An Interview with Wholly Loved Ministries’ Jessica Brodie

An Interview with
Wholly Loved Ministries’ Jessica
Brodie on their New 90-day Devotional, Drawing Near

Today, we offer an interview with Jessica Brodie of
Wholly Loved Ministries. Wholly Loved Ministries has a new book, Drawing Near: 90 Day Devotional, that is
written by a number of women (including Jessica) designed to help deepen our faith and grow our relationship with
Christ.
Here, Jessica shares about how she felt God’s call on her writing and what motivated
her to contribute to this devotional.

1. Hi, Jessica.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Thanks for hosting me, Julie! I’ve been writing since I could
pick up a pencil, and one of my first memories is of playing with my mom’s old
manual typewriter pretending to write books. I grew up very shy and moved
around a lot, so I was a huge bookworm, reading anything I could get my hands
on—especially novels. My love for writing prompted me to study journalism and
English in college, and today I write everything I possibly can. Not only do I
blog and write devotionals for Wholly Loved Ministries, but I write
contemporary women’s fiction, I have my own weekly faith blog called “Shining
the Light,” I am a freelance writer and editor, and I am the editor and primary
writer for the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper
in Methodism. 

2. When did you
know God wanted you to write?

I am an expressive person, but as a “reformed shy person,”
expressing my thoughts to people wasn’t always easy. God led me to writing in
childhood as a healthy outlet for my thoughts and feelings. As an adult, I ran
a secular community newspaper for a number of years, but I kept sensing a nudge
toward other opportunities. One day, without knowing why, I started browsing
the website for the South Carolina Press Association—I knew no one in that
state, so I had no reason at all to look there. Immediately, the job came up
for someone to run a religious newspaper for the United Methodist Church there.
I happened to attend a United Methodist Church, so I applied and got the job. I
was writing a lot of secular fiction at the time, and about two years into my
job at the Methodist newspaper, I was driving to work when I heard a voice
speak into me: “Jessica, I want you to write a Christian novel.” The entire
plot of that book, which became my first Christian novel, flashed before me as
though it were a movie. That day I turned all my writing over to the Lord and
haven’t stopped.

3. Did you ever
wrestle with the call?

I’ve never felt like I “shouldn’t” write, though for many years
I let my faith writing take a backburner to my professional writing.
Transitioning to a faith-based day job blurred those lines. Now I try my best
to led God lead whatever I write and stay out of His way.

4. How does your
marriage play into your writing?

My husband and I are both very creative yet practical
people—he’s a photographer and videographer—so being married to him really
helps me as a writer. We know we need to take days to fill our creative cups
through travel or a hike in the woods, while other days we have to focus intensely
on finishing a project.

5. What do you
enjoy most about writing/your career?

It’s so much fun to go deep and challenge myself to write tight
yet vulnerable. And I never get bored! There’s always a new devotional to
write, a new plot twist for my character, a new article, etc.

6. What is one
truth you wish you had rested in earlier?

I don’t have to be perfect. I just have to trust God, align
myself with His plan, and do my best.

7. What motivated
you to contribute to this devotional project?

I have a huge passion for digging into the Bible and growing in
faith as an authentic disciple, and I spent a lot of years getting over past
emotional baggage. I love this devotional because it’s from real women who have
been through real things, each of us struggling to push aside the past and grow
closer to God.

8. What are you
working on now? 

I’m working on an identity devotional for Wholly Loved
Ministries, a ton of blogs, my monthly newspaper, some fun
mental-health-and-faith articles, and my favorite—putting final tweaks on the
first draft of my new novel, Tangled
Roots.

To learn more about Jessica, including her fiction and weekly blog: https://www.jessicabrodie.com/. For more about Wholly Loved Ministries: https://youarewhollyloved.com/. For more about Drawing Near: 90 Day Devotional: https://www.amazon.com/dp/179757826X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_342lDbQQFHHVJ

Jessica
Brodie is an award-winning journalist and author who currently serves as the
editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest
newspaper in Methodism. She is the author of More Like Jesus: A Devotional
Journey (2018) and editor of Stories of Racial Awakening: Narratives on
Changed Hearts and Lives of South Carolina United Methodists (2018), both
from her newspaper’s Advocate Press. She also writes contemporary women’s fiction,
represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her novel The Memory Garden won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ 2018 Genesis Contest. She is a member of the Wholly
Loved Ministries team and has a faith blog at JessicaBrodie.com.