What does it mean to live in this world with Biblical wisdom and winsome confidence? What does living out the Gospel look like in our daily lives?
I interviewed author and speaker Trillia Newbell about her new book, Beautifully Distinct, and we talked about engaging our culture with a Christian worldview. She answered those questions by saying Christians can offer love and hope to a lost and hurting world. She also gave some encouragement to writers. Read my review of her book, and watch our interview on YouTube or listen to the audio on Spotify and Podcasts.
My prayer is that our conversation helps you think clearly, speak carefully, and act courageously in faith. May we engage the world with the grace of Jesus.
Editor’s Note: Below are edited excerpts of the conversation. It has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.
Aaron Lee: I liked how you divided the book into three parts: “Being Thoughtful,” which included how we should think about movies, food, sex, work, and literature; “Listening Well,” which talks about hospitality, immigrants, and race issues; and then “Speaking Well,” which is social media, beauty, and telling your story. What areas do you think are particularly important today?
Trillia Newbell: Every single one of them. Let’s start with being thoughtful. Right now, conspiracy theories are running rampant. We’ve got to be thinking Christians: discerning, reading, and asking, “What is true? What is right? What is pure?” We’ve got to be thoughtful.
[In terms of] listening well, I don’t know (in my lifetime) a time that has been more confusing and divisive regarding racial issues. Of course, we know that this is nothing new under the sun. So we need to try to understand, [and] you don’t gain understanding by speaking all the time. So we need to be listening well. We need to gain understanding.
And then speaking well. Right now, social media is one of the number one ways that we’re communicating with each other. Now, of course, [there are] 7 billion people on this earth and everyone’s not on social media, so we can also overstate that to a certain degree. But millions of people are engaging with one another via this medium. So we want to make sure that we are speaking well.
There’s a lot of people who are bearing false witness and are disobeying God in the way that they speak about other people. So, again, we need to learn how to speak and speak well. So there’s a lot going on that this book touches on that we need to be thinking through today.
Aaron Lee: I’m looking at the contributors in this book and they are women and women of color. How would you encourage women, particularly for our audience, which would be maybe younger Asian American college women to speak up and discuss these issues that you’re talking about in your book, especially in a church context, where maybe these issues aren’t discussed?
Trillia Newbell: I would just say trust Jesus and just speak. There can be a temptation [to give in] to the fear of man, and Proverbs says, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” So we are safe in the Lord. We take all of the Word and we consider all of God’s calling — to love Him with all our hearts, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves — so we can speak in a way that is true and loving.
If there is something [to share], prayerfully consider your words and prayerfully consider when to speak. A lot of people quote, “Silence is compliance.” There’s time to speak. There is a time to wait and not. So you have to discern: When is that time, and what should I say?
And this is really important: there are about 20 issues going on at the same time. We cannot and we’re not really called to be engaging on every single thing. So ask the Lord: What is it that you could contribute to and what is it that you’re passionate about? Speak to that.
It would be overwhelming if we’re just constantly trying to engage on every single topic all the time. So I do want to relieve some people of that fear.
This is also a fear: If I don’t speak up on every single thing, then it will seem like I don’t care. Well, that’s not true. You can pray, and you can entrust it to the Lord.
Aaron Lee: There was a sentence in the book where it says, “Practicing cultural engagement is a means to win people for Christ.” I think that’s great because we’re trying to be salt and light to the world. How would you encourage those of us in our audience — Asian American churches or communities where we don’t always look at these cultural engagement issues in terms of evangelism — to do that? What does it look like during this COVID-19 time in which it is hard to interact with the community?
Trillia Newbell: So not understanding everyone’s context, I’m speaking in limited experience or narrow knowledge here. But I think that if you’re going to speak or say something, the manner in which it is said can show love. Now people are going to be against truth. Jesus said that if the world hated me, why wouldn’t they hate you? So there is a chance that you’re going to be rejected as you speak something that is true.
We are all going to experience that and [so] I am not as concerned about that as I am about the manner in which we say that truth. So you can say something that is true in an offensive way that you. But chances are you may not talk [in an offensive way], so maybe what you’re needing is boldness to actually say anything and to care.
I think one of the reasons that a lot of people don’t say anything at all is that they’re apathetic. So there’s [this] thought: It doesn’t really affect me, so I’m not going to say anything at all.
What we would need to discern in our hearts is, “Do we care about our neighbor?” Or are we most concerned about our community and our situation? Because if you care about your neighbor, you’re going to touch someone who’s not a Christian. You’re going to get out of your bubble.
In our current situation where we’re socially distanced or churches are being closed, I think how you engage with that essential work worker or your public, gosh does it matter. If you go to a store, and masks are required, wear the mask.
There are some things that we can do to show our neighbors that we love them, even if we are kind of like, “Ah, this doesn’t matter to me so much, but it matters to the community.” So we just need to think about these things, like what hills are worth dying on?
Now I do understand that there are lots of medical reasons and there are some emotional reasons, but you just need to count the cost there and think about how you’re engaging with those people who are on the ground working, whether it’s in grocery stores, shops, mechanics or whoever it is.
In regards to just community [during COVID] in general, I think we can still be a part of a community [bit] it’s just gonna take a lot more effort. So one of the things that my husband and I have done is when we are walking in our neighborhood, if someone starts to talk to us, we stop and talk rather than just move on. There’s loneliness [out there] and people need community where they may not have that. Normally, we might have just said, “Hey,” and passed on, but we stopped to see if they’re wanting to engage more. And usually, they do because no one’s seeing anyone!
Aaron Lee: You have a new position as acquisitions editor at Moody Publishers. I wanted to get some insight from you as the acquisitions editor. You wrote on your blog recently on how you’re limited and how you can’t write on every subject. I want to ask you, how would you encourage writers, women or women of color particularly, to find their niche?
Trillia Newbell: There are some people who have an ear for certain subjects. They are gifted to speak about that subject deeply, so dive in there.
If you look at my books, you’ll see that I’m pretty broad. But there are a lot of topics that I would never engage in, or I’m just very gifted in or I have no interest. If you’re not passionate about something, don’t write, especially don’t try to write a book about it. You will hate life if you try to do that.
Another way is other people will let you know. They will confirm or affirm or that calling and you’ll hear it, either if you write a blog post or an article. They come back to you [and say], “That was really encouraging,” “That spurred me on,” or whatever it is.
But you if you start down a road and you’re miserable, don’t do it. Because it’s not going to serve you or your reader.