brave life :: on skin

{via pinterest}

i read a quote today, the first line of a blackout poem from the seeker heart of a girl whom i would call an inspiration and a friend. 

life printed on skin

a self-portrait must follow

this quote curled up and nested in my soul from the moment the words passed from eyes to mind. 

for a long time today, i sat and pondered, because i wasn't sure why these words spun silken threads of Light around me and held so fast. 

life printed on skin. 

and then i was drawn back to brave. 

because everyone sees your skin. 

yes, you can cover certain areas with clothing, even bundled from head to toe if you so choose. but you know what's there when the lights go out and the garments slip from shoulder to floor. 

it's not tucked away under flesh and blood and bone like secrets that even x-rays can't reach. it's like the tattoo that stands bold on my wrist, thick black lines that the whole world can see. 

and it's a choice we have. 

a self-portrait we must follow. 

we can tuck down and hide, ducking behind the blankets and begging the world to close its eyes and just look away, just for another minute of invisibility. 

but i feel like He holds out fingers to those corner-clingers, the ones that ache to hide in shadow. and He speaks of sacredness found in freedom, those footprints in the sand when we let Him left and carry. 

i'm brave now, or at least, i'm striving. 

striving hard to live eyes to the sky with outstretched arms, bare with scars and marks. 

because He's in love with them, and so i must be, too.

in love with those lines and lines, thin and thick in black and white and whispers of technicolour of this self-portrait that whispers to His mercies, His glory, and His salvation. 

Pose

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. ~Voltaire 

I have found myself in a field of questions these days.

Some have been doubts, others have been curiosities.

Each one of them have sent me running to the Heart of my King. And there we sit together, He and I, as I run my fingers over the pages of my Bible. I will never cease searching for the answers that I know are within for me to take and draw into my heart.

Questions are not a lack of faith. Please never let anyone tell you that, because it is such a vicious lie. How can we learn if we do not ask? How can we step forward until we gaze up at the Cross and whisper, "why?"

We just have to be prepared for the answers. If you dare to ask, you must be prepared for the forthcoming answer.

Last month, I opened up my blog for my readers to ask me any question they wished me to answer. The ones I received were beautiful and thought-provoking, and I answered them all about a week later.

I am about to do the same thing again.

I want you all to ask me anything.

Stay close to the surface, or dive deep beneath the surface. Stick to the simple delights of life, if you wish...my loves, my hates, the beauties of life....

...or push into the darker jungles to ask me about my fears, my hardships, my struggles, and my pain.

I have never promised perfection. Not once. 

What I have promised is reality. Openness and a soul bared before the Throne, as well as to each one of you. 

We grow from the witness of others. From knowing we are not alone in our pain. From knowing that there is more beyond this moment of fear. From knowing someone else has walked this path.

The only thing I ask is that you keep your musings free from expletives and appropriate for public discussion.

So please, 

let go

and ask away. 

"To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?" ~C.S. Lewis