Reader,

I've never considered myself much of an artist.

When I draw things for my kids, I typically restrict myself to stick figures. Even then, they aren't anything to write home about. ("Dad, why are his legs so short compared to the rest of his body?")

Lately, though, I've been pushing myself. You can thank (or blame) the never-ending quest to get attention on social media. Since LinkedIn posts with pictures tend to perform better than those without, I've taken to doodling on index cards. The jury's still out on just how effective this tactic is. But hey, I'm having fun.

Yesterday, I came up with this:

If you didn't grow up in evangelical Christianity – or if your Christian home / school / college somehow evaded the influence of Josh Harris – you might be wondering what's going on here.

The scene I've crudely reconstructed is taken from a random college party. You see, I went to a small Christian college where student parties typically happened in homes, under the watchful eyes of more responsible adults.

Since our community frowned upon casual boy/girl relationships – believing that boys and girls should avoid dating until they were ready for marriage – these mixers were often loosely segregated. Boys could talk to girls, and girls could talk to boys, but you had to be wary. Talk too often or for too long with another person of the opposite gender, and you could find yourself facing a grand inquisition about your intentions.

If a young man was bold enough to sit next to a young woman on a couch, he was sure to hear about it from his peers. "Make sure you leave room for the Holy Spirit!" one of them would yell across the room.

I'm sure there's a story or essay in there somewhere. Today, though, I want to repurpose that admonition because I think it's actually a powerful writing lesson.

Many writers, myself included, struggle with faith. And I'm not talking about religious or spiritual faith. I'm talking about our faith in our readers.

We often get to the end of what we're writing – it doesn't matter if it's a blog post, an essay, or a novel – and think, "I need to spell everything out." Especially if we're sharing a story or some other illustration. We're afraid that if we don't connect all the dots, our readers will miss the whole point.

Sometimes, this fear is reasonable. The last thing we want is for someone to go, "Why on earth did you share THAT story?" However, when we try to justify ourselves after the fact, we've probably already jumped the shark. Because if we have to spell everything out, why did we bother with the illustration in the first place?

Other times, I think this fear is a symptom of our unhealthy desire to control our reader's experience. We want them to see what WE have seen, and we're worried that they might see something else entirely. (*gasp* "What if they see the WRONG thing?")

All that's to say: leave room in your writing for the spirit. Specifically, your reader's spirit. They'll thank you, and your writing will be a lot more compelling.

Keep your stick on the ice.

Frank.