I love words. My fascination with them began as a child and to this day, playing with them, kicking sentences around and arranging the shape of articles into an intelligent and thought-provoking commentary delights me. Looking back over the past two decades I am fascinated with the directions my words have taken. From researching and co-writing background material for investors to these short weekly pieces and a lot in between, I've learned a lot.
On the other hand, while reading the works of some of my writing heroes brings great enjoyment (you know who you are), I've noticed they provide a temptation to jealousy. "Oh, I'd like to write like" crosses my mind, demanding a quick prayer for resistance to the lure of envy and stirring a dogged determination to improve my skills. In all that, this has become increasingly clear to me - there are some things that simply can't be expressed in words. Here are some of those situations:
"Please pray for me, a family member has passed away." Would you remember to pray for those affected by Ebola?" "I've lost my job and we might lose our home." A promise to pray can be quickly voiced but the commitment to actually remembering to do so requires much diligence.
Along with many other things he wrote, I love this quote by John Bunyan: "In prayer rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart."
Prayer demands focus, communication and time; writing, like prayer, requires disciplined expression of matters concerning the heart. Stephen Crotts put it this way: "God has editing rights over our prayers. He willedit them, correct them, bring them in line with His will and then hand them back to us to be resubmitted."
"one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray'" (Luke 11:1)
