Love

"Love" at first was named "To Find The Way" but once I came to the end of the story I realized that that was not a suitable name for the piece. Seeing that towards the end it was not himself that found the way but Christ had found him. The scripture says that "For I have chosen you"; for we have not chosen God, but God has chosen us. The story at first had not even been a story but had originated as a thought, and then in some way it turned into this tragedy that replayed over and over again in my mind. But as this story continued to flow through my mind over the course of months I saw this revival. I saw God work in this boy's life. The fact that I could feel him, feel his pain, his anger, and could truly sympathize with him. Several times during this story I cried and several times my chest filled with anger and then sickness. I can honestly say that I felt all of the pain that he felt though probably not to the extremity that he had--felt. "Love" contains much degrading speech to women, men, and whites and blacks due to the urban setting in which the story takes place. The book has been written this way to help paint a picture of how the main character and his friends situation is so serious, and also to add a contrast of the lifestyle which comes at the end of the story. Along with the realization of the degrading lifestyle in which the main characters were leading. This does not necessarily represent the views of I the author, especially the racist comments and slurs throughout the story. But it is only there to represent the mindset of the main character. Along with the sexual scenes, since this is a sexual abuse story, they are there only to describe and to shed some light on the outrageous-ness of the crime and the deadly, destructive consequences from it. And lastly the violence throughout the story was thought through thoroughly and was determined that it must be included to again paint a picture of how crazy, delusional, and numb to all care and feeling the main character was. Hopefully this forewarning will be greatly appreciated by the readers reading this book. I pray that this book to whoever may read it will not become hung up on the degrading speech, violence, and sex, but will be able to see it for what it is and receive the true meaning from the book. That of the love that Christ gives, free of charge, to anyone despite what you've done or who you are. I pray that God be glorified in this and that those reading the book will be touched, but then more than touched--be astounded by the glory of God in the book. And if not believers themselves that they too will become saved.