Bleeding In Black and White

“Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing.” —Eckhart Tolle

To surrender fully is one of the most terrifying things you can do. As willful, single-minded entities, we feel at our strongest and most capable when we forge ahead on predictable highways of past experience rather than relinquish our power—our destiny—to an untested, unknown path.  

In 1990, I did the unthinkable and gave up my life. It was like jumping off of The Empire State Building with no way to turn back. But as I lost all control and fell into the gale force gravity of Grace, I found Providence. As helpless as I felt, a strange sense of security overtook me. I was suddenly made a living, breathing part of the blood red tempest. So I surrendered to its influence come what may. What would be left of the person I knew? Who would I end up being? And I cried.   

Yes, it goes against all human understanding, life encounters, family history, academic knowledge, and flesh and blood reason. To surrender means stepping off the ledge believing you’ll be caught by something bigger than yourself. To fling your trembling down-covered wings into the velvet tornado that whirls you skyward to alarming new heights. Then looking out from the center’s calm, you finally see what was there waiting for you. Surrender is refusing the reliable—the familiar—to follow the invisible. A Force that compels you to seek and sore.

To relax and trust.

Playing it safe is to miss life, unwilling to risk, to strike out, to journey into the clouds—where God is waiting for you. Don’t let your fear rob you or your readers of something truly unique. Those who travel a path lovely and well lit have little to share that entreats the soul or encourages wings to take flight. They complain of weary boots, tired bones, but have rarely taken in the heavenly sights beyond their own design. Fear holds hostages. Surrender is the escape.     

Do something dangerous today—believe.

If you’re reimbursing your reader with a systematic story void of emotion—safe, harmless, dull—then fight on in your battle to inspire. Spare nothing. You’ll need every syllable to convince your desensitized audience. To be sensational is to be intrepid. Petrified of failing, then falling headlong into the storm believing in miracles. The Hands that hold you. The Hope inside of you. The path less traveled with an ever-growing incline that tests perseverance and builds beautiful, resilient faith.

As writers, we give our best by exposing our worst. Share your weakness. Reveal your frail human predicament. Offer emotional provision. Be authentically human. Anything but average. 

Adore the tangled heart.

Divorce the logical head.

Bleed in black and white. 

Surrender to Red.