Does it feel like you’ve made too many bad decisions and can never come back to God?

Radio host Chris Fabry of Chris Fabry Live! explores the themes of family, loss, telling the truth and redemption in his new novel, Not in the Heart.

Synopsis of the story:

Truman Wiley is an out of work successful journalist who’s been downsized. He has a gambling addiction, he’s estranged from his family and his son needs a heart transplant. Truman runs across the story of a man who’s a convicted murderer on death row with 30 days left to live. The murderer wants Truman to tell his story, and if he does that the murderer will give Truman’s son his heart. Truman begins to write the stories, notices some inconsistencies and realizes the man might be innocent. He is faced with a great dilemma: exonerate the innocent man or save his son. While Truman made a career out of telling the truth to others, he’s never told the truth to himself.

Chris Fabry explained that the idea for the story came out of everyday life moments. When he was in college he worked briefly with a man who went on to work for CNN. When that journalist got his first job out of college he covered a execution and interviewed the inmate. Watching the execution changed his life and made him undone. Chris drew off of that man’s experience.

He also drew from the experience of a family he knows whose son Levi had a serious heart condition. Chris extrapolated Levi’s story, fast-forwarded 18 years and combined it with his former coworker’s story.

“One thing I like about this story is that I think everyone has a Truman in their life. Somebody that they see making all these bad decisions and they want them to see the truth about themselves and the truth about God.”

Key Scriptures: Colossians 3:23-24

Not in the heart