Hard Topics

I’m a person who avoids conflict with the same passionate commitment as I have for not licking the door handles at the convenience store. I’m predictably afraid of all the usual things: heights, snakes, long dark alleys, and undercooked chicken. So…

Why do I write my books to include hard topics?

The only reasonable explanation is God. I would love for Him to give me a story filled with characters not covered in the sinfulness of a broken world. Characters who aren’t trying to move past trauma they didn’t ask for or find forgiveness for things they did ask for.

One day that world will be a reality for us as believers, but until then we are living in a world of consequences, and sometimes we need a reminder we aren’t alone.

We need a glimpse of eternity.

I’ve never started out to write a story about hard things. I like happy, go-lucky tales of goodness and adventure and love as much as anyone else.  But that’s not the direction God points my pen when I place my hand in His.

My stories start when a random scene pops into my head and the Holy Spirit nudges (or shoves on my more obstinate days) until I start exploring what’s really going on in that scene. Who are these people and what has led them to this exact moment? Maybe there’s a conversation going on or maybe the person is alone with their thoughts. The scenes are different, but the one thing that is always the same is that there is a story. And that story is so much more than what we see on the surface.

That’s true of real life as well. The people we encounter everyday have stories. They have a past that has brought them to where they are, and for most of them, that past is filled with mistakes, wounds, and things they won’t tell you about.

Maybe this is where I come in. Perhaps my role in God’s larger story is to share the stories no one is talking about.

I’ve often written about things I have no personal experience with. My life has been fairly tame and untouched by tragedy or trauma. I have learned to see this as a part of God’s purpose for me life, not because He loved me more and sheltered me, but so that when I tell the stories of others, they aren’t told in the shadow of my own experience. I must rely completely on God to help me see and understand whatever hard topic it is I’m writing about.

But then comes the joy.

God never leaves us stuck in the miry pit of shame, despair, and brokenness. He is with us in our suffering, and He awaits the moment when we will let Him heal us. This is His promise to us, that one day He will right every wrong and dry every tear. That His forgiveness stretches as far as the east is from the west, and that His mercy and grace will never run out.

Amid our pain and our broken hearts, we forget.

I’m called, as we all are, to shine a light into the darkness. And the greater the darkness, the more powerful the light. Even one small candle can change the world.

My pen is that candle for as long as God will use me, because when a reader says to me “You just told my story”, or “Thank you for bringing a voice to the ugliness” … I don’t mind writing the hard stuff.

If you’d like to learn more about my books or my writing life, please visit my website www.lorialtebaumer.com