and/or stopping it. The book abounded with well-researched information into the inner workings of each of these areas (many of which I previously had no insight into).

There are rather disturbing details present, which could obviously be triggering for some. Also, the material was quite graphic, which could be upsetting to some people. But just as Cuties could not show how damaging certain things on the Internet are to young girls without showing it, there is no way to write about how damaging sexual abuse is without writing about it. I would definitely not say that anything that Vicki or her husband wrote was inappropriate or unnecessary in telling their story. Just be warned though that it is not for the faint of heart.

You may be stopping right there, saying, “Oh, I don’t want to read about that then. I don’t want those unpleasant pictures in my mind.” Yeah. It’s easier to stay in your nice little world where children are not brainwashed and abused, isn’t it? But if good people remain silent and do not stand up to evil, they are no longer good. We must have the courage to act when something is not right, and we must be willing to protect those who cannot protect themselves . . . even if it means putting our own selves at risk. Vicki’s husband commented on her own mother’s inaction throughout Vicki’s life: Denial was so much easier.

Unfortunately, however, it is not always easy to determine when something is not right. There are many children who are in abusive homes (either verbally abusive, emotionally abusive, sexually abusive, or some combination of these three) yet they put on a smiling face and appear to the world as if everything is fine—often more than fine. Some of these children even compensate by overachieving: appearing to their teachers, friends, and extended family as an exemplary student, all-star athlete, and picture-perfect role model. As the authors state: “The invisibility of looking ‘normal’ makes detection almost impossible.”

It is only through awareness that we stand a chance at recognizing when something is wrong, and it is only then that we can step in and make a difference. Remember: victims are often treated as culprits. Through OUR education, we can come to recognize victims and help them to speak the truth and break free from their abuse. That is why reading this book is so important.

One of the most interesting parts of the book to me was learning more about how the minds of sex offenders may work. Vicki had the opportunity to attend therapy sessions with some sex offenders and she described one who would “rail at sex offenders when they were shown on TV: ‘They ought to cut their you-know-what off.’” Vicki stated that he had been able to compartmentalize his own behavior. This helped me to potentially understand the mindset of a man I know who often berated his children while they were growing up, severely scarring their emotional psyche. I have never understood the hypocrisy of his current, frequent posting of memes that preach against the exact same conduct. I wonder if he has compartmentalized his behavior in much the same way that the sex offenders Vicki wrote of did?

Trying to unravel what was going on in the head of Vicki’s father was fascinating as well. Like many narcissists, others saw Tom as charismatic, generous, and successful, while Vicki knew the truth: that he was a great salesman and very manipulative. Even Vicki’s own husband—who knew what he had done to Vicki—admitted that he liked the man, and often had a hard time accepting that the things he learned about Tom were true (at one point stating, “It just did not seem like her father—the one that I knew,”). It was remarks like this throughout the book that helped to underscore the importance of reading it because it reminds us that others are not always what they seem and evil enjoys the fact that most people would rather deny its existence than acknowledge it, speak Truth over it, and fight against it.

Most of you know that I have written many books. Honestly, if I were to write a novel with Vicki as the main character and this character went through everything that Vicki actually went through, the book would fall flat on its face and receive terrible reviews. I would be sharply criticized for creating an “unrealistic” story, packed with events for the sole purpose of “shock value.” But Vicki’s story is not a novel, and the true events contained within actually happened to her. So horrific and unbelievable were many of the events that Vicki herself often doubted the veracity of them, but she and her husband put in the painstaking work to corroborate that her memories were indeed accurate. The book describes not only these events, but how they affected her, how she’s overcome them, and what she has done to help others. I greatly appreciated the desire of both Vicki and her husband to serve Jesus through their hardships. Their entire lives have been devoted to serving others, and sharing their experiences with others is but one way they strive to do just that. I believe this book is a tremendous and valuable resource for many, and I encourage you to read it.

Cuties

I didn’t immediately jump on the #cancelnetflix bandwagon after hearing that the movie Cuties promotes pedophilia. I decided to do a little investigating of my own first, for several reasons:

#1 – Cobra Kai

#2 – I know firsthand what it’s like to have someone say things that (while they may be true) are only partial truths. I know what it’s like when someone tells just enough of the truth to make themselves look like pious victims. Netflix supports pedophilia? Really? Supports it? Somehow I doubt that and I’ve just gotten to the point in my life where I’m tired of people spewing half-truths for no other reason than to advance their own cause.

#3 – God has been laying it on my heart lately that I am too quick to judge. While He may appreciate my dogmatic concern for His laws and His precepts, He also wants me to have compassion for others as Jesus did. Do I listen to others? Do I understand their point of view? Have I tried to walk in their shoes?

#4 – Cobra Kai

So, instead of canceling Netflix, I decided to watch Cuties myself so that I could make up my own mind – the one that God gave me. If you don’t want spoilers, quit reading. If you are certain you will never watch it, please continue.

First of all, Netflix stirred up this controversy itself (probably on purpose since there’s no such thing as bad publicity). And if the movie actually played out like the trailer and was simply a preteen dance version of Bring It On, then yeah . . . pedophiles would really enjoy it. As it stands, however, anyone who is hoping for healthy doses of little girls twerking or doing other unwholesome acts will be sorely disappointed.

Yes, those scenes are in there, but they are far from abundant. And while the trailer makes one believe that it will be a fun movie full of music and dancing (I even saw it billed as a “Comedy-Drama”), there was surprisingly little music, little dancing, and nothing humorous at all.

Instead, it is a somber and thought-provoking movie.

Eleven-year-old Amy—entering those preteen years that are already so uncertain and frightening—must also deal with the fact that she has just moved to a new town where she doesn’t know anyone and just wants to fit in. She also discovers that her father has taken a second wife and knows that a similar fate awaits her. Muslim women obey their husbands in her culture and she does not look forward to getting married at an early age to a man who will likely hurt her the way her father is hurting her mother. She is already burdened with taking care of her two younger brothers and doing many chores and is feeling oppressed by both her religion and by her family. These events build up and Amy begins to rebel.

There are many films about children who rebel. Sometimes they dance and it’s fun (Footloose, anyone?) but more often it’s not. When children seek out support and approval because they cannot find it at home, they often go down the wrong path: drugs, prostitution, gangs, and—in this case—emulating inappropriate dance moves found on the Internet. Like all rebelling children who head down wrong paths, Amy has no real idea of what she is getting herself into nor the dangers associated with it. Girls of this age are just beginning to discover sex, sexuality, and what it all means, and—believe it or not—they sometimes make mistakes and often learn hard lessons.

Could the story be told without the “explicit” scenes? Not really. We watch Amy view adult women dancing on a phone that she stole, and then we see her gaining the approval of her new friends by teaching them the moves that she has learned. We see them filming these moves to post on the Internet to “get likes”. I don’t know how a filmmaker could convey what the girls are doing without showing it. It’s necessary, not titillating. Would a pervert find them titillating? Probably. But there is so much other stuff going on in the movie, that I think most perverts are going to get bored pretty quickly and move on to something else.

The mistakes Amy makes lead her down a disturbing path, but the ending is—in my opinion—beautiful. I don’t know what happens to the other girls, but Amy finally receives the support she needs from her mother. With that support, we see her attend her father’s wedding dressed neither in the traditional Muslim clothing he bought for her, nor in the provocative costume she wore when she snuck out to a dance competition. Given permission to do what she wants and knowing that her mother will love her and support her (and that just because her mother has chosen to be submissive to a religion and situation that doesn’t make her happy does not mean that Amy is required to do the same), Amy does not chose either extreme. Instead, we see her dressed like a normal, healthy, happy teen and we see her smiling and laughing as she begins down a new path with her new freedom.

It’s fine if you don’t want to watch Cuties and it’s fine if you want to cancel your Netflix subscription because—like Amy—God gave each of us freedom to make our own choices and I’m not going to judge you no matter what you decide. I’m not trying to convince you one way or the other about either.

What I would like to do is to remind you that if you hear something and it seems hard to believe, maybe there’s a reason for that.

Not even Chuck Norris can pour a pancake so thin that it doesn’t have two sides.

New Year – New Book!

Yes, it’s been awhile since I’ve published something—it’s been even longer since I’ve written something! For some reason, I haven’t written very much this past year. Yes, I’ve gone back to graduate school, but to be honest, I didn’t enroll until August and my writing had ground to a halt long before that.

The weird thing is how not bothered by this I was. Writing suddenly and inexplicably went from being one of the most important things in my life to being one of the least—and I still have no idea why. I was totally fine with it though. Well, not totally. I had promised several people that I would write several things and I am still dealing with the guilt of not fulfilling those promises.

So I’ve learned two lessons: #1 – you can’t force writing, and #2 – Don’t ever promise anybody that you’ll write something, because (refer to #1). James 4:13-15 says this: Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.”

One of the projects I’ve NOT been working on for the past year is a novel entitled Taken. The idea for Taken came to me eleven years ago this month. Even though the plot was fully formed in my mind, I struggled with the voice that I wanted to use. As most of you know, I’ve been working with Jenn Faulk on several projects since the spring of 2016, and I asked her if she wanted to help me bring Taken to life. She said she would, and the story quickly came alive. Once we were finished, all that needed to be done was for me to go through it one more time, tweak it here and there, and make sure it was perfect. And so it sat there on my computer, untouched, for months and months. (Have I mentioned that I haven’t written very much this past year?)

I promised myself that I would get it finished over the summer, but I never even looked at it. (Have I also mentioned that I need to quit making promises?) Then school started, and the months continued to roll by.

Last week, however, I finally located the file (it was lost on my computer due to neglect!). I think part of me was worried that it was a horrible story and that I was going to hate it (it had been so long since I’d read it that I honestly had forgotten most of the details!). Fortunately, I loved it! It was exciting to reread it and relive all the fun that Jenn and I had putting it together. And now—11 years after its conception—I am so thankful to God to be able to share our story with you!

This novel is a companion novel to the Chop, Chop series, but it didn’t start out that way. While I was finishing book 7, Alone, I found myself wishing that Taken could be tied in to the Chop, Chop series somehow. The plot for Taken was pretty set and tight, however, and I knew that I couldn’t (or at least shouldn’t) manipulate it just to make it fit in with another series. Suddenly, however, I wondered if I could manipulate Alone instead. The answer was that yes, I could, and so I added a character and several scenes to Alone to tie Taken in with the Chop, Chop series. The funny thing is that I can’t imagine Alone without those changes—even if Taken had never been written.

But I’ve already said too much. I don’t want to give away any spoilers for Taken. Those who have very recently finished the series along with the most rabid fans of Chop, Chop (those of you who are best friends with these characters who live in my mind!) may immediately see the connection between Taken and the Chop, Chop series. The rest of you, however, probably won’t “get” it until the very end. Whichever category you fall in to, I hope that you will love it.

Oh, and one more thing—getting Taken ready for publication this past week has kind of flipped a switch in my brain or something and I’ve been back to writing for the first time in about a year. Hopefully I’ll have some other things to share with you during 2018 . . . but no promises!

Controversial and Very Expensive? Yes! But Here’s Why I've Changed My Mind . . .

I’ll admit that when I first heard about the board’s recent decision to require the installation of power strips in all of its system's school buses, I was appalled.

$3,740,000 diverted from education so that kids who already spend way too much time in front of a screen could charge their devices?

Yeah. I don’t think so.

I was actually so upset last week when I learned about this decision that I started an online petition against it and even went so far as to sign up to speak at next month’s board meeting to publicly protest.

Over the course of the past six days, however—while doing the research necessary to prepare myself for the meeting—I have been forced to truly consider the arguments that have been made in favor of outfitting our system’s nearly 1,600 buses.

To those of you who initially agreed with me and signed the petition (over 12,000 signatures so far—totally blown away you guys!!) I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Like me, I know that you only want what is best for our children and what makes the most sense for our public education system.

It is actually because of that desire to do what is best for our children that I’m asking for a few more moments of your time while I explain why I am officially withdrawing my petition and will now fully support the measure as outlined by the school board at their meeting next month.

Here are the reasons I believe this move will actually result in positive changes that will wind up being well worth the money:

#1 - Even in schools where PED (personal electronic device) usage is prohibited, it is widely recognized by teachers and administrators that students use their phones all day, every day. By the time our children get on the bus to go home, their batteries are nearly dead and many do not have the power they need to make it through the trip home. With the issue of battery drainage no longer a threat, students will now be able to complete a wide variety school assignments during their (often long) bus ride.

#2 - Studies show that introverted students realize the greatest benefit of on-bus PED usage. When devices are not allowed or not otherwise supported by power strips on board, social anxiety reports skyrocket.

#3 - A neighboring school system (which successfully implemented a similar program nearly two years ago), reported a 133% decrease in fights on buses in just the first two weeks. This dramatic reduction in altercations was maintained for over a year, resulting in the dismissal of nearly 400 bus monitors and a savings of over $200,000. Since our system is considerably larger, we can naturally expect our savings to increase proportionally.

#4 - Nearly 30 assistants and 20 teachers will lose their positions due to the budget cuts necessary to cover the expense of outfitting each bus, but if all of these employees come only from underperforming classrooms, the loss could actually be beneficial to each school affected. Getting bad teachers out of the classroom is always a good thing and students will be better off in the long run.

#5 - The on-board outlets—while expensive (nearly $2,300 per bus)—will be provide three AC/DC strips as well as three USB ports per seat (not per row as originally proposed). This means that each student can power up to three devices if they sit two to a seat (or two if they sit three to a seat).

#6 - Students from lower-income households will now be able to charge their iPhones, tablets and laptops without using expensive electricity and draining their family’s already tight budgets.

As you can see, the benefits for outfitting each of our systems school buses with power strips will greatly outweigh the few negative aspects that have surfaced in the course of recent discussions.

I hope that each of you will strongly consider joining with me to fully support this measure, and I also hope that you have a wonderful April Fool’s Day.

Many blessings.

L.N. Cronk

New Book!!

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a new release, but I’m excited to announce that Run is finally available through Amazon!

This book is very special, and I’d like to take a few moments to tell you about it, and the person I wrote it with—Jenn Faulk.

Since becoming an author, I’ve had a very hard time enjoying books anymore. I find myself reading everything through a critic’s lens and not approving of most of what I find. Thank goodness for Kindle Unlimited, because now I can try a book and not lose money if I wind up not liking it!

I tried a book by Jenn Faulk about a year or so ago—it was called Best Day Ever. It surprised me for multiple reasons. First of all, it was advertised as Christian Fiction, but the main character was definitely not walking the walk, if you know what I mean. Jenn had me right there because I am so sick of Christian fiction books in which all the characters are perfect and never do anything wrong.

Another reason I was surprised is because I actually got very caught up in the story. Being a complete and total snob about writing now, I have a very low tolerance for mistakes. I encountered a formatting issue, but I was so into the story that I kept on reading . . . unheard of for me! (Jenn would later tell me, “I had no idea it was doing that!”)

Then I read another story or two of Jenn’s. They were just as good as the first. Christian books, but without squeaky clean characters. Real problems. Great, fantastic writing. Another neat thing about Jenn’s books is that they are all tied together, but each one stands alone. My favorite one so far has been Promises Kept, although I'm still pretty mad about something that happened in that one, but that's a story for another time . . .

Eventually I contacted Jenn and talked to her about working together. She waited a good long time before responding (I know she was checking me out online and making sure I wasn’t a psycho!). I guess she must have missed all the psycho warning signs, because she finally responded, and this past spring, we finally started working on a project together.

Jenn asked me what I had in mind, so I tossed out a couple of ideas and then ended with this: “Okay, this idea is really stupid and probably needs to be put off the table right now, but I’ll throw it out there anyway. Did you ever watch Blair Witch Project? My husband and I went and saw it in the theater when it came out years and years ago b/c we arrived late to the theater for the movie we had intended to see. But I digress! Anyway, the budget was super low. They let the three actors who were pretty much the only characters film the whole thing. They didn't really have a script. Their producers and directors would leave them little individual notes giving them tidbits of information to go on and everything was improv. They'd wake up in the morning and find that things had been done to their campsite and stuff like that. But anyway, the point is that they just kind of made everything up as they were going along. Soooooo, the idea was, what if we both wrote a book together - different parts of the same book. Switching back and forth between two POV's. We could just see where the story went . . . IDK.”

To which Jenn responded, “I kind of like the Blair Witch Project idea!” . . . and we were off!

The premise was that my character, Luke, is on death row—convicted of the brutal rapes and murders of his former girlfriend and her roommate. He sends a letter to Audrey—the sister of the roommate’s boyfriend—hoping she will help him find some evidence to set him free. (Warning: due to the nature of the crimes, you may be uncomfortable with some of the details discussed in this novel. If shows like CSI bother you, you probably will want to pass on this story!) 

I (Luke) sent the letter to Jenn (Audrey) who immediately sent me a letter in reply telling me to never contact her again. I (Leeann) messaged her (Jenn) and told her I didn’t know what to do because she’d told me to never write her again! She told me that Luke was on death row and didn’t have anything to lose by writing again, so I did. I mean HE did!

That wasn’t the first time Audrey didn’t respond the way Luke was certain she would. As a matter of fact, unless Leeann specifically told Jenn what Audrey needed to write, neither Luke nor Leeann ever seemed to know what to do with Audrey’s letters!

When you’re reading this book, keep in mind that Jenn had NO idea where things were going. She didn’t know the plot at all. Yet she kept writing away, bringing in characters and situations that were all new to me. Most of the time I was like, “What is she doing?!”

Jenn was equally baffled. She thought Luke was being a jerk (but it wasn’t Luke that was being a jerk, it was Audrey, really!) Despite being taken aback time and time again by one another, we plowed ahead. I heard an actor once talking about improv and how the most important thing was to go with whatever the other actor threw out there—no matter what—and so we tried to do that. Unless Jenn created a situation that simply wouldn’t work with the plot that was in my head, I worked with whatever she made up.

The result was—in my opinion—a rich and engaging novel, and it was the most fun I’ve had writing since I wrote the first three books in the Chop, Chop series nearly ten years ago. I hope that you will enjoy it as much as Jenn and I enjoyed writing it. I also hope that you’ll check out some of Jenn’s other writings and discover for yourself what a great author she is! (Her novel, Happily Ever After happens to be free right now—just saying!)

We wrote another book together this summer and will get that one out to you ASAP, plus I have two more in my head for us to collaborate on that are just bursting to get out. In the meantime, check out Run, and be sure to let us know what you think!

Don't Believe in Evolution?

I just read an article detailing that evolutionist Bill Nye the Science Guy went to visit the new replica of Noah’s Ark on display in northern Kentucky. Apparently he has called the exhibit a danger to science education. Bill Nye, and most evolutionists, have done a great job making people feel as if they are ignorant and deluded if they chose to ignore scientific evidence by refusing to believe in evolution.

And they’re right.

Evolution – by definition – is simply the change in a species over time. If you have a chance to go to a civil war museum such as Fort Macon, take a look at one of the beds that the soldiers slept in over a century ago. They are much smaller than the beds you’d expect to find in our military today because humans have been consistently getting taller. Evolution in action. Our species is changing . . . over time. It is evolving!

So, yeah. Quite frankly, you sound pretty ignorant if you say you don’t believe in evolution. We see species changing all the time. It’s not even a theory. It’s a fact.

So why is it called the “theory” of evolution instead of the "law" of evolution?

To answer that question, we need to examine the theory a little more carefully. There are several components to the theory of evolution. Exactly how many components and exactly what those components are vary depending on what source you are reading. But, for the sake of this post, let’s go with the five different parts found on Regents Prep, a site that helps high school students in New York prepare for their Regents exams.

According to Regents Prep, component number one is overproduction – the idea that more offspring are produced than can possibly survive. We see this playing out in nature all the time. Can you imagine if every acorn produced an oak tree? If every litter of kittens went on to produce six more litters of kittens – every year for ten years? You get the picture.

Another part to the theory, according to Regents Prep, is competition. Individuals struggle to survive. Plants vie for sunlight. Puppies fight over the meat on a bone. Not difficult to acknowledge that this is nothing but truth.

Component number three: Survival of the Fittest. Ahhh . . . now we’re getting into some good ol’ tenth grade biology, aren’t we? It’s basic, common sense. Individuals with genes that allow them to survive in a particular environment will survive. Individuals with genes that don’t allow them to survive in a particular environment, won’t. Again, we can’t argue with this. It’s what happens and is observed every day.

Regent Prep’s item number four is a pretty obvious follow up to number three: If you’re dead, you aren’t going to pass along your inferior genes to any offspring. Only those individuals who have good genes – genes that allow them to survive in their particular environment – will pass their genes on. The bad genes – the ones that prevent individuals from surviving – don’t get passed on, and the idea is that eventually they will get weeded out of the population. We see this in action all the time. Check out the famous peppered moth if you’ve gotten a little rusty on this well-documented principle.

So what is all the controversy about if all of these components are so well documented and so proven? Why do so many people still insist on saying that they don’t believe in evolution – even though evolution is simply the change in a species over time and we KNOW that changes occur in species over time?

Well, it’s because of component number five: speciation. According to Regents Prep, “As time and generations continue, adaptations are passed on and new species may evolve from a common ancestor.”

In case you don’t remember or know, a species is a group of organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring. The theory is that if a species changes enough, it can become so different from the original species that it can no longer mate with members of the original offspring and produce fertile offspring.

There it is, right there, folks. Speciation states that new species are created from the process of evolution, not from a creator, and this is where all the controversy lies. This is also why the word “theory” must always be added before the word “evolution”. It’s a theory because of the component of speciation. Because it MAY happen. Because it could. It’s never been documented. It’s never been proven. But, theoretically, it could happen.

(I will go ahead and add that there are those who argue that speciation has been observed, but those examples and arguments for or against them are way outside the scope of this particular blog post. I will simply state that there’s a reason why it’s still called the theory of evolution instead of the law of evolution, although I'm sure evolutionist would really like to get that changed!)

As a teacher, I am always very respectful of all of my students no matter what they believe. Whenever I teach the theory of evolution, I always remind them that it’s a theory, and I always tell them, “If you believe in creationism, don’t say that you don’t believe in evolution because we know that evolution occurs – we know that species change over time. If you believe in creationism, what you need to say is that you don’t believe in speciation.”

If you find yourself saying, "I believe in evolution, but I don't believe in speciation," I encourage you to do further research on your own. Don’t be afraid to learn more – science will never disprove the very God who created it!