Today I was honored to receive the award for Best Christian Author of 2025/2026. I want to tell you about it, but more than that, I want to tell you about the photograph.
When the moment came to pose with the award, I chose to be photographed with the three people who truly deserve it. An award has one name engraved on it. The work behind that name never belongs to one person.
Why That Photograph
Writing looks like a solitary occupation. A man sits alone at a desk and words appear. But every book I have written was carried by people who are not listed on the cover: people who gave up evenings, tolerated my silences, and prayed for me when I could not pray for myself. The three people in that picture are the ones who held me up. If there is any honor in this award, it is theirs.
The Presence in Every Word
One name belongs with this photograph more than any other. My wife, Nadine, died in May 2025. She is no longer with us in body, but she remains with us in spirit, and her presence is felt in every word I write. I did not become the writer I am without her, and I do not finish a page now without sensing her beside me. In a very real sense, she received this award with us.
Gratitude
This has been a season of recognition I never expected when I began writing. In September, Best of Best Review named me Best Fiction Christian Author in the United States of 2026, and today I received the award for Best Christian Author of 2025/2026. I am grateful to the people who chose to honor my work this way, and grateful to every reader who has picked up one of my books, argued with it, and written to tell me so. I do not take any of it lightly.
But let me be clear about where the strength came from. It did not come from me. I have written through grief I would not have chosen, and I know exactly how little of the strength was my own. The only honest explanation is the one Scripture gives.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
That verse is not a motto to me. It is a report. Thank you for celebrating with us, and thank you for walking with me through every word.
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