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The Story Behind The Alliance

The Story Behind The Alliance

1910591_507337675542_834_nI guess you could say I had a slightly different childhood. When I was six and my brother ten, our family stood in a field on the camp where my parents were caretakers, and my parents told us that this was where we would meet if we were separated when the world “blew up.” From this field, our family would travel by foot to our friends’ elaborate, fairytale home and live in the blue room hidden behind their bookshelves.

My parents in no way meant to instill fear in us. Now that I’m a parent, I see that they were trying to assuage their own fears by coming up with a disaster-recovery plan. But I was born with an overactive imagination, and therefore this plan planted in me the seed of fear—and, subsequently, a driving need to control my environment.

I wish I could say I uprooted this fear once I became an adult, but after I had my firstborn daughter, my fear grew worse, for not only did I have to control my environment; I also had to control hers.

When my eldest was six months old, an unnerving exchange with a logger caused my fear to deepen its roots and for me to ask myself whether I would ever use lethal force to protect myself and my family. I believed I would, even though, growing up, I sensed that my own father would adhere to his pacifist heritage if placed in such a situation.

27381338The final puzzle piece for my book, The Alliance, slid into place when my father told us that we needed heirloom seeds to last us until the next harvest season. I remember standing in my darkened kitchen and repeating that phrase to myself—The Harvest Season.

Initially, I believed this would be the title of the book, but over time, I knew a community having enough food to last until the next harvest season was only a small element of the story. The larger element came from the protagonist, Leora Ebersole, and her driving need to control her environment, even after society crumbles around her, because if she controls her environment, she believes she will be able to keep her orphaned family safe.

With every one of my books, God’s been faithful to allow me to experience some portion of whatever topic I’m addressing. The Alliance is no exception. My family and I moved from Tennessee to Wisconsin shortly before I finished the rough draft. Eight weeks later, my husband went in for a CAT scan, which revealed a tumor near his brain stem. He had surgery the next morning, and all through that night next to his hospital bed, I feared for my family.

I feared for our two young daughters; our firstborn was two and a half and our youngest was four months old at the time. I feared that I would be a widow, living on a grid-tie solar-powered farm six hundred miles away from our immediate families. In a matter of hours, one of my worst fears had come true, and I didn’t know how to handle it.

However, all through my Garden of Gethsemane night, during the hours my husband was in surgery, and the critical weeks that followed the craniotomy, I felt God’s presence as if he was sitting beside me. I then understood that God had allowed me to face one of my greatest fears so that I would learn that inner peace can never be acquired through my futile attempts to control my environment—and therefore keep my family safe. Moreover, I can only achieve inner peace if I continually surrender my life and the lives of my family to the One who called us into being.

So I pray, dear reader, that you will discover the author of the peace that passes all understanding and daily surrender your life—and the lives of your family—to him.

“Finally, an apocalyptic novel ablaze with hope. Just the kind of story I champion. A must-read.” ~ Sarah McCoy, New York Times and international bestselling author of The Mapmaker’s Children and The Baker’s Daughter

The Alliance, releasing June 1, is now available for pre-order.

Comments

  • I was just reflecting this morning on what my family would do if I were diagnosed with cancer . . . not a pleasant subject, for sure, but right now I’m the main breadwinner. I read your story behind The Alliance, and was once again reassured that the circumstances, nor the outcome, are usually in our hands – but in the hands of the ONE who holds tomorrow.

    Thank you, Jolina. You continue to bless our family.

    December 14, 2015
  • Oh this sounds so good. I remember fearing storms as a young girl. after living in TN I learned to rest in the Lord more and more ! Isn’t it interesting how no one really today fears God and yet he is the one to be feared and not things in life… I would love to read and influence for you Jolina !
    Blessings
    Linda

    December 14, 2015
  • Ah, so happy for this first glimpse into your new book, Jolina! You know I want to be first in line. Sure like the sound of it… 🙂

    As for fear…well, yes. I don’t think it’s by accident that the Lord addresses that issue again and again throughout Scripture. He knows, in the compassionate way of a loving Father, that this is one of our most very basic struggles. It helps me to remember that He’s much more patient with my stumbling into fear than I am with myself. And then to wrench my gaze from whatever storm has terrified me to fix my eyes once more firmly on Him. And peace follows.

    December 14, 2015
    • Oh, and I should add…my favorite (and best) antidote to fear is praise. Somehow, that always puts my problems back in proper perspective and soothes my rumpled spirit.

      December 14, 2015

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