It was the summer before my senior year, I was coming back to the city from my dad’s house. I came back to see a concert with some friends of mind. It was great to see them after being gone for such a long time. It was a little strange when they started asking me strange questions, because apparently some people thought I had died. I know, it was really weird. But apparently there was a guy named Dylan who had died that year, so they all thought it might be me because I wasn’t there and all that. So it was crazy, but it was nice to come back.

What’s funny is I did sort of die in a way, because my old life had passed away. I felt like a completely different person for sure because I was starting to think and feel different. I started to have hope. I started to feel inspired to draw art that was much different than the gory and dark images I created before.

The rest of that summer was nice, my brother was gone for a month so I got to spend more time having the house to myself with just my mom and I. One night particular I was outside enjoying the clear sky and looking at the stars, praying, and thinking about what to do.

Insight Moving Forward

I’ll never forget this feeling, looking at the stars that night, I felt like God began showing me something so profound and simple that started to reshape the way I saw things yet again. That the goal in life is to help people let go. Whether I focus on myself or try to help anyone else, the goal is always going to be centered around that simple act of letting go.

So that same night I wrote down a certain phrase. It sounds a little more new-age than it actually is, but at that time I had no idea what the law of attraction was or anything like that. Anyway the phrase is, “whatever you see, you made yourself see it.” And it really goes for anyone really. Because whatever we allow ourselves to perceive about a situation, that’s the reality we are going to continue to see over and over again, simply because we continue to focus on it. If we believe a negative thing about ourselves, it’s the result of working our way up to that way of thinking.

So for me, someone who was always so hard on themselves, as well as others, this was a wonderful phrase. It began to help me break away from that horrible negative mindset that I used to have. Instead of complaining that things keep happening to justify my bad attitude, the truth is that my bad attitude was creating fertile ground for negative circumstances to exist in my life. Whatever I allow myself to perceive, that’s what I’m going to see, and that’s what’s going to keep repeating. So “whatever we see, we allow ourselves to see it.”

Breaking Down Scripture

A scripture to back this up is in Matthew 6:22-23
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

The part most of us remember might be “if your eye is single, your whole body shall be full of light.” But that part came after a colon. It was the explanation of him saying “The light of the body is the eye.”

What that means, I believe, is the light of your body is your perception. The sight, and the things you see (your light) is directly connected to how you perceive what God has done for you. So if you have a distorted view that is going in two directions at once, or if you’re full of frustration and can’t get over your mind being split with doubt, it will cause problems. This is also a way of understanding evil because evil is a perversion, or a distortion of what is real and true.

The Need To Let Go DAILY

So what I would like to bring this back to is the idea of letting go, and how important it is to do so. It helps to shape our perspective and get our mind on what is true by helping us to feel God’s peace again.

Even today, right now, I am having to let go, years later it is still ringing true.  Because there’s always going to be a reason to hold on to something that’s driving you crazy. Letting go is always going to be one of the most important things we do.  

So what are we letting go of anyway? Well, basically our pride. Pride is not good, and that’s what I started to understand that summer before my senior year. I realized that I had a lot of pride, and it was one of the biggest things I had to let go of. Just to allow the power of God’s softness to move in my life.  It cannot happen until you let go.

New Ideas, New Art

This is the drawing I was working on during that time. The shapes around the triangle was originally meant to be wings of fire, made with a tribal looking style. That organic tribal design began to be a design I started to use to blend in anything. So that is one reason I call it The Everything. For the rest of the year, I spent making this drawing over and over again, trying to get the design right.

Here is a copy of the final drawing I created later that year, which was made with colored pencils. Unfortunately, I have lost the original drawing along with a few others that I can’t find anywhere. But it all started that summer night, when I began to detach from my pride and allow myself to let go of everything I thought I knew before. It’s amazing how just one moment can help you detach from all the things that are trying to weigh you down. It’s only a single switch/lever that causes a huge train to start going in a completely different direction, just by hitting the right switch at the right time. That’s what this day was for me, it was a special time where I allowed God to open my eyes to a new way of seeing things. This night, with the drawings, quote and other things I discussed last week, began to help me form a new passion about my faith that I’m sharing with you know.

Free Sample

If you’re interested in taking a deeper dive into this artwork, you can check out a free sample of my book The Everything: The Creative Kingdom Above Anything. It’s full of artwork and inspirational writing that will help you LET GO and detach from all the noise and chaos going on all around us. You will want to check it out.