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Don’t Leave Change to Chance

Tracey Dyck 31 Comments
[image mine; edited with Portra and BeFunky]

I attended a college graduation this week. It was strange to see a new batch of students on the very stage on which I stood a year ago!

For the more recent readers here, my post-high school life thus far looks like this:

  • Spent a year looking for a job
  • Found a retail position and just worked for a year
  • Went to the aforementioned college (while still working part-time on the side) where I completed a nine-month program that focuses on building leaders who are strong in their faith and also successful in the business world
  • And most recently, completed my first year of a business diploma (yep, still working in the meantime)

Anyway, life progression aside, seeing a new class graduate made me realize how fast time moves! Something the valedictorian said in her speech stuck out to me:

“Don’t leave change to chance.”

Something like this leadership program is only as valuable as the effort a student puts into it. Simply attending won’t do a blessed thing. The same goes for a multitude of other opportunities for learning. A powerful book, a thought-provoking blog post, the wisdom of a mentor, a challenge before you, a mind-numbing job, a sandpaper person*, an informative class. All of these have the potential to mold you, change you, and catapult you to a higher level of life, but only if you do your part.

*None of us shall name names, but we all know these individuals–abrasive, prickly, uncomfortable-to-be-around people whose role in your life is to smooth your rough edges.

What is our part?

We are constantly processing information. I don’t know enough science to go into the cognitive details, but your brain filters a CRAZY amount of data all the time. You discard what is unimportant, routine, and involuntary in order to function, since your focus is incredibly narrow. How does a magician fool an audience? Misdirection. If you’re watching one hand wave the scarf over here, you won’t see the other hand reach for the card over there. It takes concentrated effort to ignore the flashy new things your brain deems as “important” in order to focus on a crucial but mundane detail.

How often do you read or hear something and think, “Wow, that was good. I need to remember that.” And then . . . don’t? Yeah, me too. I don’t even remember what I had for lunch yesterday. It wasn’t important.

Okay, so what am I getting at? We’ve covered grads, brains, and magicians, oh my!

The point is this. You want to change. So do I. But we leave transformation to chance most of the time. We sit around waiting for a golden key to fall into our lap, for Gandalf to knock on our door, for someone to invent a USB port in the back of our skulls so that we can download new skills. But it doesn’t work that way.

Proverbs 2 talks about pursuing wisdom (personified throughout the book as a woman), and it uses a lot of action verbs.

  • Accept what I am telling you
  • Store my counsel deep within you
  • Listen for Lady Wisdom
  • Attune your ears to her
  • Engage your mind
  • Cry out for insight
  • Beg for understanding
  • Sift through the clamor of everything around you
  • Seek wisdom
  • Search for it
  • Grasp what it means
  • Discover knowledge

And here’s what this wisdom will do for you.

With this wisdom you will be able to choose the right road, seek justice, and decide what is good and fair because wisdom will penetrate deep within and knowledge will become a good friend to your soul. (Proverbs 2: 9-10, the Voice translation)

 It goes on to say that sound judgment will stand guard over you, and wisdom will keep you away from wrong paths. I don’t know about you, but I could use a good dose of wisdom in my life. But it won’t come to me by chance. Neither will true change.

This is our part: to take responsibility for our own growth, to seek wisdom, to listen, to reflect, to apply.

Start small. To think of changing your entire life from the ground up is overwhelming. Instead, pick one habit to replace. When you’re studying, pick out one thing you can apply right now. When you step into an environment that encourages change, use it. Seek, store, discover. Sift through the clamor. Fall in love with change. Fall in love with the pursuit of wisdom. Involve God on the journey, too. He gives wisdom without finding fault in you.

It’s been said that the clearest memories are made by repetition or strong emotion. Once you’ve grasped a nugget of wisdom, don’t let it go! Find ways to repeat it to yourself, whether it’s leaving notes around the house or setting a reminder on your phone or learning the discipline of reflection. Attach emotions to it if you can. Envision what your life could be like if you applied that little lesson; paint the most vivid picture you can.

And then act. The quickest way to get something from your head to your heart is to start moving your hands and feet.

What’s something small you want to change this week? Don’t leave it to chance.

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Remember in the Dark

Tracey Dyck 20 Comments

“Don’t forget in the darkness what you learned in the light.”

I first read that quote (originally by Joseph Bayly, it appears) in Circles of Seven by Bryan Davis. At least that’s where I think I read it. It was so long ago that time and frequent recollection have blurred out the quote’s origin. But the truth of it remains clear in my heart.

I’ve been grateful to live a pretty amazing twenty-two years so far. I can’t say I’ve had a hard life; all I have to do is look around and see countless people with struggles more difficult than my own. But not one of us slips through this world unscathed. We all weather storms of varying magnitudes. I, too, have faced looming shadows and endless valleys.

And it is in the midst of the darkness that we forget.

It’s easy to remember in the light. It’s easy to recall the truth of who we are and the truth of the God we follow when the reminders are as warm and near as the sun shining on our faces. But when night falls, oh, how quickly we forget. We panic, groping blindly for a corner in which to hide. We cry, fear clawing up our backs. We stumble on, wandering and getting lost in the blackness. We forget so quickly that we are children of light.

But faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Did you get that? Faith is the substance and evidence of what you cannot see. It’s the paradox of holding an intangible thing, of perceiving what is not immediately visible. It is real. It’s not some wayward fancy. It’s not a lure-less hook tossed into the sea in the mere hopes that it will catch a fish.

It is real.

When you go to bed at night and flick off the lights, does that mean your room ceases to exist because you can no longer see it? Of course not. Sight has nothing to do with the existence of a thing. It is there regardless of whether you see it or not. But it takes a steady belief to remember that when the lights go out and your eyes fail you.

Memory is a fickle thing. Is it just me, or do you ever look at something to memorize it–be it a review sheet at school or a book cover or a name or a number or a recipe–and forget it two minutes later? “What was that again?” And you go back to check. This kind of repetition is what we need in the moment we’re plunged into shadows, when our minds go blank and the fear wells up. Go back and remember. What was it you learned in the light? What was it you saw and felt and knew? Isn’t that true today, right now, even if you don’t see it in front of you? Go back. Remember. Remember. Remember.

What was true in yesterday’s sunrise is true in today’s midnight. And it will still be true when the sun rises again.

I’m still standing here // No, I didn’t disappear // Now the lights are on // See, I was never gone

(Never Gone by Colton Dixon)

When He feels far away, He is near, as close as He’s ever been. When everything crumbles around you, there is a rock beneath your feet. When confusion clouds your mind, you will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

“Your word is a lamp for my steps; it lights the path before me.”

(Psalm 119:105)

The thing is, you can see that light if you choose to. It’s on a different frequency than the physical light around you, and sometimes it takes a focused effort on your part to switch to that frequency, to see with eyes of faith. But it’s there, and it’s real. The unseen really is more real than what is seen.

So today, dear soul, wherever you are and however dark it may be, never ever ever EVER forget what you have learned in the light. Hold it close to your heart. That candle will erupt into a torch, and then a burning wildfire, before long.

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What Lies on the Horizon

Tracey Dyck 35 Comments

This new year is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. Not just in terms of goals and resolutions, but in terms of where my heart is and what lies on the horizon. And it’s finally time to catch some of those whirring, buzzing, humming fragments of thoughts. Time to string them together into something to share with you, because I’m a firm believer in the strength we can find in each other’s journeys. I wouldn’t blog if I didn’t think that somehow, some way, the tangling threads of our stories matter to each other.

Last January, I set some lofty goals, writing-wise. (You can see them in detail HERE, if you’re so inclined.) Another thing in which I am a believer is the value of looking forward to set goals, and looking back to see how far you’ve come. So before we look ahead, let’s pause and turn around for a moment.

2017 goals

Finish the first draft of The Prophet’s Key. Nope. Didn’t make it. But I added 17,000 words to the rewrite I’d started in 2016, bringing the total word count up to 100k. I ground to a halt there, realizing just how bloated and huge the story was becoming. A course correction was needed, but at that point, leadership college was ramping up like crazy and I decided to put the project aside.


Began expanding The Brightest Thread into a novel. Check!


Go to Realm Makers. Another check! That was an incredible dream come true, one I hope to see come true again this summer.


Write, edit, and submit a story for Rooglewood Press’s contest. Surprisingly, check again. Mirrors Never Lie is on some judge’s desk right now, I imagine.


Complete the first draft of The Brightest Thread and do a round or two of edits so that it’s poised to move forward (aka maybe get published) in 2018. First draft–check. A round or two-ish of edits earns another check. And is the novel “poised to move forward” now? I’d say it’s poised to move into another round of edits, that’s for sure, and then . . . well, we’ll get to that in a minute.


Finish The Creative Way writing course by Ted Dekker. Um . . . no. This kept getting pushed back due to one reason or another, and I still have a handful of lessons to complete.


Possibly begin querying agents for TBT. I dipped my toes in the water by pitching it at the Realm Makers conference, but subsequently sent it to beta readers, knowing the novel needed more work. So querying didn’t happen last year.

All in all, four out of seven, plus some progress on a couple of uncompleted goals, isn’t bad!
Here’s where I would turn my hopeful attention toward this year’s list of aspirations . . . But again, we’ll get to that soon.
The past two Januarys, I’ve set aggressive timelines for my writing goals. And there is a place for those kinds of plans. I don’t regret pushing myself past my limits. Yes, I danced on the edge of burnout some weeks, but I learned valuable lessons about pacing myself, working hard, writing when the inspiration is gone, working under deadlines, juggling responsibilities, and what healthy (and unhealthy) creative practices look like. It was great!
But this year, I’ve realized I need to recognize what season of life I’m in. I am a student. And I won’t be in school forever, so rather than resist the demanding schedule and the responsibilities, I want to thrive. That means balance. That means reframing school from a burden into a passion. That means taking care of myself by carving out pleasure reading and making sure I get enough sleep. That means soaking in time with family and saying yes to friends when I can (instead of no, sorry, I’m busy, come back when I graduate).
But the biggest dream I have for 2018, the one thing that I am finally allowing to overshadow everything else . . . is my friendship with God.
It’s a little crazy, how even a year of Bible/leadership college didn’t cause me to become more intentional about spending time with Him. I read my Bible every morning because we were given class time for it–which was so good, don’t get me wrong–but the habit somehow didn’t transfer to my home life. In fact, ever since leaving high school and wading into the big, wide world of adulthood, I feel like my devotion time has been irregular.
But busyness is a lousy excuse. (And please, before I go further, don’t take this as a guilt trip for yourself! I simply want to be honest with what’s been going through my head lately!) I am a quester, a pursuer, a dreamer, and a doer by nature. Give me a goal, and I will plot, list, track, and work my way toward it, for better or for worse. (This is not always a positive, guys.) But being a doer is little good if I’m not doing the right things in the right order. If I can devote myself to a novel I’m writing and show up day after day even if the well runs dry, can’t I put the same energy into flipping open my Bible every day?
Yet this is about more than doing–although I do want to redirect that trait–this is about a relationship.
This is about Jesus being the first name on my lips in the morning and the last thought before I fall asleep.
This is about a dialogue with my Creator, the Lover of my soul.
This is about looking for Him in the everyday moments.
This is about being aware that He is here, always, and even if emotions run their own course I am never cut off from His love.
This is about a single-minded, single-hearted pursuit.
This is about seeking one kingdom above all others, and yet–
I don’t know how to get there. I want to, badly, but it’s not something you work up on your own or even work towards at all. It’s less about my hands doing something, and more about my heart doing something. The only labor involved is that of laboring to “enter into that rest.”
What I know right now is that every time I have hungered for more of God and cried out for a deeper knowing of Him, He has responded. And every time, all it took was asking . . . and then putting one foot in front of the other with my eyes open for an answer. Another thing I know right now is that I miss digging into the Word.

And those two things I know for sure? They’re interconnected.
So my planning/listing/doing side is happy to have discovered a really cool Bible reading plan in the back of my new copy of The Voice translation. It’s a plan that takes me slowly through the Bible in three years instead of one. That’s exactly what I need right now, just a quiet, thoughtful walk through Scripture. It’s not even chronological–in the past two weeks, I’ve dipped in and out of Genesis, Job, Psalms, and Proverbs. This plan takes up only 40 weeks a year, leaving time to investigate some suggested readings for Easter and Advent. So it’s not a high pressure thing, and so far I’m loving it.
I’m journaling as I go, just jotting down whatever means something to me today, rather than trying to encompass everything as if I’m writing a scholarly essay. I’m rediscovering glimpses of this great narrative God has been weaving throughout history, and I’m stumbling upon little bits of it that are woven into my own life today.
Am I a changed person? Am I on some spiritual mountain right now? No. But this is slowly, surely being built into a habit, and I hope that the more I do it, the more it will pervade my thoughts and attitudes throughout the day.
It’s a simple thing: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things–all these dreams and lists and goals–will be added to you. This year, I want to actually try that, and not just fool myself into thinking I’m already doing it.
If you’re anticipating some grandiose announcement of a hiatus, that’s not coming! I’m not scrapping anything entirely, just shifting some priorities around. Like I said, I need to give myself room to enjoy my school studies and get back into a regular daily time with God.
So for the next few months, writing is taking a backseat. It’s not out of the car entirely, but it’s not the driver right now. Here’s what I’m aiming for:
January-April: Slowly start organizing the beta feedback on The Brightest Thread. Possibly start working on a secret project I hinted at a couple months ago, which is still stewing in my mind. Possibly try my hand at some flash fiction to submit to magazines and whatnot. I’m giving myself the freedom to be sporadic and to take time off whenever needed. This is going to be playtime, not work time.
May-August: Edit The Brightest Thread. Assemble a list of literary agents and actually start querying. Attend Realm Makers in St. Louis (hopefully!!!) and pitch TBT again there. Finish The Creative Way course. Get that secret project off the ground for real. Maybe even make some tweaks to the blog to spiff it up and make it look more professional. It’ll be summer, which means there will be time to power through some goals!
September-December: Totally depends on how the previous goals are going. Likely, I’ll continue querying TBT, working on the secret project, and who knows? I might even be in a good spot to start casually planning my next novel. I’ll be back in school, so I may ease off a bit again, though.

that’s our heart-to-heart for today, friends.

I kind of hesitated to talk about the deep stuff, because I know things like prayer and devotions are highly personal (and I’ve been guilt-tripped by well-meaning writers and bloggers before, which I wanted to avoid here), and maybe you’re not into that to begin with . . . But I think it’s a good and healthy thing to be honest with each other. We’ve all been through dry spells, all struggled to form good habits in this area. And I couldn’t talk about my writing goals without talking about why my approach is different this year.

What are YOU aiming for and dreaming about for 2018? Big or small, deep or more superficial, I’d love to hear it!

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God in Fantasy Fiction – To Be or Not to Be?

Tracey Dyck 48 Comments

A Forward

About five weeks ago, while slogging through edits on The Brightest Thread, I hit a substantial snag. A capital G snag–God. In the novella version of the story, there was no mention of a deity at all, and I was quite all right with that. (More on that later.) But now that I was fleshing out the storyworld, I was finding it increasingly difficult to deal with

a) magic with no explained source,
b) a vaguely referenced act of creation,
and c) the existence of false gods but no True God.

I avoided the issue for as long as I could. When I was forced to face it head on, I hemmed and hawed, I complained to my family, and then I dumped the contents of my brain into a fresh document, which I promptly sent as an S.O.S.: DESPERATE HELP NEEDED to a writing buddy.

Turns out the brain dump and the following conversation were rather insightful, and probably a topic of interest to both writers and readers.

To Be or Not to Be?

Christian writers get hung up on a lot of things. One of the biggest? God in fiction. Should we include Him or omit Him? If we include Him, how do we keep from being preachy or trite? Will “religion” (for lack of a better term) feature heavily in the story, or will it be a light dose? If we omit God, does that run contrary to our faith, or can it be done in a way that still glorifies Him? Should we even be having this dilemma? Shouldn’t it be a question of incorporating our fiction into God, not the other way around?

As you can see, many of us are bound up in fear over getting it right. How can we possibly fit all of God into a finite story? But that’s the thing. We can’t.

Even when writing a human character that literally exists only in your brain, you can’t fit everything about them onto the page. Whether you’re the kind of writer who keeps pages of details on your characters’ personalities, appearances, and histories, or the kind of writer who keeps their characters as a cast of imaginary friends in your head, the fact remains. You know more about your character than what appears in the story. (And if you don’t, you don’t know them well enough yet.)

Now try writing yourself as a character—you can’t fit even half of your personality on the page, and the bits you do write, you may struggle to portray accurately. (I suppose authors of memoirs and autobiographies have room for more of themselves, but even reading a book entirely about a single individual is still vastly different from sitting down and getting to know them face to face. There is always—always—more in person.)

So try writing everything about God’s nature into a book. The only book that succeeded in that is the Bible, and I’m pretty sure there’s even more we’ll learn about Him in heaven! He is infinite, after all. Therefore . . .

Point #1: You can’t fit all of God into your book. Instead, try to convey one or two aspects about Him, something that can be grasped or explored throughout the story.

And here’s another:

Point #2: God can show up in fiction in two ways: as a theme or as a character.

Truth, love, and light show up anytime I write. That’s just who I am. God is love, and He is the source of truth and light. So whether He is directly named or not, stories containing truth, love, and light bring Him honor because they are aspects of His nature. This is where God can be woven into a story’s theme.

But sometimes a fantasy story calls for an allegorical representation of God. This is where He shows up as a character, and this is possibly the hardest thing to get right. (But remember point #1!) He may be visible to other characters and may interact with them face to face. Or He may be invisible, referenced only as other characters pray, worship, or think about Him.
Or there’s a third option where God may show up as a character and as part of the theme.

So which is right for your story?

I can’t answer that for you. That’s something for you to think about, pray about, and experiment with. But I can offer a few thoughts and questions to get you going!

Pros and cons of God as a character

Pros
  • We’ve all wished God was physically here in front of us (at least I have!). Living vicariously through the characters, we get to imagine what it will be like to talk to Him face to face, touch Him, and hear Him speak. If written well, this can be very powerful for you, the characters, and the readers.
  • If you’re writing an allegory, particularly if it’s an allegory of Jesus’s life on earth, you’ll likely need a God-figure walking around.
  • It brings across an immediacy, a tangible presence.
  • It can breathe fresh life into our perception of God, especially when you shake up the uber religious picture of God as a stern, old man with a beard who zaps people from heaven. Let’s see Him laughing, enjoying life and people! Let’s see Him cry. Let’s see the real Jesus of the Bible, but with different skin on.
Cons
  • You have to put words into God’s mouth. That leaves you with two options: quoting directly from Scripture (which can feel shoehorned into the story), or penning your own words (and running the risk of portraying God inaccurately).
  • Therefore you may not feel comfortable writing Him as a character.
  • It takes a great deal of skill to write a God-figure that feels authentic and true to His nature. If your character falls short, well . . . Let’s just say that chances are high He’s quite important to your story, so a lot of it may crumble with Him.
  • Limiting an infinite being to a finite body can make Him come across as too small.
Examples that shone
  • Aslan (Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis) – Warm, mighty, mysterious, faithful, sacrificial. It’s hard to even begin to sum him up! Perhaps the most succinct description is, “He’s not a tame lion, you know.” There’s something wild, something awe-inspiring, about him. In this case, putting God in the finite body of a lion was not a disadvantage at all–as a reader, I always felt there was something more to him than what I could see. Something otherworldly.
  • Prince Aethelbald (Tales of Goldstone Wood, Anne Elisabeth Stengl) – As a picture of Jesus as the Lover of our souls, he persistently woos Una though she rejects him time and time again. Aethelbald is nothing remarkable to look at. Even his name is the furthest thing from romantic. But his heart beats truer and stronger than any of her other suitors, and by the time I finished reading Heartless, I was stunned by the incredible allegory. Again, presenting God as a flesh-and-blood character could have come across badly, but Anne Elisabeth Stengl gave him the same “something more” element that Aslan has. (Coincidentally, both characters hail from across the sea. Interesting.)

Pros and cons of God as a theme

Pros
  • This approach is more subtle.
  • It leaves the spotlight on human beings exemplifying Christ-like attributes, rather than putting them all into one character who represents God. These humans don’t have to be perfect (in fact, please don’t make them that way!), but they serve as examples for us to reach toward.
  • This can make your story more accessible to readers who don’t consider themselves to be Christians, while still reflecting God in a beautiful way.
  • Not every story needs a Savior or Creator. Some are actually better off without it. It’s all about the story’s scope and purpose.
Cons
  • On the other hand, some stories do need a Savior/Creator character. In the case of The Brightest Thread, I had written in some false gods to give the storyworld more depth and texture. But by doing so, I created an imbalance, and then had to invent a God-like figure. If I had left God solely as the immaterial theme of the story, it wouldn’t have sat well with me.
  • Without a God to rely on, your heroes’ journeys may feel like they fall flat. Depending on what kind of story you’re writing, your characters may need a higher power to bring about true transformation.
  •  Again, depending on the scope of your story, the themes you’ve so carefully woven into your story may be misconstrued as new age or a Disney-fied “follow your heart” sort of message.
Examples that shone
  • Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)- Okay, okay, I know there technically is a God-figure (Ilúvatar), but to my knowledge he isn’t really mentioned in LotR. However, we can all agree that numerous characters exemplify godly attributes like courage, love, kindness, wisdom, justice, grace, etc. Watching Frodo suffer as he carried the ring to Mordor, seeing Sam remain faithful to his friend the whole way, witnessing Gandalf face the Balrog . . . these examples impacted me more than some fictional God-figures have.
  • Reapers (Bryan Davis) – Technically this isn’t fantasy, it’s dystopian. (And God may come up later in the trilogy, I don’t know.) But despite the fact that God isn’t talked about, Phoenix embarks on a journey that will position him as a hero. A person who rescues the oppressed, who speaks for the voiceless, who defends the defenseless. All qualities that inspire us to do the same.
A note: these lists are in no way exhaustive, and they’re not meant to sow doubt in your mind, dear writer! There are so many combinations of writing God as a character and/or as a theme (because you can definitely do both in the same story), and so many degrees therein. This whole post is meant simply to inspire careful consideration and deeper thought.

This isn’t a salvation story

That’s what I said when wrestling with the God question for The Brightest Thread. And even after deciding to incorporate a fictional God, the fact remained. This novel is not about a character “getting saved” or “finding Jesus.” Some novels are, and that’s great! But this particular novel is about two people sharing a love strong enough that they would each risk everything for the sake of the other; and about being willing to receive that kind of sacrificial love. That’s it.
Characters briefly question God (who goes by another name in the novel), and they briefly reach out for His help. But these protagonists’ journeys are not about faith.
I was discussing this with my writing buddy, and brought up the topic of evangelism. In leadership college last year, my leader said something that revolutionized the way I look at evangelizing. To paraphrase:

If a 0 is not knowing Christ, and a 10 is giving your life to Him, we often think that we have to bring someone from 0 to 10 all at once. But maybe all you’re supposed to do in that encounter is bring someone from, say, a 3 to a 4. Just one step closer to knowing Jesus. You don’t need to force a conversion on the spot. The next Christian to come along may bump that person up to a 5. Or you might be the person to meet someone at 9, and you get the chance to pray with them and see them become a 10.

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:6

[via Pinterest]
Maybe it’s the same in fiction. We don’t have to bring every character to a 10, nor do we have to do that for every reader. Maybe we just plant a seed. Or maybe the story is the water making it grow. What’s important is that we are discipling.

Playing matchmaker

My writing buddy subconsciously uses a really cool method of figuring out how to portray God in her stories. She looks at what her story’s theme is about–aka, what her main characters need to learn–and she traces that back to an aspect of God.

For example, one of her characters needed to learn about the importance of mercy over justice. So in that particular story, the God-figure’s mercy and love are highlighted. She doesn’t spend a lot of time on other topics, like God’s wisdom or power or holiness. Just what’s central to the theme. The result is a beautifully woven tapestry that doesn’t bonk the reader over the head with an ill-written sermon.

However . . .

Please, please, PLEASE don’t preach.

All of this stuff about figuring out how to portray God and tie in themes and character arcs may be better left as something to study after you’ve written your story! Especially if you’re prone to write from a soapbox.

More and more, I’m learning that the process of writing a transformative story is supposed to transform me first, otherwise it’s not authentic.

Writing themes that spring organically from the soil of character conflict and worldbuilding takes practice. A lot of it. But don’t let that discourage you from trying, because that’s how we all grow.

My friend told me, “Most of the time my characters teach ME things, instead of me trying to teach readers things.” Couldn’t have said it better myself! So when you’re writing God into your stories, let Him surprise you. Let go of what you think you know, and see what happens.

“He who has ears, let him hear.”

How and if you choose to convey God in fiction depends largely on your intended audience. But regardless of whether you’re writing mainstream or for the Christian community, regardless of whether it’s YA or middle grade or adult, resist the urge to explain yourself.


Jesus didn’t. In the parables He told to the masses, His Father sometimes appeared as a landowner, a farmer sowing seed, a shepherd, a literal father, a master, a groom, and more. But most of the time, Jesus didn’t explain the metaphor to His listeners. He left that up to them. Because when a person puzzles out the hidden meaning of a story themselves, the meaning sticks.

I think Jesus knew that those who were ready to know Him would find Him.

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