Truth is truth no matter where you find it.
I learned this many years ago this from a pastor. I don’t remember the details of his message, but I do remember he was referencing a song by the 1980s band known as Meatball.
As I’ve come to know my calling as a writer, I’ve also come to understand the truth in these words. And I’ve also gained the understanding that telling the truth is a difficult thing to do. Whether we’re writing Christian fiction or fiction from a Christian worldview, the truth of living in this fallen world is often gritty, ugly, and uncomfortable. In a great juxtaposition, writing about the truth found in God’s Word offers redemption, hope, and healing as much as it offers a trustworthy guide for our lives.
The challenge for the writer is to be honest about them both.
In my novel A Far Way to Run, I wrote the story of a young woman who had experienced a brutal sexual assault as a teenager. It had, of course, changed her life in countless ways.
Statistics reveal that eighteen to twenty-five percent of adolescent girls will experience some form of sexual abuse and trauma. The wounds that results aren’t limited to physical trauma—a wound that that will heal. These wounds are a scar that changes who they are in ways that are difficult for those around them to understand, especially if they are unaware of what has happened to their loved one.
Since survivors of sexual assaults often feel a deep sense of shame, blaming themselves, they often keep the assault a secret. This makes the changes in their behavior confusing and sometimes frustrating to those who know them. They end up feeling even more isolated and alone as these relationships are damaged or even destroyed.
The attack my protagonist endures happened years before her story began to unfold on the pages of my book. Even without addressing the actual event directly and focusing only on her in the present, this book challenged me. I’ve worked with enough women’s—and even prison—ministries to know this isn’t a subject I could callously address for the purpose of creating an interesting or entertaining story. I knew I had to tell the truth about something I had never actually experienced myself.
The easy way out would be to write something else. But God rarely calls us to do what is easy or safe when it comes to loving His children well.
In obedience to His Word, I wrote the story as honestly as I could, praying that my words would be His words and that the completion of this book would be both glorifying to Him and honoring to His children.
Then I gave it to a handful of unknown beta readers and waited. I wasn’t prepared to receive a phone call from one of them asking me if we could meet for coffee.
When we met, her words to me were, “You just told my story.”
To say I was both stunned and humbled is an understatement. Oh, and terrified. Had I gotten it wrong? Had I caused her further pain? A million fearful thoughts went through my head.
When she went on to tell me that this book had brought her closer to God I knew without a doubt that the Holy Spirit had been at work. I had told the truth as best I could and He had filled in the gaps of what I didn’t know and couldn’t understand.
This also allowed this reader to see that her experience was not beyond the realm of anyone else to understand. If I could create a fictional character who went experienced the same thing she had and endured the same loss of her identity afterwards, then certainly there would be others out there who understood her pain because they’d been there.
But it was God’s truth that shone through the story to open her heart. Our past can never disqualify us from having a future as a child of God.
When Shayne Wright returns to the small town she fled years ago, she finds painful memories waiting for her. When she begins to see through the pain, she finds she doesn’t know the life she’s built for herself. No matter how much she wants to go back to the way things were before that night, she’s not sure the person she once was still exists. But the horrors of what she went through may be the key to saving someone else’s life. With knowledge and understanding no one else has, she finds healing and redemption by using her trauma to rescue another.
Link: A Far Way to Run
Only half-joking when she claims to be writing with one foot in a parallel universe, Lori Altebaumer is passionate about following Christ wherever He leads and is immensely grateful that the journey for now is paved with the written word. Part of the fun is leaving the “trail magic” of her experiences for other writers on this journey too. Her writing has been named a multi-finalist for the Selah award, as well as the BRMCW Director’s Choice, the AWSA Golden Scrolls, and the FHLCW Reader’s Choice Award. Lori is the past president of the Faith, Hope, & Love Christian Writers and is active in the writing community, hosting the Writers at the Well Retreat held each year in Texas.