Devotion: Goosebumps and Tears

My heart has a way of recognizing truth long before my mind catches up. I can be washing dishes, driving my car or feeding the cat, but when truth hits home inside of me, two things happen - I get goosebumps all down my arms and I find myself blubbing. (Ugly crying, in case you didn't get it.) Without fail. Every time. It doesn't matter whether it comes through a movie, music or an ad on t.v... Prod. Bumps. Crying. That's just how it works.

As a writer, I get excited when I go goosies reading something I've written simply because I know what moves me will touch my readers. Maybe not all of them, but that's okay. 

Us creative types are 'moved, to move'. Rory Noland describes this dynamic beautifully in his book The Heart of the Artist. To paraphrase... when you watch a movie, hear music or see a painting that makes you want to weep - its because the artist felt deeply about what he was creating.

So I'm learning to breathe and write those things that don't sit comfortably. Awkward things that refuse to fit into my neat theological boxes and some days leave me with more questions than answers.    

There's a song that had me undone for weeks when I first heard it. Why? Because Matt caught the heart of the Father and sang it over me. Over you. Over a broken, hurting world. Truth got hold of my insides.

I'll leave you with the song as an invitation to explore those things that give you goosies and make your eyes leak... then write them!

Dianne J. Wilson writes novels from her hometown in East London, South Africa, where she lives with her husband and three daughters. She has just signed a three book contract for a YA series, Spirit Walkers, with Pelican / Watershed.

Finding Mia is available from Amazon, Pelican / Harbourlight, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores.

Shackles is available as a free ebook from Amazon & Smashwords.