Guest Post: Charlotte Van Cleave

Head’s up for all you conventional folks out there, this is not your usual blog post. My name is Charlotte Van Cleave—but most everyone calls me Charlie. Author (and character-creator) Jennifer Sienes asked me to write this week’s post. You see, her newest novel Night Songs is kind of about me. If that sounds prideful, I apologize. I’m not sure how else to describe it. My nana always cautioned me to not be one of those people. You know the kind who thinks the sun comes up just to hear her crow. So, I surely don’t want to come off that way.

To be truthful, I’m a hot mess, and I have no one to blame but myself. You ever make one bad choice, and the consequences just keep on coming? That’s me. A lot of people these days think the Bible is outdated. Maybe that’s just their excuse for not reading it, or if they are reading it, not following God’s design. I’m here to tell you, life would go a whole lot easier for those who follow the Lord’s plan rather than their own.

Take me, for example. I’ve known the Daniels boys since I was twelve. That’s when Mama and Daddy were killed while serving as missionaries in the Congo, and I was sent back to Tennessee to be raised by my Daddy’s parents—Nana and Pawpaw. There was something special about the older brother Derek. Even as a little kid, I saw it. I’m not saying it was love, but a strong connection was born that summer before he went off to be in the army. Said he was serving four years, and then he’d come home. And he did come home—long enough to tell me he’d decided to join Special Forces. I didn’t take it well, and my response hurt all of us—me, Derek, and Nicky (the younger brother).

Here I am like a derailed train getting off track. I apologize.

My point is that had I behaved the way Mama and Daddy taught, the way Nana and Pawpaw expected, life would have been way different. But here’s the main thing I want y’all to hear—God knew all along I’d push Him aside out of my own pride, grief, and anger. Before I was conceived in Mama’s womb, the Lord saw every day of my life from the time I was birthed to the day He takes me home. There’s nothing He doesn’t know.

It makes you stop and wonder, doesn’t it? You just plain can’t out-plan God.

I think there are times the Lord has to strip us of everything we hold dear in order to get our eyes on Him. I know that was true of me. We get so wrapped up in holding onto control, we lose out on the blessings He’s got in store for us. But I’m grateful as can be that He doesn’t give up on us. Not only that, but He’s got the detours all set up, so we eventually get to where He’s wanting us to go in the first place. Let me repeat what I wrote above—you can’t out-plan God. Brings me a lot of peace and comfort to know that.

I don’t want to use too much from my own story to make my point. That would be what Jennifer calls a spoiler alert. Suffice it to say, everything in Night Songs works out for my good and the Lord’s glory. You’ll just have to read it to know what that is.

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