Fiction in the Real World

Blogger's Note: The following post I have fought against writing for months. I've prayed and wrestled with God about it... obviously He won or else I would not be writing this for the whole world to see.
The following words are uncomfortable, absurd and ridiculous... but there is a burden inside of me to share this. I did not write this so I could tell you how to live. Only consider what these words mean for you and what you will do about it.


















It started with a consistent discontent (doesn't it always?)
A young adolescent girl, looking for an escape from what she deemed, "a miserable life."
Books about cowboys and fair maidens were only temporary, but an escape nonetheless.
There was only one flaw in this grand escape- the parents. Their standard of books was way too high.
That's what she thought.
Her rebellious heart took on the challenge and the bulk of her reading became "Inspirational Romance" right through her early-mid teen years.
Needless to say, God began convicting her heart. Showing her that it was an addiction, it fueled impure thoughts, and if she desired a greater closeness with Him like she said she did, the best thing she could possibly do was to give up the books.
Sounded easy... right?
For the next 2 years, she struggled off and on, sometimes very intensely, with the desire for temporary escape to these books. Sometimes she gave in.
But her greatest victory was one night sitting in an empty church library... she went to pick up a book, read the back cover, and put it back on the shelf, thoroughly confused. She had lost the desire. Nothing in her wanted to read it. And she has not read one since.
Weeks and months went by, and she began piecing together the reasons for why she was so addicted... and why the desire was now completely gone.
But the more she began piecing together the reasons, the more she began to realize how many thousands of other girls and women were and are in the same place she was.

And then there was that fateful conversation with a friend, the hard hitting realization: The biggest selling Christian books on the market today was Amish Romance.
Her heart began to ache and questions swarmed.
The journal entry went something like this:

"Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, noble, praiseworthy, of good report... think on these things." [phil. 4:8]
Fiction or stories in itself are not wrong. But fiction that centers on the final kiss will rarely, if ever, stir up pure and honorable thoughts...
There is something very wrong with our priorities. If the church of Christ, the heavenly Bride, is so occupied reading love stories about an earthly bride, then imagine how God, our very own Bridegroom, must weep over His bride... worshipping the created instead of the Creator, pursuing the short-lived thrill of fictional romance rather than seeking the heart of the Romancer.
We have reduced holiness to a state-of-being rather than a lifestyle. We have traded the Truth of Christ in for a cute little story about a Western cowboy  and his mail-order bride.
And perhaps worst of all, we have done it all in the name of "Christian."
We believe it's ok, so long as God is mentioned a few times in the course of the story.
But in all sincerity, who reads romance books because it mentions God?
...as Christians, I believe we are called to step up to the challenge and pray desperately for purity in our own hearts, but also pray for freedom from the bondage of this world..."

As she has found freedom, she began desiring that others would find it too.
Freedom to desire something better, to be convicted, to struggle, and then ultimately to be set free from what what weighs down relationships and marriages and personal lives.
And so she wrote a blog post in the hopes that others will begin to ask questions. They will begin to search for answers. And perhaps... perhaps they will begin longing for freedom and redemption, too.