Help with Living
‘What does that mean for me tomorrow?’ That’s what a very pragmatic friend of mine used to ask at the end of every church service. He wanted a ‘take-away’, something that would inspire, encourage or challenge him to behave differently in his everyday life. I always remember that when I’m preaching. Not that it’s all up to me: rooted in prayer, a sermon is hopefully a way for God to speak to his people. But in the same way as the Bible is not just a list of rules we need to know, a sermon needs to be more than head knowledge. It should touch our hearts and prompt us to make a practical difference to the way we live our lives. Does the same apply to fiction? First and foremost fiction needs to be entertaining. It needs to engage us in the story and the characters so that we feel invested in their lives. But I think a lot of us, if we write fiction, have more than the story. We have things we want to say; a deeper message that will hopefully provoke our readers to reflec