Creatively & Subtly Revealing Truth Obscured - The Christian Fiction Writer's Goal

"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures." This quote attributed to Jessamyn West showed up on a Facebook meme lately, and I've been thinking about it ever since. It makes a great mantra for Christian writers.

What are truths that Christians frequently try to reveal
through story – some more successfully than others?

God doesn’t abandon his children.No sin is too great that he can’t forgive.God is just.The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy.Wolves prowl about in sheep’s clothing.Only Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light. There is no
other way to heaven but through him.Israelites are still God’s chosen people, and He daily works
to remind them of His presence, even while he grafts believers into his family.God brings men and women together in marriage and makes them
one flesh.Love covers a multitude of sins.

If I just started in Genesis and copied down the whole Bible,
I’d get to all the truths there are to expose. The point is, just as a preacher
seeks to expose Biblical truth in a sermon, so the creative writer can expose
Biblical truth through story.

Jesus himself did this each time he told a parable. He
developed a scenario his listeners could relate to, and taught them truth
through those stories. The prophet Nathan did likewise when he came to King
David and told him the story of a rich man who’d desired the lamb of a poor
man. Through his story, David came to recognize his sin against God and Bathsheba’s
husband Uriah.

In the early days of Christian fiction, there was much
debate about whether or not it deserved a place. It wasn’t long, however,
before people began to see how Christian fiction could minister by revealing
obscured truths. Think of a book you have read that ministered to you this way?

I learned much about history and the human condition as it
relates to God’s involvement with humanity by reading the historical works of
authors like Bodie Thoene, Francine Rivers, and T.L Higley. I have had my heart
healed through words of encouragement between characters going through similar traumatic
situations as mine in books by Karen Kingsbury and Susan May Warren. My heart
has been stirred to holy passion by the deeds of characters again and again.
I’ve been able to relate my life, my trials, my hopes, and my sins to theirs –
and found myself praying with my eyes open to deeper truth.

But revealing truth is not easy. It isn’t preached in
fiction. That’s a different kind of revelation. It is slowly exposed.

Like a
loose thread in a woven tapestry, it slowly frays apart, exposing color and
texture, until at last a reader realizes a truth along with some character or
group of characters. That’s a difficult thing for a writer to accomplish, and
it’s what lies at the heart of perfecting our craft. To accomplish this is
quite an achievement, and a worthy goal for any Christian writer to attain to.

There is always the temptation to explain what's happening, to uncover the truth too easily. In the true spirit of ministry, we must allow the reader to discover it on their own, the way one would watch a flower unfold. We must give the Holy Spirit His way to work, perhaps revealing truths we aren't even aware of having inbued into the story. Author intrusion can go far beyond what writers normally consider it to be. We can get in the Spirit's way.

Write on!

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