Changing Tides
Hi friends,
I’m so happy to be back with you today. I’ve been thinking a lot about seasons lately. I heard an older song that I like the other day and in it there are a couple lines that really hit home with me:
Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides?
STEVIE NICKS, FLEETWOOD MAC, 1975
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
As writers we know that our characters can’t stay stagnant. They need growth. They need to change and become a better person or version of themselves and who they are in Christ by the end of the book. They cannot stay in the same place or be the same person at the end of the story, or there isn’t a story to tell.
Stories are about navigating changing tides in our characters’ lives. For this growth to occur, our characters must face and overcome obstacles. The road cannot be smooth. It must be littered with trials. I often feel bad about everything I put my characters through, but at the heart and core of story is change. How the characters handle this change, and who they turn to in the midst of it.
We, too, must face change and navigate different seasons in our lives. My husband and I were looking at the Google photo slideshows they put together from the photos on our phones. We looked in awe the other day at how big our grandkids have grown; at the fact our daughters are adults—even if it doesn’t feel like it’s been twenty-eight years since our eldest was born.
Life, in many ways, zooms by. It’s why being in the moment and being present, is so important. But, even more important, is who we turn to as the tides shift. Do we let the waves drag us under, or do we turn to the One who walks on water?
Just like our characters, we’re always going to encounter change. It’s part of life, but who we turn to, and who we lean on, is what steadies the shifting tides. Anchoring our lives in our Savior gives us solid ground despite obstacles, trials and changing seasons. It doesn’t make them easy. God never promised our Christian walk would be easy, but He promised to lead the way.
I think that’s what I love so much about Christian fiction—seeing our lives mirrored in the book’s characters. Watching them struggling and, yet, overcoming through Christ.
Question for you: What do you love best about Christian fiction? What season of life are you in now?
Blessings,
Dani
