This week’s author interview is with Margaret Ashmore, author of the Gospel for Real Life booklet, Depression: The Sun Always Rises.

• Question #1 – Did you always enjoy writing?

No. I can’t say I take pleasure in it anymore than I do in cleaning house or responding to letters. However, I love having a clean home and the very singular satisfaction of putting a stamp on a finished note to someone who was kind enough to send one to me. Writing Depression: The Sun Always Rises was largely laborious for me. But it was worth whatever toil or exertion in knowing that someone who is in the deep pit of depression can hear a voice from the precipice above saying, “The good news of the gospel can reach deeper than any man-made nostrum, any talk show, any psychological label or any pharmaceutical “fix” with the fathomless love of the Savior, Jesus Christ. It is a satisfaction that motivates me to write again.

 

• Question #2 – Other than the bible, do you have a favorite book?

A favorite of Christendom is Augustine’s Religious Affections. “The affections are the mighty urges of our hearts. Our affections ignite us. They kindle our spirits. They set us aflame. They determine how our hearts are tilted. They incline us, lying at the base of everything we are and do.” In Edward’s somewhat quaint language: “These affections we see to be the springs that set men agoing, in all the affairs of life.”

 

• Question #3 – Do you have a favorite quote?

Different quotes become favorites at different times in my life but there is one that has weathered every season serving as a constant reminder of God’s great sovereign love and holy intent in the midst of loss. From Matthew Henry’s commentary of the book of Jonah and written as a response to Jonah’s lament over the loss of his “comforts”. “God can wither that to us from which we promise ourselves most satisfaction that our wants and disappointments in the creature may drive us to the Creator.”

 

• Question #4 – Do you have a favorite movie?

Whenever this question is bantered about in my circle of friends the conversation picks up considerably. If I were inclined toward a “hobby”, it would be that of watching classic films and my all time favorite is the 1962 masterpiece, “To Kill A Mockingbird”. It perfectly captures the wonder and magic of childhood and that most difficult passage into the reality of adulthood – expressed so beautifully when Atticus (the father) tells his son in the aftermath of witnessing great injustice and malice, “There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep ’em all away from you. That’s never possible.” A close second would be Lew Wallace’s 1959 epic, “Ben Hur: The Tale of the Christ”, one of the most beautiful stories of redemption ever on film.

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Interested in learning more about Margaret?

Visit her website: http://www.margaretashmore.com/index.html

Visit her blog: http://christiancounseling.com/blog/26

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