Best-selling author FRANCINE RIVERS dedicates her writing to GOD

 

 

"I don't want my voice anymore," Francine Rivers tells a crowd of writers at a conference. "I want God's voice to come through so that people forget who wrote [a book] and hunger and thirst for the real thing." The truth is that as the author of 15 Christian books—many of them best sellers—Francine may never escape the fame that accompanies her success, but she is determined to see that it is properly credited to God. "To me, it's very ironic that when I was in the general market, and before I was a Christian, all I ever wanted was to be famous and have plenty of money," she says. "Then when it ceases to matter, [fame happens]. It's something I don't want, but it's there—within the Christian world anyway."

 

    It will be several hours before she stands to speak again, so we meet in a common room for a lengthy chat. Francine speaks warmly and often with a glint of humor, her soft East Coast accent barely carrying through the noisy room. In the calm and self-assured face of this Christian sister, it is now difficult to see the woman she must have been once—haunted by past choices, enmeshed in a combative marriage, and clinging to religion rather than faith. In the years before Francine's salvation experience, writing was an avenue of escape. The novels she wrote were well received in the general romance market, so she appeared to be inching closer to the glory and cash she craved. But on a walk with Francine, her husband Rick confronted her with a serious observation: "If you could choose between me and the children and writing, you would choose writing." Sadly, she realized he was right.

    Later, she would return to her Christian roots and discover the wonder of a personal relationship with the Lord. God's jealous nature refused to tolerate the idol Francine had placed first in her life. She received a jolting surprise when her talent dried up. "I think God just took it away from me," she says. "Nothing I wrote made any sense; it was garbage. It took me a long time to finally decide to let it go—to the point where it ceased to matter." The process covered nearly three years. During that time, Francine petitioned God to replace her addiction to romance novels with a hunger for His Word (He did), and along with Rick, she became deeply involved in home Bible studies. "Then BAM! We do the minor prophets and Hosea comes along." Francine heard God telling her, "That's the story I want you to write." And so began the year-long odyssey of writing Redeeming Love, her first novel for the Christian market.

    It was also a love story that her general market publisher refused to consider, instead wondering what had happened to her. The book ultimately found a home with a Christian publisher and was released in 1993, launching a new phase of Francine's career.

    "I love to write, but I'm learning there are a lot of other things that I love too," Francine says. "As a Christian, one of the things I'm finding is that I constantly have to be examining my life and trying to figure out, Am I doing what God wants me to do?" Today the writer is absorbed with practicing God's will, and she embraces the truth found in the book of the Bible that spurred her first Christian novel: "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6). It's easy to get caught up in acts of service to God while neglecting to consistently nurture the motivation—our love for Him. Instead, God reminds His people throughout Scripture to present their offerings and their service because of a passion for Him and not out of duty.

    Francine is unsure writing will remain her calling. She loves her work, but if the work should ever not fit into what God plans for her, that's okay. She holds dual perspectives on her writing. The first emphasizes the Lord's protective grace.

    Francine says. "There might come a time when God says, 'All right, it's getting too important [to you] now so you need to step back and move away.' It has be to be God first and keeping my focus on that." The second view centers on His will for her at this time in her life."I don't mind missing writing time, but I do mind missing my time with the Lord. I could give up writing easily and go to college to study Scripture. Sometimes I think I wish I could just do that, but it's not what God's got me doing right now."

    Knowing this, it is surprising to hear Francine describe how she views her gift—in one word: "selfishly." She knows it's a startling thing to say and calmly adds: "My writing is a tool God is using to draw me closer to Him. I'm not writing for market. It's my way of praising Him as I'm going along because whatever He's teaching me is going into the story. It's all coming from Him."

    Like so many Christians, Francine has questions about her faith. "There are lots of things I don't have the answers for. Where do you go for answers? You go to God," she states matter-of-factly. A book is often the result of her pursuit of answers to the questions she asks the Lord. How do we share Christ with resistant non-believers? (A Voice in the Wind) What becomes of those who participate in abortion? (The Atonement Child) How do you build a church and keep it on track? (And the Shofar Blew) "Writing is just the tool I use to figure it all out and 'people' it," she explains. "The different people are voicing different opinions, going at the same issue from different directions. The goal is to find God's perspective in this particular thing."

    Francine does more than yearn for God's voice in her writing. She pursues it by consistently reading God's Word and hungrily embracing knowledge of Him. Her day begins at 5:30 A.M. when Rick awakens his wife and reads to her from either the Bible or a commentary. She admits to being occasionally less than coherent for these sessions, depending upon her coffee intake and the subject matter. "Lately, he's been reading the commentary on Revelation, so a lot of that just goes over my head." After Rick leaves for work, Francine studies God's Word on her own. "If I don't have my quiet time, look out! Everything just falls to pieces," she says. "I read the One-Year Bible every year, and that's my starting point, but then I also take Bible Study Fellowship classes because I want to do in-depth study." When she is working on a book, Francine is delving into Scripture that is relevant to her characters and the question for which she is seeking an answer.

    Recently, Francine has been asking herself another kind of question: Am I honoring God with my time? Professional recognition has brought a deluge of travel opportunities for conferences, seminars, and publicity tours. In 2003 she averaged one week a month on the road, which slowed her writing progress. The wife of a fellow writer challenged her: "Are you being obedient with your gift if you're scattering yourself all over the place by speaking and you haven't got the energy left to write?" It was a question Francine pondered carefully. Why am I travelling so much? she began to ask herself. Is it self-designed procrastination, she wondered, a way of avoiding the pain of asking the difficult question? Stepping out of the speaking circuit required some hard choices—she passed up a career-boosting publicity tour with good writing buddies. "It's hard for Christians to say no, but good things can distract us just as easily as sin does," Francine realizes. "There are lots of good things we can do, but are we doing the best that God wants, or are we letting those good things get in the way?"

    Listening to her, it is difficult not to think she has the Christian life almost perfected, but she finds that idea laughable. "I'm certainly no super-Christian. I'm struggling every day of my life," she concedes. "It took me decades to get to the point where I'd even give in [to God]!" She has peppered this and other conversations with her heart's desire to serve God. So, it's surprising when she tosses out a question for herself.

    Moments later, a discussion concerning a character of whom she is fond specifically reveals Francine's assurance that she isn't complete . . . yet. "Hadassah [from A Voice In the Wind] is the kind of Christian I want to be. Writing about her, I thought, What would a Christian—a really solid Christian—do or say in these circumstances? She had her own struggles because she thought she was a coward. She was afraid. I wanted her to be somebody who lived it and lived it and lived it. Then came a time when 'okay, speak what you believe and it's going to cost you your life.'" Francine is quiet for a moment, and then she chuckles. "I'll be Hadassah when I die and get to heaven."

—Tracy Hillwig