FAITH FICTION………!!

I have wanted to write fiction for as long as I can remember, and that’s saying a lot. To this day, I remember so very little of my childhood. But how can I forget how frantically I sought paper at all times it seemed, in all sorts of places, with a desperate need to write. And write. I didn’t have a desperate desire; I had a dire need. I couldn’t seem to live without writing. And, through the years, I persisted. Despite relatively long lapses at times, I always came back to the first love I could remember. Writing.

nothing like a dream coming true….

Literally decades later, I crossed paths with Jesus Christ and ultimately became a sold-out, committed, follower. Not only did I discover who my first love should have been all along and ultimately became, but I learned something vital from the Lord about my writing. Just as my life had become His, so had my writing. He had given me the gift, and it was designed to be used in my life’s mission to share the Gospel while ministering the Lord’s love to a world in need. I ended up repenting for how long I had used this gift of writing for everything but God, and I have been slowly learning ever since what exactly it means to write for the Lord’s glory.

Over time, writing non-fiction for the Lord became abundantly clear in its relevance. It was obvious, to say the least. I could write about the Bible, I could write about my life’s experience in the context of learning to walk with the Lord, and I could write to encourage others to become followers of Jesus and to learn also how to walk with the Lord day by day.

So where did fiction fit into all of this? Quite frankly, it did not. Though I periodically would come back for brief visits to fiction, I struggled with two main issues. First, I lacked confidence. An understatement, to be truthful. I lacked confidence to such an extreme, in fact, that it never crossed my mind that I could grow in my ability to write fiction if I would pursue it passionately and relentlessly. Somehow, it was so much easier as a child to write stories and not give too much consideration to what would happen to them. Maybe I could share a story with a friend, hopefully bring a smile to my mother’s face, or earn a good grade in school. Maybe I could even enter a writer’s contest. Adulthood brings expectations and pressures, doesn’t it?

Confidence, however, was just one challenge. The other, and greater challenge, was how could I possibly bring glory to the Lord and bring fiction into the context of my life’s mission? I simply could not see how, not especially when some of the Christian fiction reminded me more of entertainment than of inspiration, conviction, and furthering the building and edification of God’s Kingdom. Periodically, I would stumble across Christian fiction that truly moved my heart and helped me to see there was more potential in fiction than entertainment. But it was during those times that I reverted to my conviction that I simply would never be able to write Christian fiction even remotely well enough to do anything meaningful or significant with it – let alone let anyone see it!

Just as with the rest of my life, I realized the only answer was to do what I had learned to do some time ago. I gave up my dream. But I didn’t just give it up. I gave it up to the Lord. I essentially told Him that if He ever wanted me to write fiction, that I would. And I told Him that if He wanted me to give up this dream because this dream was not His dream for me, then I would give it up. And I left it with Him, a tall order for someone who hasn’t ever been well skilled in letting stuff go!

I could not have been more surprised when I felt a strong leading one day to start working on a short story. Fiction? Yes. Fiction. But that was only a part of the surprise.What truly astounded me was that the story on my heart was a story I had begun approximately three decades ago! But how could that be? I grew up in a Jewish family that didn’t even believe in God. How could I work on a story from 30-something years ago that would glorify the Lord?

Leave it to God to have me wait to complete that story until I had become a sold-out, committed follower of Jesus Christ. Somewhere amid the days of working on this story, I felt God’s conviction that He had truly opened the door for writing fiction in addition to non-fiction. But I also sensed that there was more to it than that. And there was. For I began to see that where I had struggled for some time to find Christian fiction for me to read that was far beyond entertaining (which I certainly enjoyed!), and that would truly have a significant impact on my relationship with the Lord, I realized that I could do something totally wild. Instead of bemoaning the fact I had so much trouble finding it, why not start writing it?!

The words FAITH FICTION came to me as clear as day. Not a surprise. With WALK BY FAITH MINISTRY being my ministry’s name, what a perfect fit. The Lord truly never ceases to amaze me. And I could not be more delighted, and grateful, that He has taken a very long-standing dream belonging to a broken child and transformed it into part of His dream for my life – His dream now revived, resurrected, and strong in the hands of a woman of God!

Though I am merely at the beginning of this new piece of my calling, I pray that as it unfolds, that the Lord uses what He pours through me to bless and inspire, to encourage and to teach of His love and glory to whomever He chooses.

To God be ALL glory!

Stay tuned for the debut of FAITH FICTION – coming soon………!!!!