The Dance of the White Flag

As you probably know, this past week I attended the Green Lake Christian Writers Conference. In search of an appropriate inspiration for today, I read through my notes from the wonderful group of speakers. You probably don’t want to hear tricks for getting past writer’s block or how to edit your entire book. Instead, you want to read something you can apply to your own life.

The workshop I attended, with Cynthia Ruchti, was “The Anatomy of a Novel.” Sounds heavy, doesn’t it? Gives you flashbacks to High School English class and wishing you had a pillow. This workshop was far from a boring lecture. In addition to spending the morning laughing and sharing, I wrote meager notes, all of which were gems. (My notes weren’t so hot, it was the content that was great.)

Here’s one. “The Dance of the White Flag.” That sounds very poetic, very deep. If we wave the white flag, we surrender to the enemy and we’re doomed. But note that the quote says “dance”. Dance sounds more like you have a partner.

The take on it for us as Christians is that showing the white flag is not a bad thing. Yes, it is surrender, but to whom are we surrendering? Do we have a partner?

Our dance partner is God and we need to surrender to Him. Wave the white flag for Him. Surrender your troubles, your trials, your battles. Turn it all over to God. Dance with that White Flag, knowing that it isn’t your fight alone, it is His.

Help us against the enemy; human help is worthless. With God on our side we will win; He will defeat our enemies. Psalm 60:11-12 Good News Translation