How Can a Messy Story Love Others?

​And here we are, at part two. Last month, I dove into my thought on art, calling, and loving God. Now I’m here to think about loving people through messy fiction. Both these posts were inspired by my post back in April about my problem with the clean fiction movement, where I wrote about how I don’t feel the clean fiction movement loves readers well.

So what is “messy” fiction able to do that clean fiction can’t? And how does that all come down to loving people well, and ultimately loving God well?

*in Imagine Dragons voice* First things first--

Why is it important to love people?

I mean, God said so, so it’s kind of important.

But beyond that, it always amazes me how many people—whether they are Christian or not—have been hurt by a church or by other Christians. Some of that is always going to come with being human.

But when Jesus gave those two commands—love God and love people—He put them on par with each other. I talked about in my last post how loving God, especially in something as creative and artistic as writing, can be hard to wrap our heads around. It’s just one of those concepts that’s out there and sometimes doesn’t quite feel tangible.

Loving people on the other hand feels like the practical side of the concept. And in a way, it is. Loving people is how we love God. And loving God is how we love people. We can’t have one completely without the other one. We might be super kind to others, but if you’re not loving God, it will always be missing something. On the other hand, you might be super close to God, but if you’re not loving people, something will always be holding you back. They’re not exclusive concepts. You have to have them both. And people tend to get hurt when you have one but not the other.

So how can a messy story do that? How does a messy story show love for someone else? How do I decide if something is helping me love others well?

For me, a story that loves someone well is a story that makes a reader feel seen or included. It’s a story where even if I don’t have shared experience with the character, it helps me understand others in my life a little bit better.

It’s a story that represents everyone and tackles the messy topics. It’s writers who are willing to be a little bit uncomfortable with the topics they broach and the words they put to paper. They’re stories that make sure everyone has the chance to see themselves in a Christian story, no matter their background.

But these stories don’t shy away from telling the truth. Providing entertainment without anything deeper would be a disservice to the reader. And avoiding hard truths is allowing them to walk into danger unarmed. It’s a writer that pulls truth from God alone, not their own opinions or stereotypes.

On the other hand, it doesn’t beat the readers over the head with whatever the author decided is truth. It communicates its truth in thoughtful ways, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. In the best cases, it allows the reader to take their own paths of thoughts with God.

They’re stories that shake the comfortable. Within Christian fiction, it’s going to be the authors that challenge stereotypes and make readers think. Within general fiction, it’s going to be the authors that unapologetically include God, even if their approach is more subtle and nuanced.

These stories go where their readers go. They stay there with them. Maybe they point out a thing or two along the path. And they wait even while the reader struggles, no matter how long that may be.

These are the stories that have had an impact on my life. These are the stories that are still impacting me to this day. And these are the stories I want to write.