Describing a change of heart without preaching a sermon

KCathy said:

I'm about to rewrite a novel from a different gender perspective (that's fancy talk for "I'm making the protagonist a man.") to make the concept less stale. Besides the blah concept, though, the book was too preachy. I'm not even going to tell you how I inserted the discussion of Christian evidences because it's embarrassingly awkward.

I know the story has to be more important than the lesson or nobody will bother reading it. One of the main reasons I used to avoid Christian fiction was because the moral of the story was often so clumsily pasted in that it interrupted the action.

You'd think that recognizing the problem would give me a magical solution, but so far no luck. See, I want to show that the protagonist sees suffering in the world that God doesn't seem to do anything about, tries to fix it himself, and eventually learns to trust.

Can I show that change of heart without preaching? Is this something I should just know how to do, in which case not knowing is just a clue that I should be writing secular fiction? How do you handle changes of heart without bashing the reader over the head with a Bible?

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Hey, K!

Without seeming to be too simplistic, how about the tried-and-true "show, don't tell" axiom? How does the change of heart manifest itself in the character's thoughts, words and deeds as compared to his/her pre-conversion experience?

I have a similar sort of thing going on in my WIP. There I contrast Jonah's thoughts, words and deeds before his acceptance of God's call to Nineveh (while he's running to Joppa) and after (when he receives the second call to Nineveh after his "mishap" at sea). He has a mess to clean up on the way to Nineveh resulting from his prior disobedience to God. So, it's not an exact parallel to what you describe, because it's not an unsaved vs. saved situation, but it's close.

That any help...?

I agree with BruceJ. One of my neighbors likes to use the saying, "I'd rather see a sermon than hear one." A lot of times, seeing someone live what they believe is a mightier witness that what they're saying is true, than mere words can articulate.

What I'm saying is, show how the Lord has changed the character's life, and your character could become a walking sermon. Let him walk the walk, as well as talking the talk. This way, you're not beating an individual over the head with a Bible, but you're still getting your point across.

KCathy said:

You'd think that recognizing the problem would give me a magical solution, but so far no luck. See, I want to show that the protagonist sees suffering in the world that God doesn't seem to do anything about, tries to fix it himself, and eventually learns to trust.

Click to expand...

My question is, have you experienced this mental transition yourself? If not, maybe talk to some people who have. It's rarely about reading a certain scripture or having some sudden epiphany. Well, not in my case anyway. The question of "why God lets X happen" is as old as the book of Job. Speaking of which, you might notice that Job never really comes to any clear-cut understanding in the end. Essentially God says, "Excuse me? Were you here when I made the world? No, you weren't, so shut up and mind your own business."

For me, it was about beating my head against a wall over and over until I realized, I am not powerful enough to change the world, and I never will be. And God isn't about to do it. I don't know why he lets stuff happen, but he does, and pretty much I have to live with that or drive myself crazy. So it's not like some sublime "Yes! God, I trust you!" I have to trust that he knows what's going on, not because I want to, but because I have no other choice.

I guess what I am suggesting is to make it more realistic in the sense that your protagonist doesn't come to some neat, happy conclusion. DON'T try to tie up all your loose theological ends. Leave the questions. Let it be messy. We don't get to have all the answers, at least not until we get to heaven.