For a long time, I’ve felt an itch to write some sort of book. I’m not sure what about. Maybe it would be a unique look on something long understood. Perhaps, a collection of perspectives on different experiences or a poetic telling of what it’s like to have to grow up and face the world that no one prepared you for. 

Looking at an empty page is always daunting to me. I think when I was younger it was so much easier to just let honesty flow from my fingertips, but the older I get the more difficult it is to sift through all the lenses and layers I apply to my life experience. It’s scarier to be seen, especially when you’ve seen so much. There is now more to be afraid of, more to lose, there’s just more. Really, it’s that the childlike wonder for life has somewhat faded, being replaced with too much reality. There’s more awareness of the effects of sin on the world, and it weighs heavy sometimes. 

I have always loved that writing gives you a way to speak without actually speaking. It gives you the space to process, dwell, observe, reflect, and discover. I think in many ways, much of life can give you space like that if you’re looking for it. Creativity is everywhere, even in some of the most seemingly mundane of activities—and you can process and discover so much when you let yourself go there. 

The older we grow, the more we forget what it was like to be a child who looked at the world as a place to discover. There’s something so beautifully wild and pure about a child seeing or experiencing anything for the first time. Do you remember what that felt like? When’s the last time you laid in the grass and felt the sun touch your skin? Or skipped in the street, laughing just because you’re alive and happy? 

Can our creativity remind us of that feeling—while simultaneously wrestling with the harder truths of life? I mean, think about it, shouldn’t that be what life is all about? Aren’t we meant to, in following Christ, hold this tension between having a childlike wonder and a sober mind?

I think, yes.

In doing this, we also recognize the brokenness of life, especially in ourselves, and still rejoice and look forward to the kingdom to come. It’s holding two, seemingly opposing emotions, ideas, and realities and realizing that they both exist for the other and can only fully function together.

When I write, I don’t want to just write about one side or the other. I want to write along the line of those tensions that exist within each of us. 

Wherever you have the slightest room for true expression and exploration of yourself and the deeper questions and experiences of life—pursue those things every chance you get. 

As always, thanks for reading.