I’ve been asked this before, why do I write Christian romance? It’s a fair question. With all the genres and subgenres out there that move way more copies, why do all my stories huddle together under the smaller, less lucrative umbrella of Christian romance?
It’s Simple
I write romance because our pursuit of human love, in some ways, mirrors God’s relentless pursuit of us. And I love writing stories that show God’s pursuit of His children. He never gives up on us. He never walks away. He never fails.
I believe our world needs clean, wholesome, and God-honoring narratives. It needs stories of purity, characters that honor the Lord, and illustrations of how true satisfaction comes from a right relationship with God and not from a human relationship. We need stories that showcase love thriving within the boundaries God has created and give hope to those who have only known broken love. We need stories of hope. Not hope in the right man, but hope in the Lord.
An Example of Love
In a culture that overflows with poor examples of love, I want to show readers what it looks like when someone cherishes you, what it costs to love sacrificially, and what it means to put someone else’s needs before your own. I want them to see love is worth it, and then set the bar high, refusing the settle for anything less than a partner who loves the Lord completely and loves others more than self.
I want readers to know what real love is so that when cheap imitations arrive with honeyed words and lofty promises, they are wise to its seduction. I want them to want more than crude jokes, filth, and stolen kisses.
When the apostle Paul penned 1 Corinthians 13 to the people of Corinth, he wasn’t penning a sappy Valentine’s Day definition of love. By the time the people of Corinth got to chapter 13, they all knew this was a correction. They were not loving well, so Paul was going to tell them how to change. I want to write stories that reflect this changed love that is determined to love as the Lord requires, no matter the personal cost.
HEA
In this genre, you can count on a HEA, your happily ever after ending—and I like that. But more important than finding her one true love is my heroine’s growth in her walk with the Lord. More important than saving the day, winning the girl, and defeating the villain is my hero’s surrender to God. Yes, I write romance. But the real story is exposing the lie my characters believe about themselves, the world, or God and proving that lie to be untrue. The real story is that God is the Hero, the pursuer of our hearts, and the lover of our souls. The real story is how human love, even the best love story, is only a shadow of the love Jesus has for His bride.
Shame is not the word Gloria Sycamore would have chosen to describe the emotion that lingers deep inside her. She’s lived most of her life in the shadow of others, never quite fitting in, never quite belonging. But all that should change on her return to Sycamore Hill. She isn’t looking for a hero’s welcome, but she does expect a friendly one. After all, she is a Sycamore, and she’s dating the local minister. But the community questions her commitment to her faith, the town, and their pastor—who they are not keen on sharing. So, Gloria sets out to prove them wrong, navigating the messy and sometimes hilarious muddy water of dating in the public eye, where nothing is private, and everything is up for debate.
My connection to Gloria
His Sycamore Sweetheart is a work of fiction. That’s an important clarification. Yet, I had so much fun writing this story because I feel a deep connection to Gloria. I’m not only a pastor’s wife, but I’m also familiar with feeling tolerated instead of welcomed and not measuring up. I think, in many ways, there is likely a little bit of Gloria in us all. I feel it when I fail to speak up or stand up or absorb hits, secretly believing I must deserve them. Shame shows up when I overreact to expressions of displeasure with me. I long to please people, and if I can’t, I feel rejected. This is exasperated in church ministry, and I can easily feel worthless, nothing, zero. This is shame. This is Gloria’s reality.
Gloria struggles with the tension of wanting to break free from expectations while feeling pressed to conform to who people expect the pastor’s girlfriend to be. She tries to read between the lines to discern what people want from her. She struggles to understand what it means to serve others and consider them better than herself.
Gloria will feel a magnetic pull toward her familiar feelings of inferiority and unworthiness. She knows Christ has made her clean. She knows sins against her say far more about the accuser than her. She knows that one touch from Jesus has replaced her shame with his honour. Yet, the feelings return, resisting the truth. To battle this, she remembers the gospel. Jesus lowered himself to elevate her. Jesus doesn’t just remove her shame; He gives her His honour. He replaces shame with honour, so she can walk in freedom.
Join Gloria in Sycamore Hill. She’s willing to do anything to salvage her reputation except the one thing they are demanding. That she walks away from the man she loves.
I was offended that he (and other heroes of the faith) had multiple wives. I’ve read and accepted that the Bible doesn’t condone sin, even when it doesn’t directly call it out in a particular passage. But David. He took things further when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed to cover his sin.
God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David. David repented, but the consequences the Lord assigned were devastating and long-lasting: the child born of the adulterous union died, and eventually, another of David’s sons rebelled against him.
Talk about Heartbreaking.
Much later, in Acts, Paul summarized David’s life and legacy this way:
“God raised up David their king. He testified about him: ‘I have found David the son of Jesse to be a man after my heart, who will accomplish everything I want him to do.’ 23 From the descendants of this man God brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, just as he promised.”
Acts 13:22-23, NET
How could David, the adulterer and murderer, be a man after God’s heart? How could he be a hero of our faith, the author of so many beloved passages of Scripture, in the lineage of Christ?
I knew the answers lay in David’s repentance and God’s forgiveness and restoration, but my niggling dissatisfaction with the way God used David told me I had more to learn about the heart of God and the redemption He offers.
Writing it Out
As a novelist, one way I work out my deep questions is by writing about them, so I borrowed elements of David and Bathsheba’s lives and loosely translated them into a contemporary story.
David was famous and a musician. So, the hero in To Bring You Back is a rock star. (At this point, I hope you’re sensing I wanted the story to be entertaining and not something that would read like a Bible study.)
Like David, Gannon has tragic sin in his past, but he’s repented and embraced God’s forgiveness.
We’re not told much about Bathsheba’s side of the story in the Bible, so Adeline, the heroine in To Bring You Back, allowed me to put some of my own doubts and questions in the story.
Unlike Gannon, she’s still carrying heavy shame over what happened years before. It’s crippling her life, and when Gannon shows up again, you can bet she resents the freedom he’s found.
Confounded, Adeline poses the question in the story, “How good is grace?”
And there it was. I’d finally found the central question, the answer to which would not only free Adeline, but would also resolve my feelings about King David, the people I share my life with, and even myself.
How Good is Grace?
I’m sure I didn’t answer the question completely or perfectly, even in the 300+ pages of To Bring You Back, so you can’t bet I wouldn’t do it justice in the short space of a blog post.
Rather, I’m writing to extend an invitation.
If you find yourself stumped by the way God’s mercy and grace have played out in the pages of the Bible or in the lives of believers around you, I invite you to lean in. Instead of flipping to a new chapter or avoiding the discomfort, explore until you find the central question, and then seek the answers in God’s Word.
There are answers in Christ, and they are beautiful.
If you happen to also wonder how good grace is, well, the book I wrote is nothing compared to God’s. You can read about David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 and 12 and Psalm 51.
Question
Are there people described in the Bible that you sometimes struggle with? How has God helped you come to a new understanding of His work in their situations?
Emily Conrad writes contemporary Christian romance that explores life’s relevant questions. Though she likes to think some of her characters are pretty great, the ultimate hero of her stories (including the one she’s living) is Jesus. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their energetic coonhound rescue. She is the author of the stand-alone novel Justice and the Rhythms of Redemption Romance series, as well as a series of short stories, which she emails in installments to subscribers. Learn more about her and her books at emilyconradauthor.com or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
About To Bring You Back:
My thoughts:
I listened to this title using the read to me option on my Kindle. (If you have never tried this before, I included instructions on how in my August newsletter.) This option is not the high-priced voice actor version. It’s more like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. Despite the mechanical narration, I LOVED this title. I couldn’t wait to hear more. In fact, I think I put in more miles running because running time was the only time I had to listen. That alone speaks volumes about how much I grew to love Adeline and Gannon.
There are few authors that I find reliable enough to convince me to pre-order their next title, but Emily is now one of them. I can’t wait for the next installment in the Rhythms of Redemption series. Conrad consistently writes clean and God-honoring stories, and she threads beautiful redemptive threads through her novels. If you’re a romance lover that hasn’t read her, you’re missing out.
Blurb:
He’s determined to confront the past she’s desperate to forget.
When Adeline Green’s now-famous high school crush descends on her quiet life, a public spotlight threatens to expose her deepest regret. After eight years of trying to bury her mistakes under a life of service, she’s broke financially and spiritually. The last thing she can afford is feelings for the man who took center stage in her past—even if he does claim to know the secret to her redemption.
Gannon Vaughn and his rock band, Awestruck, have conquered the music industry, but he can’t overcome his feelings for Adeline. When he hears she’s struggling, he sets out to turn her life around and win back the love he lost to poor choices eight years ago.
But when Gannon’s fame and their mutual regrets jeopardize their relationship anew, will grace be enough to bring them back to God and each other?
To Bring You Back is the first of the Rhythms of Redemption Romances, a series of Christian, rock star romances.
“Sometimes the hardest person to forgive is yourself. Fans of Karen Kingsbury will enjoy To Bring You Back.” – T.I. Lowe, author of Under the Magnolias
