Into the Fire

A writer often faces the decision of who his audience is to be. For a Christian the very first audience to consider and satisfy is God. And following Him, it seems to me the rest of the audience factor will fall into place, possibly even in unimagined, untargeted areas.

It sounds so noble to proclaim we desire to write for and reach the lost. We want to appeal to them, show them how we’re not going to “judge” them for whatever sinful behavior has them currently enticed, engaged, and entangled. No, no. WE are going to write fiction which exhibits sin and casts no judgment. Then, with varying degrees of clever and beautiful prose, we will either insert, imply, or introduce God to them via the story—and we’ll be very careful how we implement Jesus, that is, IF we implement Him at all.

The raging complaints on various writers’ blogs against Christian writers ignoring the evil that prevails in our world, the gnawing accusations that Christian writers produce fluff and light fare and fail to include the challenges of sin effectively and realistically, the steadfast griping that Christian writers are inferior in talent and no influence to the lost, are providing an impetus for a new form of judgment. It seems we have the “haughty holy” ones who decry any form of the “untraditional” novel as well as the portrayal of hardcore evil, even when done with restraint and admirable writing, opposing the “haughty hip” ones who press for edge, grit, graphics, and what they determine is “real”.

Sometimes I think we forget the basics of it all. Number one, we should know and understand that God has called us to write in whatever form He’s ordained for us, and the writing is for His purpose and glory—not our own. Once we relinquish our “rights” to determine the eventual destination of our writing, we have to trust the direction God takes it and us. It’s called dying to self. Number two, none of us can save a single soul. Not even one. Without God drawing a person to Himself through the Holy Spirit’s overtures, that person won’t be “listening” to the best writing or the most profound stories in the universe. The best we can hope for is that our Lord will use one of our books for His divine appointment with an unredeemed soul. Number three, is it so much that we want to write so the lost will take notice and turn to Jesus, or is it that we want to impress them with our abilities to delve into darkness with such amazing understanding that surely they will see they can identify with us—then maybe they can decide this God or Jesus ain’t so bad after all?

If you write serious material, you can’t help but include evil in some capacity. Even the fluff stories incorporate sinful behavior. Sin is only layered and complicated in human eyes. Jesus declared that even thoughts could be sinful and needy of forgiveness. Certainly no shortage of material to write about in our lives, is there?

We hear the harangue about not judging others, but the Bible stipulates that we are to judge sin—and, of course, not just in someone else’s life, but in our own first and foremost. If we were not to judge sin, we could never declare the need for a Savior. The confusion comes in when we pass judgment on the sinner—a position which is reserved for God. And when we forget the mechanics of being lost in sin. We forget the hardness it produces, the defensive posturing against the “holier than thou” crowd, the resistance to listening to either the science or the logic of an omnipotent Creator, and the condescending repartee of how it’s fine for “us” to need our religion as a crutch. And so sometimes it becomes difficult to remember the compassion we are to have, the resilience to love without condemnation, and the explicit instruction to pray for the individuals who God puts on our hearts. Nothing can be more effective than prayer for the lost.

No novels, no testimonies, no beautifully written poems, prose, or non-fiction will ever touch a lost soul unless God is calling him—giving him the opportunity to see what has always been present and available to save him from depravity. Prayer is a duty and a privilege—the incredible ability to speak to a Holy God because of the sacrificial Blood of His Son, actually having influence in His kingdom due to His desire for interactive relationship. It’s fascinating! Our God wants to speak with us. He wants to hear what’s on our hearts, who we are carrying as burdens for Him to save, heal, speak to, influence, change, rescue, and so on and so on. He knows and yet he wants to hear it from our lips and hearts and minds. And when we humble ourselves before Him and plead with Him to help us overcome ourselves, our pride, our selfish ways, He is eager to infuse us with more of Him.

Writers, get over ourselves! The praise and admiration goes to our God for allowing us the privilege of creating with words. Let’s make sure our focus audience is the Master. The only way we can touch anyone is if His hand rests upon our work. It’s all His anyway.

Father, it can be a constant temptation to take our skills and use them for ourselves, to become prideful or resentful or discouraged for any number of reasons with our craft, but when there is “good and perfect”, you are involved and all the praise goes to you. Thank you for giving me words to write. May they glorify you in some small or great way. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.