Sarah Sundin, @sarahsundin
“Chilling out in my hospital bed with a Sarah Sundin book,” one of my best friends from high school wrote on Facebook this week. The night before her surgery.
My friend lives a long-distance away. Although I couldn’t sit with her and hold her hand that night, I was able to be with her virtually. I felt honored.
Perhaps people in your life have demeaned your writing as “just telling stories.” A cute hobby without any impact. Or that they only read nonfiction—good books, real books—not escapist fare.
However, fiction does have a ministry, and at many levels. In the nine years since my first novel was published, I’ve been blessed with messages from hundreds of readers showing the impact fiction can have. To me, it is moving and humbling and thrilling.
Sitting with the Hurting
Yes, fiction is an escape. And sometimes we need an escape. Numerous people have told me about reading my novels during the pain and anxiety and boredom of a hospital stay, while waiting for a loved one to come through surgery, or during the pain of personal trials, like divorces and deaths in the family.
It’s a scientific fact that laughter and distraction help control pain. Losing oneself in a story helps pass time—and is far better than worrying. And reading about difficult times in a novel reminds us of the universality of pain, gives us perspective, and assures us that we’re not alone.
As a novelist, you have the extreme honor of sitting with complete strangers as they go through times of stress and pain. You hold hands, offer cups of cold water, and lay cool compresses on fevered brows. Hold your head high.
To the Ends of the Earth
Jesus commanded His followers to preach in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Even if we aren’t capable of becoming actual missionaries, our books can do missionary work.
My novels have traveled to nations in Africa with missionary friends—who share them. Readers in Europe have contacted me, curious about a type of faith they’ve never seen before. An atheist said my writing has nudged her closer to believing in God. And a reader friend who works as a prison warden was reading one of my novels at work. One of the prisoners tapped on the glass and said, “I read that book. It’s good.”
As a novelist, you have an opportunity to reach with your words into the farthest areas of the world! Wow.
Preaching to the Choir
Some people put down Christian fiction as “preaching to the choir” unless we have an overt plan of salvation spelled out on the pages. Well. The choir needs preaching also.
The characters in my novels have dealt with various sins, flaws, incorrect views of God, and crises of faith. Just as I have. Just as all of us “choir members” have.
It’s one thing to read verses or nonfiction books about forgiveness, and another thing to wrestle with it in our own lives. When we watch characters do that wrestling, it often moves us at a deep level. Many readers have let me know how God used a character’s struggles to illuminate a problem in their lives—and to show them the way out.
And here’s the exciting part—the lessons our readers receive are often completely unrelated to the themes we develop. That’s God at work. He can take our measly fish-and-loaves words, break them into the pieces He needs, and feed His flock the meals they need. All we need to do is to be obedient in putting those words into our computers.
So go preach! Preach to the hurting! Preach to the world! Preach to the choir!
And take joy in your ministry.
Numbed by grief and harboring shameful secrets, Lt. Adler Paxton ships to England with the US 357th Fighter Group in late 1943. Determined to become an ace pilot, Adler battles the German Luftwaffe in treacherous dogfights over France as the Allies struggle for control of the air before the D-day invasion.
Violet Lindstrom wants to be a missionary, but for now she serves in the American Red Cross, where she arranges entertainment and refreshments for the men of the 357th in the base Aeroclub and sets up programs for local children. Drawn to the mysterious Adler, she enlists his help with her work and urges him to reconnect with his family after a long estrangement.
Despite himself, Adler finds his defenses crumbling when it comes to Violet. But D-day draws near. And secrets can’t stay buried forever.
Sarah Sundin is a bestselling author of historical novels, including The Sea Before Us and The Sky Above Us. Her novels When Tides Turn and Through Waters Deep were named to Booklist’s “101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years,” and Through Waters Deep was a finalist for the 2016 Carol Award and won the INSPY Award. A mother of three, Sarah lives in California and teaches Sunday school. She also enjoys speaking for church, community, and writers’ groups. Please visit her at http://www.sarahsundin.com.