Nothing: A Rant

This post started when I was driving down the road, music blaring. (Okay, it started in my head there, I wasn't typing it up there. Promise.) At the time, I wanted to type it up but didn't think I would have time to - as I told one person, I had a to-do list the size of Texas.

But that to-do list kept shrinking, faster than I thought it would. And here I am at 2:30, near the end of it. (This might get weird because I know I'm typing this a full week and a half, at least, before I'll publish it. But ride with me here.)

The song was called "Nuthin'" by Lecrae. Now, I'm sure you probably have your own opinions on Christian rap, and I'm not here to discuss that. This isn't even anything about the artist (who I don't know a lot about), just a few lyrics from one of his songs. Whether or not you like the genre doesn't affect the fact that these lyrics are powerful to me.

The song starts out with these words:

Here we go again in circles

I think I've heard it all

We've been here before

But we need something more

Something more, something more

What you say?

I can't hear 'cause you ain't talking about nuthin'

If you listen to the whole song, it's about Lecrae's frustration with the lyrics that a lot of artists are putting out there. He's heard it all already, and it doesn't mean anything. Not really, not anymore.

Now, before I go on, I'm going to give you his "disclaimer" - and I claim it, too, for what I'm about to say.

I know they gonna label me a hater

But, inside, you are greater than the songs you created

Now, I'm going to turn these lyrics - written about songs - into a rant about books. And, like the "disclaimer" above, this isn't anything personal against any author. As Christian authors, I know we have it in us to be greater. To write greater stories.

I've been reading adult Christian fiction since I was maybe ten or so. I really don't remember how old I was when Mama took me to the adult section of the library and pulled out Janette Oke's A Bride for Donnigan. But I know that, since that day, I've been venturing into the adult section of the library and pulling out books with the "Inspire" or "Christian" label that our libraries put on the spines. And I've read a lottttt of books.

And you know what one of the saddest things is? Almost none of them have impacted me more than a good secular novel could.

I know that people say stories are written to entertain. But not just to entertain. We both know that Christians and non-Christians both push their agendas and beliefs in their stories. And that's not wrong! Matter of fact, Jesus did it.

Yeah. Jesus believed in the power of stories to change lives. He called 'em parables.

How many of you grew up thinking that The Prodigal Son was a Bible story with real people, not a made-up parable? Please tell me it wasn't just me. But - point is, I thought that story was real. (We can totally blame those animated Bible story VHS tapes (yes, VHS - I'm not that old, I'm just the weird girl who actually still used those in 2011 or whenever) for this - why dedicate a whole episode to The Prodigal Son if he wasn't real??? 😱)

The story was powerful enough I assumed it was real, but it was just fiction. Can't we do the same thing with our stories? I mean, we're supposed to imitate Jesus. And Jesus made up some pretty good stories. I don't think you want to look me in the eye and say that Jesus' parables don't matter because they were made-up stories about made-up characters. Because, yeah, they were fiction. But, to paraphrase Kassie Angle in one of her blog posts, it's somebody's story.

That's what we're all writing, aren't we? Somebody's story? When McCall Hoyle wrote The Thing with Feathers (one of my favorite books), she didn't know that Emilie (the MC) would be so much like me that her story was my story and her hope was my hope. Hoyle didn't know that I would smile because the ending of that book was so real to me that it filled my heart was hope.

McCall Hoyle was writing the story of Emilie, a made-up character. But she was also writing the story of Abby, a real person.

So, let's do a quick sum-up, since I'm totally rambling. (Y'all asked for rambly posts and I have proof, okay?)

•Jesus told fictional stories.

•Your fictional story can really be the story of a real person.

With those two things in mind, it makes sense that we should pour ourselves into any story we write, right? (Side note: "write, right" sounds a lot funnier when you say it out loud than when you read it in your head.)

Right.

Now, let's go back to what started this whole post - the lyrics to that song. Basically, Lecrae is saying that these rappers are repeating the same things, and their songs don't mean a thing anymore. Now, you might not like what I'm about to say - but I think this fits Christian fiction pretty well.

We say the same thing over and over again. It's not that what we're saying is inherently empty. As Christian fiction, the themes can't actually be empty. 

But what if we've used the themes the wrong way so much that, now, they seem empty?

What if we've preached (when I say preached, I want you to have the right image in your head - think of that really loud evangelist who yells and spits; if you don't know one of those preachers, just wait and you'll probably meet him sometime. (This doesn't mean that I think these preachers are awful, this is just to illustrate a point.)) - aaaaand, by all those parentheses, you've probably lost my original train of thought for this sentence. Let me try again. What if we've preached through our stories for so long that no one wants to listen when we whisper a truth?

In the olden days, people had attention spans carved in stone. I don't get it. There are days I have half the attention span of a hungry squirrel. You should see me on a Zoom call or during a Spanish class. But, back then, maybe no one minded when you (literally) gave five sermons in a novel. Maybe they actually paid attention to those written sermons and got something out of it.

Not me. Sorry, but - no. I'm gonna need a nice one-liner if I'm supposed to glean something from the exact words. I might say I'm the extreme - but I'm not. At least, when I find a boring, preachy part in a book, I skim read. I'm pretty sure there are people who will just flat out skip it. A lot of people.

Okay. *deep breath* I didn't come here to start an argument with you or to make you mad. I came here to make you think.

What if, instead of focusing just on pushing some message, we write the story God has given us?

I've had deep conversations with one of my friends about this. (And even deeper conversations with myself. Don't even act like you haven't had conversations with yourself, too.) And we've asked - "What if your story doesn't have a Christian theme? Is there anything wrong with that?"

Let me take you back to about a year ago, when I read a mainstream trilogy (by mainstream, I mean I won't even mention the title because I don't want to start any arguments about whether or not Christians should be reading them - trust me, that's a big argument). And those books had such a huge positive impact on my life. Including my . . . spiritual life. I'm not kidding.

But it should scare us that those secular books impacted my spiritual life more than forty Christian fiction novels would.

I'm gonna quote another song now - "Be the Change" by Britt Nicole.

Too much light to be living in the dark.

That line hits the nail on the head. I'm gonna say it again.

Too much light to be living in the dark.

We have Jesus, who is light. We have wayyyyyy too much Jesus in us to be living in the shadows, y'all. To be tip-toeing in the shallow end. To be scratching the surface. To be (being blunt here) stuffing our books full of sermons and lecturers instead of beautiful stories.

I'm not necessarily saying you should stop writing sermons and lectures in your stories. I'm not saying you need to get rid of the grandma character who spouts off life advice like a fountain. I'm just saying - well, show don't tell.

That's one of the most important rules in writing, right? I mean, that's why you're writing a story and not a non-fiction book.

God gave you a story. Write the story He gave you, not part of it and some lectures thrown in for good measure. Write the story He gave you. If He wants you to write it, He knows how to work in people's hearts to let the theme shine through.

So let's stop talking about "nothing," and let's go shine our lights through the stories we've been given.

Love,

What do you think? What are some Christian fiction books you've read that do a really good job of "show don't tell" for their theme? Also, if you made it this far, thank you (and congrats!) for lasting through one of my longest - and definitely my most rambly - blog posts! 😃