By D.T. Powell
I asked God, “Are You sure?”
On June 16th, my Contemporary novel, With Mercy’s Eyes will be published. It addresses homosexuality and same-sex attraction from a Biblical perspective, and it challenges readers to look at others the way God does. This book is nothing like anything else I’ve worked on, and it almost didn’t get written.
Several years ago, when God started quietly letting me know that I would one day write a Christian fiction book with a homosexual main character, my first question wasn’t “Why.” It was, “Are You sure?”
From that day, God kept nudging me toward this story in so many small and silent ways. Sermons, songs, Bible passages, the Holy Spirit’s gentle moving, words from other people—Christian and non-Christian—and daily “coincidences” all folded into one complete and clear answer. “Yes, God is quite sure.”
But even though I had His answer—even though the creator of the universe was very sure of His leading, I, in my fallible, mortal wisdom, was definitely not.
Initially, I obeyed God’s clear direction and started drafting With Mercy’s Eyes. But I was afraid—of what others would think and do in response to this book—even to learning I was writing it. So, I penned the first half and set it aside, reasoning that I would eventually finish it, just not right now.
At the time I was writing With Mercy’s Eyes, I was also neck-deep in another long-term novel-writing project. I had goals for pitching that other book to agents and publishers within a certain timeframe and was pushing to meet that goal.
Then came the gentle yet clear nudging of God to set that second project aside and come back to With Mercy’s Eyes. But fear still had its claws in me, so I dove into my second project and tried to push away the growing knowledge that I was being blatantly disobedient.
I worked on that other project and gave my absolute best effort to it. I drafted one day, then re-read, edited, and drafted a new section the next. Or, at least, I tried to. Those first couple days, I drafted a good bit of content. But when I went back and tried to read, edit, and decide where the plot needed to go next, I couldn’t decipher it. Words and sentences that made perfect sense the night before became a jumbled mess as I re-read them. I couldn’t put together a sentence—much less a full page—to save my life.
No matter what I did and how hard I pushed to work on that project, it became humanly impossible to make progress. After a full week of this misery, I stopped trying to force God to let me go where I felt safe.
Once I went back to writing With Mercy’s Eyes, I finished it within a few months. Although it was the most difficult story I’ve ever written content-wise, it was the easiest to pen. No matter how difficult the scene, God walked with me through each one. When I had no words, He gave me more than enough. When I had no strength, He provided each day as was best. When I had no time, He stretched my minutes and hours into enough. God’s grace and enablement are permanently engraved on the heart of this story.
As I’ve walked through the publication process for this book, God has helped me understand so much—both about this story and myself, but, more importantly, about Him. Because of With Mercy’s Eyes, I understand more fully that when God directs, He enables. When He asks, He provides. And when He moves us to do something we don’t understand, He is very sure of what He’s doing. We can trust Him wholly, because, as the hymn says, He is “wholly true.”
– – – – – –
About With Mercy’s Eyes:
He turned his back on God a long time ago. But God never forgot him.
Six months after struggling actor Lane Harris lost his husband in a tragic accident, he lands a movie role guaranteed to put him on the Hollywood map. But one producer holds the power to shut down his shot at stardom—and she’s a Christian. If she finds out he’s gay, it’s over. Lane is careful not to say too much around her.
When an alcohol-fueled tryst with his co-star ends in humiliation, and his landlord hands him an eviction notice, Lane looks for someone to talk to. He finds a confidant in the Christian producer. After a night of too little sleep and not enough coffee, he lets slip his sexual orientation. Instead of a verbal flogging, the woman recounts recently losing her own husband.
The only Christians Lane knows condemn him upon learning he’s gay. But this one is different. She doesn’t embrace his sexuality, but instead of treating him with disdain, she offers compassion. Christians are supposed to hate people like him. So, why doesn’t she?
– – – – – – –
With Mercy’s Eyes by D. T. Powell is an issue-facing Contemporary novel for adult churched Christians. It addresses homosexuality and same-sex attraction from a Biblical perspective without falling into the trap of the extreme responses we too often see from modern churches. It holds similar views to Jackie Hill Perry, Becket Cook, Rosaria Butterfield, and Christopher Yuan.
