Blank Pages
For a writer, there is nothing more intimidating than a blank page. So unassuming, yet it taunts with the sheer number of possibilities. It dares us to make the first move, to draw first blood, to make a commitment. Patient, it refuses to yield the secrets of what it will become. Much ink will be spilt before the session is done. Ideas will be tested; some will live and some will die. But the prize will be worth every drop of mental blood, sweat and tears shed on this battle field. For a completed page is the accomplishment of something great.
Blank pages to a writer are very much like blank canvases to a painter, or blocks of wood or stone to a sculptor. The artist takes something that isn’t, sees within it something that could be, and turns it into something that is. That is how it is with writing. When I get to the end of a page, I know that something has been gained here that cannot be acquired anywhere else – an insight, an answer, another question. Writing is more than just putting words down on a page. It is a bout with severe honesty. It is a wrestle with truth – truth about ourselves, the world, life – all things that have been given to us by the Great Author Himself.
And so it is with life. Each new day is a blank page in the story of your life. Each page is yours for the writing, and how you write it will set the course for every page that will follow. This is a truth worth remembering: Life is more than just passing time. Each day means something. Yes, it is a small piece in terms of a lifetime, but it is an essential piece of a significant story in the great cosmic drama. How do you want your story to read? Will it be a series of random pages, dead-end plots and fragmented ideas? Or will it be a record of an amazing journey?
Think about your next blank page. It may be today or it may be tomorrow. Whichever it is, it is blank because it has not yet been written. Think about what it could be. Maybe you need to make a decision about something. Maybe you need to make amends with someone. Maybe you need to do or say something that should have been done or said a long time ago. Maybe you just need to put the past behind and start a new chapter. Whatever it is, this could be the first page of something really great. Determine to make this day worth reading and start writing.
