Here comes a bend in the road – not a fork!
For the last five years I’ve been neck-deep in my series on the Fruit of the Spirit. Writing about the DNA of God has becoming a consuming passion! I’ve indulged every Berean nerd bone in my body, delving into Greek and Hebrew as fast as Google will take me. And it’s been glorious – not just as a writer but as a lover of God. I’ve felt so much closer to Him.
So now that I have only two books left to finish, I’ve been feeling nervous about that journey drawing to a close. What’s next for us, Jesus? When I start writing fiction instead, what’s going to take the place of me searching the Scriptures for the nuances of what You’re like?
I’m sure He hasn’t had such a good laugh since I wrote the book on Patience. As if that would be the end of it! He’s not limited by the genres we write in. He tells me He still has a lot to teach me about Himself with EVERY book project. The journey isn’t coming to an end; it’s just veering into a brand new direction.
We can become so accustomed to compartmentalising things into boxes labelled CHRISTIAN and SECULAR that we forget God doesn’t respect walls, He walks through them. One of my family members had a powerful encounter with God via The Slipper and the Rose. Another had the same with, of all things, Twilight. So if your calling leads you to write fiction where Jesus isn’t mentioned by name or by analogy, that does not at all mean He isn’t speaking through what you write. Ministry has always been incarnational – from the Ark being carried on the shoulders of the Kohathites, to the Son of God taking on a body, to that presence and authority becoming resident in all believers. He writes through you and you write through Him.
I don’t know which of my pipe-dream novels will ripen first, but I know that studying eschatology for the post-apocalyptic story is going to deepen and enrich me. I know that the fantasy about the power of names is going to unlock aspects of identity in me. And working out how my little sci-fi friend is going to use her powers in partnership with God rather than in rebellion – that’s going to be a beautiful journey into hallowed lordship.
God isn’t stumped by the handful of genre choices we might want to write in. He gave us a planet with 30,000 species of fish. That is a lot of variation. He has purpose for us within the spectrum of available choices – as He has purpose for us in any job we undertake in the marketplace, any role we take on in the community. Find the intersection between your heart’s desire, the call of God on your life, and the building of God’s Kingdom. That is today’s sweet spot. Tomorrow may be sweeter still. To paraphrase Chariots of Fire: when you run, may you feel His pleasure.