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No Fish Stories: Write Your Testimony From the Heart
by Barbara Carr Phillips

When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." But Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net." And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. (Luke 5:4-6 NKJV)

Sometimes I get really tired of talking to my little Beta fish, Bob. It's not that I don't enjoy his company. He never interrupts me, always has time to listen to my troubles, and keeps everything I say in complete confidence. But the trouble with Bob is he never trusts me with any of his struggles. He just floats around in his little bowl as though he doesn't have a care in the world.

Well, I've got news for you, Bob. Nobody's life is that perfect. I suppose I should be grateful for your listening ear. It's just hard to be real with a friend who seems to have it all together, all the time.

Self-revelation is a necessary process when writing from the heart. We have to earn the trust of our readers for the story to mean anything to them. I wish I could say it's easy to keep putting my life out there for anyone to read, but it isn't.

It's easier for me to say "we" instead of "I". I remember a phone conversation I had last winter with a good friend. She had buried her mother a few months prior to our conversation, and was struggling with her sister's terminal illness.

"We love you," I said, but I knew I didn't say enough.

"We love you," I repeated, "all of us do." Still, it sounded empty.

"I love you," I said, finally saying what I wanted to say the first time.

Why was that so hard?

Because saying "we" puts me with the gang, and I feel less vulnerable in a crowd. "I" puts me out there front and center with no one to hide behind. Getting close enough to my heart to write the "I" of a difficult situation is a painful process.

I have winced more than once after reading one of my published stories. I feel the force of the loss of privacy. I worry that I might have caused someone embarrassment. I wonder if I'll be ostracized by my family and friends. I imagine them talking about me. "Can you believe she wrote about that!"

So why write it?

I do it because to many people who don't know me, I look just like Bob. When I show up for church, I float into the sanctuary like I don’t have a care in the world. But I don't have it together like Bob. And I want to tell the truth. Readers who need Christ in their life, who are afraid to step into a church because their lives aren't as "together" as Bob's . . . they need to hear the truth.

We learn from each other's testimony. That's how I connect to you and you connect to me. Once a connection is made, we feel less alone in our struggles and, together, we can build our hope in Christ. When we write from our hearts, we share our humanity. As writers, God commissions us to use our talent to make the big catch in Luke 5:1-11.

Let's go back in history to the "big catch" moment. Up to the point of the catch, Jesus was doing all of his work alone. More and more people were becoming interested in his message and he needed more messengers. Did he go to the synagogue and look for a great priest? No. He looked around for every day people like you and me. Jesus is able to make kingdom workers out of imperfect people.

I'm often struggling with challenges that no one would ever imagine because I float so well. My prayer is that writing about them will be the bit of encouragement someone needs. Fulfilling my commission is not necessarily pulling in every reader. If my story is the difference between heaven and hell for one person, it's worth it.

Although you may never know whose life you touch by telling your story, I want to encourage you to write it. Writing from the heart is more than self-expression; it's an act of obedience. Trust God when he directs you to let down your net. We are not living in a perfect world where we can afford to waste time floating. Come along with me, friend. Let's fish!

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