My friend Alma used to talk on her About page about navigating the tension of being a Christian creative that was not necessarily targeting people of faith. I’ve thought about that a lot in the intervening years, and I think it’s time for a change from me.
In the past, I’ve always shied away from any kind of Christian label to my work. In part, this is because I’ve often been frustrated with Christian art, but it’s also because the main target audience I’ve been aiming for is actually non-believers. As someone trying to bring a (non-preachy) alternative to much of the media that’s out there, I’ve been wary of labeling my work too overtly as Christian for fear of alienating the very people I’ve been trying to reach. I’ve long held that many of the groups of people I care most deeply about (read: nerds. I am coming for you, my darlings) may never walk into a church or a Christian bookstore on their own, may in fact have many deep hurts resulting from past experiences that would cause them to never pick up my books if they knew about my faith, so it’s something I’ve always been careful about.
At the same time, in trying to avoid scaring people off, I’ve also felt like I’ve been hiding–or at least avoiding–the most important part of myself, which, in no uncertain terms, is my faith. Now, I’m sure the fact I’m a Christian won’t come as a surprise to most of my current fan base, mostly because, well, at this stage, most of them know me personally. But it doesn’t feel right feeling like I have to be careful about what I say in my newsletter or on this blog to avoid sending people stuff they “didn’t sign up for.”
Because honestly, in times like these, where uncertainty is rife, my future career and life feels like it’s under constant threat (from AI companies training on works without compensation to lower royalty payouts to rising costs and inflation, etc., etc., insert pending tragedy here), and everything just feels so unstable, the one thing that’s really been keeping me on an even somewhat even keel is my faith. And if the whole point of me writing (non-preachy) books that provide an alternative to the current narrative is to eventually point people towards the source of that alternative, it is frankly impossible to separate my work from my faith. I cannot have one without another.
1 Peter 3:15 says, “…Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have….”
Well, this is mine. Heading into this Easter weekend, let me proudly proclaim He is Risen. Jesus is the living King of Kings. Don’t be surprised if he starts popping up a lot more in this space.