Send to KindleBehind the Story: Deep in the Heart
I’ve been asked in various interviews that I’ve done over the years where God fits into my stories, to which I answer: “With the majority of my stories, if you take God out, you don’t have much of a story left.” Truer words have never been spoken about “Deep in the Heart.”
“Deep in the Heart” tells the story of Maggie Montgomery, a down-on-her-luck, clinging-to-faith heroine, and Keith Ayer, the worldly son of a Texas billionaire. In the story, it is Maggie’s faith that fascinates Keith so much that he suggests they take the children in Maggie’s care at the mansion to church. Now there are many more complications to all of this, but the behind the story glimpse I want to show you today has to do with the actual visits to church that they make.
I am very fortunate in that God in His graciousness has seen fit to weave profound wisdom into my life. Whether that be in the losses and trials I have suffered along the way, the teachers He has put in my path, or in the writing I have done about all of it in an attempt to capture just a thimbleful of everything He’s shown me. Thus, I do not write just fiction as I started out doing. Now, my writing runs the gamut of fiction, nonfiction, novel-length, short stories, inspirational, religious, young adult, new adult, adult, Bible Studies, and blogs.
The church scenes in my books are often pulled from sermons I’ve witnessed, Sunday School classes I’ve taught, and life lessons I’ve learned. Many of these same lessons can be found in my nonfiction works. However, I think they take on a special significance as the center jewels in the fiction stories. Much like the parables of Jesus, when you are walking with the character, you have the insight to not just hear the words but to see how a person would put them into practice–or not–and the consequences of that.
For example, here’s a snippet of one of the sermons in “Deep in the Heart”:
“My best advice on this subject is to walk through the doors that God opens for you and stop pounding on the doors that are locked. You may think that door number 2 will lead you to everything you’ve ever wanted. So you try it, and when you find it locked—it doesn’t work out or roadblocks seem to drop from the sky, you start pounding on the door. Many people pray, asking for what they want to have happen.
“But God…” The preacher pointed upward. “God in His infinite wisdom knows that door will ultimately lead you to heartache and pain, so He chooses to keep it locked for your sake. But if you’re like me, you just know that whatever’s on the other side of that door will lead you to what you want, and so you will pound and kick and bang on that door, sure that it will lead you to what you want.
“And if you’re like me, you might even get mad at God for not opening that door. ‘God, please, if You’ll just let it work out this way…’ No.” He stopped, his face intense. “No. That’s not going for the desires of our hearts, that’s not walking in His ways. That’s walking in our own ways and asking God to bless it. He won’t.
“No. God will never bless what He doesn’t instigate.”
In this part of the story, Keith is driving himself crazy trying to get things to work in his life that will ultimately lead to his destruction if he ever actually gets them. This sermon came out of many of my own experiences, trying to convince God that I knew what was best. Of course, God always knows best, and in the story, Keith learns this as well.
The truth is, I just feel incredibly blessed to be able to bring the Good News of Jesus and the Christian life to readers in books that spell it out and in ones that paint in vivid colors what it means to really be a Christian. The bottom line is: God fits in everywhere, and I’m blessed to be called to write that so the whole world can hear, and know, and understand, and then begin to live the life God intended for us all along!
Copyright Staci Stallings, 2012
About the Author:
Staci Stallings, the author of this article, is a Contemporary Christian author and the founder of Grace & Faith Author Connection and CrossReads.com.
