Faith, Fiction, and the Fearless Middle Ground

If you've known me for long, you're familiar with the honest, mostly-unfiltered way I share my journey of personal growth and overcoming challenges. You'll know my determination to keep going when life gets hard, and the way finding purpose in hard seasons comforts me as I attempt to build a life apart from the trauma of my childhood. You'll have noticed how heavily I lean on books, music, and inspirational quotes when I'm pushing through self-doubt, overcoming overwhelm, or feeling defeated. These are the core motivators for my writing—to use the art of storytelling (both fiction and non-fiction) to offer distraction from and encouragement for tough times.

I hope I've also made it clear that I'm a Christian who lives by the concept of faith over fear, prioritizing spiritual growth and emotional healing through faith. My own faith journey is a long, winding road through a broken landscape, filled with marshy bogs and arid deserts, devastated by conflict of all kinds...but ever so slowly rearranging itself into a a beautiful, powerful place. If the beginning of this post describes the "what" behind my writing, then the war torn spiritual setting I've just described is the "where," the "why," and the "how." Last night I went to a concert that drew all these things together in a moment that left me shaken and sobbing with gratitude. Let me tell you the story...

In my early days with Jesus, I found no joy in faith-based music. It troubled the deepest part of my lyrical heart, the part of me that comes to life when a beat and a rhyme are paired with expertise. Those are, after all, the central components of any music—masterful poetry hand-in-hand with instrumental heroics. But I couldn't pour my heart into the sleepy stillness of gospel music read from dusty hymnals and I asked him, "How can I have David's faith if I don't love these modern Psalms?"

He smiled softly, shaking his head. "Try this." He turned on the radio, and I listened to music that permanently altered my sense of worship. And I loved Him more because He understood.

Nearly two decades have passed since that day; in the years since, Jesus and I have crooned along with Christian pop and country ballads, we've tested tongue-twisters with Christian hip-hop, we've screamed ourselves hoarse with Christian rock. And through those songs so many people have come to think of as "performative," he taught me who I am.

This weekend, we found ourselves seated together in a crowded arena for Winter Jam 2025—the two of us squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder between my smiling daughters. Human body and Holy Spirit, lost together in a sea of 14,000 faces. We beamed with pride as Micah Tyler played a full set list with the flu, his determination to boast in God's reckless love warmed by a 101-degree fever, his hoarse and likely burning throat occasionally soothed by sips of bottled water. I leaned closer to Jesus and gestured to the man on the stage, my heart pouring motherly sympathy and professional admiration. "I guess that's what you do when God calls you to something big."

He held out his hands, eyebrows raised as he displayed the old scars. "Indeed."

As the show went on, I thought about faith and fear and writing, agonizing as always over the way my career choice combines with and contrasts against my faith—sometimes almost invisibly blended, other times in seeming opposition, like the swirled veins of color in slabs of marble.

Jesus, always attentive, noticed the shift in my energy; perhaps he read the thoughts on my face, or heard the silent whisper of my heart. He took my hand and tugged me nearer, leaning down to shout above the noise. "Noah didn't seem sensible either! He built an ark in the desert, remember?"

I nodded in silent amusement, watching my daughter's face flame with excitement as Colton Dixon launched the last song in his set: Build A Boat. The lyrics drew tears of relief and sobs of comforted joy from the deepest parts of my longing soul, even as the music rose and 14,000 voices rocked the arena. In the end, I stood with the rest, claiming the promise of the song. Trusting God's plan, patient again in God's timing.

And though it trembled with the force of emotion, my voice was one of many—backed by courageous determination, strengthened by purpose. "With Your wind in my sails, Your love never fails or fades...I'll build a boat, so let it rain."

*****

Many times, people close to me have asked how I blend the depth of my faith with the content of my fiction writing. Most ask out of genuine curiosity, and those conversations are some of my favorites—but there are always a few who come expecting to challenge or misunderstand what I’m doing and why. To some Christians, I’m too secular; I write flawed characters who cuss, struggle, and (gasp) have sex. To some non-Christians, I’m too spiritual, slipping faith into unexpected places.

Either way, I’m not writing to fit anyone’s mold. I write to meet people where they are, how they are, just like Jesus did. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22b, "I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." My work, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, isn’t about rebellion or compromise. It’s about sharing the truth of my personal testimony through the exploration of storytelling, and trusting that God will put those stories in the hands of those who need them.

Speaking of stories, we're seventy-three days away from the release of FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM's expanded second edition, and I am so excited to see this story get back out there! This week, I also made solid progress on editing STILL FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM, and while I'm not as close to finished as I'd like to be, I'm proud of how Christine's story played out in the end. Watching her regain and rebuild her life and sense of self has been incredible, and I'm in such a hurry to share her with the world. Which means I'd better post this and get back to editing...

Until next week, remember that your purpose is worth the wait too, even when you feel like you're falling behind in life. Christian or not, keep building that boat, don't forget to put a relaxing chair for reading on the deck, and remember to...