R.F. Gammon Author: June 2017

Blog Tour: Dandelion Dust by Faith Potts [Featuring one of my flawless reviews+interview+giveaway!!!!)

by R.F. Gammon - June 28, 2017

Last week it was love, now it's joy's turn....

by R.F. Gammon - June 27, 2017

A Playlist: The Top Encouraging (Mostly) Christian Songs I Know Of

by R.F. Gammon - June 24, 2017

Do you know the times when you just feel tired? Like you want to curl up in a ball and sleep for about a thousand years so that when you wake up, everything will have magically fixed itself?

I (and most of my family too) are going through a season like that right now. We stepped up to host a little girl from Ukraine for eleven weeks this summer, and instead of a sweet little one to play dolls with my sisters and snuggle with us in bed, we got a child who is frequently physically violent, probably has mental health issues, and likes to throw things and laugh like a lunatic about it.

The times like these are the times when it's so easy to look at your life and say, "Why, God? Why would you do this to me? Why me? Why now?" Heaven knows I've done it enough times in the past few days.

But Jesus is Emmanuel- God with us -and he will never leave us or forsake us. Even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need fear no evil, for He is with us. (Psalm 23:4)

In the moment, it can be very hard to remember that He is with us. That's where great Christian music comes in. Songs by those who have gone before us, who know the pain we're feeling and aren't afraid to be vulnerable.

Here are some of the songs that have been the greatest encouragement to me over the last couple of years, which have been pretty-near-constant hardship for me and my family:

I Can Trust You by Rebecca St. James

When we don't know what's happening and the questions overwhelm us, it can be very easy to grow bitter at God. "I don't want to learn this lesson! Why are you doing this to me now, God? What in the world is the point of this?"

Rebecca Smallbone (aka St. James) definitely understands that pain. This is a song about the fact that even when we don't understand why something might happen to us, we can always trust God to know what he's doing.

Don't Worry Now by Britt Nicole

The pain is real. You may not be going through a divorce like Nicole's parents were in the memory that inspires this song, but it's still cutting and real. No matter how small, it matters.

When you feel like you're alone, you're not. When you're gripping the pain so tight that your fingers burn because it's your only comfort, there's someone else who lays his hands over yours. You are never, never alone. It's time to let the pain go. Cast all your cares on Him, because he cares for you.

You Hold Me Now by Rebecca St. James

I think there are a couple other versions of this song, but this is probably the most emotional. The pain of today is so real, but one day, it will be nothing but a distant memory when we make it to the Home that was prepared for us. There is no pain or grief or violence there. Happily ever after is not a myth. For those of us who are in Christ, there is a real fairytale ending ahead, one that involves our Prince coming to save us, a wedding, and a ride off into the sunset forever and ever. It can be hard to look at the big picture when you're in the throes of the pain, but there will one day be no more of it. And we will live forever in joy with Christ.

Where Do We Go by Lindsey Stirling

This is a song by a Mormon, and I'm afraid I don't view Mormons as true brothers and sisters in Christ. Sorry to anyone here who might be a Mormon, or those who know those who are. :/ But one thing I do think they get right is in this song, the chorus of which goes, "Where do we go when our prayers are answered but the answer is 'No'?"

It's such a real question. God has promised that he'll never leave us, never forsake us, that he's always going to do what's best for us, that the prayer prayed in faith will be answered. But what if the answer that we receive is a no? The pain when you've got nowhere to turn but God and it seems like he's ignoring you or clearly refusing you is unmatchable.

But his ways are not our ways, and there is an answer. We may not see it yet, but God works everything for the good of those who love him. Just hold on.

He Will Carry Me by Mark Schultz

This song is fairly old, but it's one of the most poignant I've ever heard. Even when you walk through the valley of the shadow, you're not alone. HE will never leave you, nor forsake you.

Have you ever heard the footprints story? Well, regardless of whether you have or not, here it is:

That's what this song is about. The fact that you'll never be alone, no matter how alone you feel. God will always be with you.

The Rain Keeps Falling by Andrew Peterson

This is a song for when you think you're the only one. When the grief has you trapped in the basement, and you're afraid you'll never make it out. The people around you seem to have it all together, and they're all talking about how good the Lord is and you've got nothing.

Then you hear his voice. It may take a while, it may take days, weeks, or months, but no matter how deep the darkness is, that still, small voice will still coming breaking through.

And He says "Peace. Be still."

I know this is a lot of songs to just randomly kind of throw at you, so I, being the helpful flabbit that I am, made you a Spotify playlist where you can just listen to them all! I make lots of playlists and listen to Spotify basically 24/7, and I would not at all mind if you decided to shoot me a follow ~~#ShamelessSelfPromo.~~ Here you are! (Featuring some Honorable Mentions)

Enjoy!

What are your favorite Christian encouraging songs? Do you know these ones? Chat with me in the comments!

36 comments

Love is a Good Thing

by R.F. Gammon - June 20, 2017

I am embarking on a new challenge for the rest of this summer. Each week, I am going to be focusing on incorporating one of the Fruits of the Spirit (Galations 5:22-23) into my daily life, adding one a week. One post a week will be focused on that trait here on my blog. If you want to join me, feel free, and let me know in the comments :)

Love. It's a word we use a lot. And the new cliché, rather than "love is blind" or something like that, seems to be "love is an action, not a feeling." It's been said so many times that we tend to go, "Yeah, yeah, whatever," and shrug it off.

But the action of love is a very real thing, and it's not something that can be summed up in a single paragraph.

Love is when you roll out of bed in the night and sing the baby back to sleep, even though you could just sleep through it and let her cry.

Love is doing the dishes in the dead of night instead of watching that movie.

Love is sitting by the bedside of a wrinkled face, clasping a hand and whispering that you're there to someone who doesn't remember your name.

Love is when you drop the books and go running to pick up your sister when she cries.

Love is giving up your time, your money, your comfort, your schedule, your emotions, and your security to take an orphan to whom you owe nothing into your home and show him what a family really is.

Love is crying out on your knees all night for the family member who has run off and made the worst choices that you can imagine.

Love is donating the time and money you'd initially planned to use for something else to volunteer and help those who you've never met.

But, of course, love is also a giddy feeling in your chest when you see the person you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Love is both the knowledge and the emotion that carry you to the altar.

Love is crying when you see your baby's face for the first time and never feeling something like this before.

But there is more to love even than this.

Love is a cry in a manger one night.

Love walked the earth, healing those it came into contact with.

Love was hands stretched out on the cross.

Love was an explosion of light out of the tomb.

The challenge this week: Live like He lives. Love like He loves. Let yourself go. Consider others more significant than yourself.

We love because he loved us first. ~1 John 4:9

~Faith

23 comments

The Voices of YA Tag

by R.F. Gammon - June 17, 2017

22 comments

Wonder Woman: A Ramble about Female Leads (I promise it's not whiny, angsty, etc.)

by R.F. Gammon - June 15, 2017

"Oh, no," you all say. "Please, not this topic," you beg. "Hasn't there been enough of this?"

Well, as my dad would say, No. No there hasn't. And this is my blog, so I will talk about whatever I want. If you don't want to read this, you may leave. I won't judge. :)

I went to see Wonder Woman exactly a week ago. And it was kind of epic. Besides two brief slightly uncomfortable scenes, this was the best superhero movie I've seen in a long time, mostly because it didn't feel like a superhero movie. It gets four stars out of five from me (star off for those aforementioned moments of inappropriateness and the overuse of slo-mo), and I'd be happy to see more of Diana in the future. The themes that run throughout are human depravity and grace. Both of which are prominently discussed. It was so good.

And it had a female lead.

But when I think about it, is that really all that important? Had Diana been a man, would this have been a worse movie? Would the well-written script and compelling story be detracted from by a male lead?

The answer that I'm going to give is: No. And I'll explain. Without spoilers, in case that worries you at all. And I definitely recommend this movie. Just maybe read a content guide first :) There's a refreshing lack of profanity.

I honestly think that Gal Gadot, who played Diana, is such a good actress for the role that she could do anything and it would be perfect (in the role of Wonder Woman, that is.) The fact that the character is well fleshed-out and the actress is wonderful definitely contributes to this movie's success as the first serious superhero movie with a female lead.

But, honestly, how important is the whole "superhero movie with female lead" business?

There's been a lot of movies (and books) that have a female lead lately. For example, Hunger Games, Divergent, and the new Star Wars movies, Force Awakens and Rogue One. Katniss, Tris, Rey, and Jyn are all very strong women, and they should prove to us that women are not underrepresented in Hollywood. Just look at how popular Hunger Games is, or the fact that Force Awakens made it to the number 3 (or 4?) spot on the list of Top 50 Highest Grossing films of all time. People enjoy seeing good movies with good protagonists.

And honestly? The gender of the main character doesn't really factor into what movie I watch. I sit down, say, "This looks like a good movie!" (or book) and I watch it. And if the movie is good, I like it. I've fangirled about Tony Stark and Obi-Wan Kenobi more times than I can count, and I love stories like the Wingfeather Saga, Fog of Forgetting, and Pilgrim's Progress. These all have male leads. If the character is a good role model and has a strong personality, I won't care if it's a man or a woman, a kid or an adult, a boy or a girl. That character will rise on the list of Beloved Characters of Faith.

The fact is: I think there's something that people in twenty-first century America don't really understand.

If the role model/hero/MC is real and someone we can relate to and look up to, it doesn't matter what their gender is. I've never once felt slighted because I haven't seen a superhero movie with a female lead. In general, superhero movies are supposed to just be good vs. evil, and whether good is male or female, if they're presented right, they will be someone I admire and look up to. Gender has never been a factor, and I didn't even notice until people started talking about it.

Fact is: (hey, I said it twice!)

There are roles for men and roles for women, and men and women are, ultimately, equal in value. They have different jobs, different needs, different strengths, but in reality they cannot exist one without the other. And as long as women have the same opportunities as men, in terms of voting and available jobs and that kind of thing, we're doing okay as a society. Let me know if you'd like me to do a post on what my views of feminism is (I identify as a first-wave feminist, most of the time, and I'd be happy to talk about it.)

So basically, this was a ramble that went nowhere. My verdict? This was a fun movie. You should see it. But I don't think the fact that Diana is female really makes all that much of a difference. Is it a victory for women, or is it just a logical next step in the lineup of superheroes? I think we don't know yet. But this is Diana's story; the fact that she's a woman doesn't really make a difference.

Did you see Wonder Woman? Are you going to? Chat with me about this, okay? My brain is mush after a full day at the airport and I'm going to die most likely. I have no idea what this post is even about. Let me know what you think.

~Faith

26 comments

Blog Tour: The Reluctant Godfather by Allison Tebo

by R.F. Gammon - June 13, 2017

12 comments

#Rebellious Writing: Why We Need Better Books

by R.F. Gammon - June 10, 2017

(Hey everyone. I just wanted to apologize for missing my Thursday post and getting this one up so late- on Thursday I went to see Wonder Woman with my pals [I'll do a post about that in a few days ^-^ and I've been sick this morning. So sorry - posts will be a little irregular this month. :P)

Once upon a time, there was a little girl.

Okay, so this girl wasn't so little - in all honesty, she was a high schooler. But I digress.

Our heroine was out for a walk with her mother when she asked a simple question: "Mama, do movies and books include lots of cussing because people cuss a lot, or do people cuss a lot because it's in movies?"

Her mother responded: "I think it is a vicious cycle. People swear more and movies swear more and that makes people think they should swear more and around and around it goes."

This is a true story, y'all, and yes, I am the protagonist. ^-^ But the question is true: Why must there be so much cursing and crud in every movie/book you watch/read?

My younger sisters and I are watching a great movie right now. It's called Gettysburg, and it's about that monumental battle in the Civil War, detailing the lives of the generals on both sides of the army. It's based on a book called the Killer Angels. I would totally recommend it - except the d-word is in every other sentence. Literally. And I know what people say - they're soldiers, yadda-yadda-ya. The thing is, though, this is a three-and-a-half or four-hour long movie. FOUR HOURS. When you look at it on IMDB's content advisory guide, they say that there are 80+ OCCURENCES OF THE D-WORD. This is an old movie, y'all. It's from 1993. And while there are a LOOOOT of appearances of mild language in this movie, it's still not as bad as some other, more recent movies (I'm looking at you, Manchester by the Sea.)

And also: since when did PG-13 movies have permission to put in all kinds of marvelous explicitness? I mean, just think about it for a minute. I can think of a lot of movies that are rated PG-13 that should probably be rated R, and while I have never seen many R-rated movies, it's probably a safe bet that many of them should be rated NC-17. How desensitized are we, people? Check out this picture.

They have to have this at movie theaters to give you an idea of what you should allow your kids to see. It seriously says on there that an R movie will have "Some Adult Content". What's passing for adult content these days?!!!!!

This post is not an isolated one. It's part of a movement. The lovely Gray is the leader and grass-roots

director of this movement; you can check out her post here. #RebelliousWriting and #RebelliousReading are a new movement, one designed to take the world of YA fiction by the shoulders and say to it, "Teens do not need your explicit material, your cussing, or your low expectations."

A LIST (because lists are pure awesomeness) of things YA/ PG-13 Books and Movies should NOT include

Sex scenes (of any kind really)
Cussing
Drugs, alcohol, etc.
abuse that is glorified

You'll notice I did not say violence - I don't appreciate gratuitous violence, but I believe that if it is necessary to show that a villain is truly bad and contrast light and darkness, a case can be made for it. Please understand that I do NOT by any means want gratuitous violence, just that it can be argued. And when I say abuse that is glorified I mean making it romantic, a misunderstanding, etc. If it's a real situation and the story is about escaping, redemption of the victim, standing up against the abuse, or light coming in the midst of darkness, it can be there - as long as it is EVIL AND DEPICTED AS SUCH. Abusive relationships fall under the same category.

I hope you will join me and many others in this rebellion. Stand with us against the darkness that is so often found in bestselling YA fiction.

Write what honors God.

If the book makes you uncomfortable, set it aside.

When you set the book aside, leave it a low review on Goodreads.

And stand strong. This is what we're here for - to make a difference in our generation for the name of Christ.

Who's with me?

~Faith

33 comments

The Best Version of Les Mis?

by R.F. Gammon - June 06, 2017

12 comments

The Themes of Les Miserables

by R.F. Gammon - June 03, 2017

Note: This post is about the book and the stage musical. The 2012 movie, while decent, will not make appearances; if I use pictures from it it's because they're just nice pictures of the characters.

It's the first week of June. 185 years ago, in the city of Paris, dozens of young university students rose up against the messy French government in hopes of fixing the government. Their goal was for the people of Paris to join them in their uprising. But no one did, and they were left to be slaughtered by the French National Guard.

It is against this backdrop that Les Miserables is set.

While the book can be quite difficult to get through (Hugo likes to go off on random rabbit trails the entire time) he's not afraid to deal with difficult themes or the truth of human nature. One of his protagonists is an ex-convict; another is a young prostitute; the villain is an unrelenting law officer. Thieves, murderers, cons, and shady people fill most of the supporting spots.

There's a lot of darkness. But there is also hope. Lots of hope.

Fantine (Ruthie Henshall)

In honor of the June Rebellion, the next few posts on this blog will be Les-Mis themed, and I hope you'll be inspired to check out the book or the Broadway musical. (I'll give you a rundown of the different versions of the musical in a couple of days. See how helpful I am? XD)

Today's post: The Themes of Les Miserables.

Redemption

When your hero is a convict, you're going to have to deal with redemption at some point; and we see this theme reoccur multiple times. The most prominent example, of course, is Jean Valjean, who went to jail for nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread.

Jean Valjean (Colm Wilkinson)

As Valjean goes from a hardened man to a guy who makes it his mission to help people, we see the hope that we are offered. And this leads me to

Grace

Valjean is housed by a bishop, who feeds him and gives him a good room. And he repays this kindness by stealing all his silver. The next morning the police catch him and the bishop has to decide: will he help this man or let him go back to jail, probably for life?

The Bishop (also Colm Wilkinson)

That's when the bishop tells a lie. To keep the man who stole his stuff free. He could have let him go back, but instead, he gives him the silver as a gift, including two candlesticks that Valjean didn't grab on his way out.

And the man who should have gone to jail becomes a priest. He begins to use his money to help the poor. He helps people who most would walk right past.

When you are redeemed and find grace, you become a new man, and Jean Valjean certainly does.

Courage

The boys who started the June Rebellion knew that they were probably all going to die. They didn't have to do it. But they did anyway. They wanted the people around them to have a shot at freedom and real life.

Enjolras (Anthony Warlow)

This may not have been entirely necessary, but it was still brave and defiant of the system that did nothing for the poor. And when you defend the least, when you're willing to give your life for it...
Courage.

Selflessness

You remember that prostitute I mentioned earlier in this post? Well, her name is Fantine, and she was a girl who made a mistake when she was young that led to her having a child out of wedlock. She left her daughter to board with a family in a small town a long way away and went to work in a factory.

But then she loses her job.

Cosette (Alex Finke)

That's the whole reason she became a prostitute- she was told her daughter was dying and she had to save her. She sacrificed herself for her child.

A mother's love is a force to be reckoned with, and Fantine is no exception. A woman who was willing to sell her body and soul for her little girl to live. The love of a mother knows no bounds.

There you have it: my four biggest themes from Les Mis. There were more of them when I was thinking about it, but, ya know.... I hope you enjoyed reading this list! And I hope you check back for more Les Mis-style stuff on Tuesday!

Have you read/listened to Les Miserables? Do you agree with my themes? Chat with me!