Driving down the road the other day, I had a few minutes with Talk Radio.

I tuned in to the middle of a Glenn Beck Show and he was commenting about Disney, and how they’ve left their values and morals.

I think… I’m not sure. But he went on to say.

“The field is wide open for anyone to come in and take their place.”

I’m paraphrasing a bit, but as Glenn went on, he was saying how there is room for creative, talented artist, screenwriters, entrepreneurs to step up and tell interesting stories.

Take the place of Disney?

I don’t know, but when Disney started, there WAS no Disney.

He was completely overshadowed but the muscle studios of Hollywood in his day. RKO. Universal. The might MGM.

But Walt knew who he was, knew what he wanted to do and he did it.

I’ll admit, that’s a rare person who is so focused, so driven, and so determined. But there is some element of that in all of us!

What are you driven to do?

Beck went on to say how there is room for faith and morals in the film and entertainment industry. Yet…

“Don’t lose the story in the middle of the message.”

Oh, now truer words were ever spoken. Preach on.

We struggle with this a authors in the Christian fiction industry.

We want to honor Jesus, and speak the truth but sometimes our message is more like a canon blast than a gentle word.

But we don’t mind being boldly obvious for the sake of the Gospel, do we?

“I don’t care if it’s preachy, Jesus is worth it.”

Really? Jesus likes a bad, preachy story?

A spiritual leader I admire tells the story of his early days as a teen Christian in the early ’70s.

he wore a cross the size of a small dog. He carried the big family Catholic Bible — with two hands.

And he witnessed to everyone in his path.

Sound zealous?

“No,” he says with forty year hindsight and wisdom. “It was often the right message in the wrong venue. I looked ridiculous and I wasn’t winning anyone.”

What we need is excellence. Jesus is worth is our excellence.

Don’t just dump your spiritual message on top of your story. That’s lazy. Or boorish. We can actually diminish the effect.

Our job it to weave it. Layer it. Use metaphor and symbols.

What do we see all over scripture? Symbols? Metaphors? Jesus using story to convey truth.

So, what we have to strive to do is let the story to tell THE story. To deliver the message.

We’ve got to pray and ask for understanding, insight and knowledge on how to weave the spiritual depth of the story.

God gave Daniel understanding in all areas of wisdom and literature and understand dreams and visions.

Dreams are made up of symbols. Daniel understood symbols. Might that kind of understanding not help our writing? Not help our “showing” the message in the story?

Yet, symbols or not, here’s what we have to grasp. The Lord can use our words in ways we can’t imagine.

He can use our story to touch hearts and convey the message without using Christianese or “the four spiritual laws.”

Listen to what Paul wrote to the Philippians: “Let love abound in your hearts more and more in All knowledge and discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent.”

As we write for Him, His love multiplies and brings understanding, insight and discernment.

To be sure, there are times and places where straight up preaching is needed, I dare say required.

But not necessarily in our stories.

Let the story do the heavy lifting by showing the impact of God’s love in and on the hearts of your characters.

Without preaching.

Well, fine, Rachel, how do we do that?

Here’s some ideas.

1. Consider the supernatural? Could your character encounter an angel or even a demon that brings them to repentance or understanding of the Lord.
2. Create a voice of truth, like a friend or pastor, but let the dialog happen naturally. Avoid Christianese. Which is any and all languages used in the pulpit and the church foyer.
3. Use scripture in every day language. I loved this paraphrase from a pastor on Paul’s admonition not to compare ourselves. “If you compare yourselves to others, you’re stupid.”
4. I’ve said this before and I’ll repeat it, pray and asking for the Lord to teach you to pray. He wants to partner with you!
5. Think, mull, envision new ways of showing spiritual truth. Think outside the box. Use your MBT tools to create a character arc that shows both emotional and spiritual change.

In the end, your story will be strong and have that canon-like “boom” in the soul of the reader without whamming them on the head with our big crosses and heavy Bibles. 🙂

I am not ashamed of the Gospel! Not at all. I can preach Jesus all day long.

But what I also love is the beauty and nuance of Him. That’s what we need in our stories.