Lola T. Parker - Hands of a Writer

"I pray for the hands of a writer." They are words I read so many years ago, written by Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline. When I read it, something changed in me...something that was as much as a calling as it was a confirmation. I must write. I knew then that the gift I had been given was exactly that: the hands of a writer. It's a gift no better than any other - no more significant - but it's mine and I am grateful.

Foster started his book, as so many authors do, with acknowledgments. In that section he wrote:

"I am struck profoundly by the weakness of words...and yet I am struck even more profoundly by the fact that God can take something so inadequate, so imperfect, so foolish as words on paper and use them to transform lives."

Can I get an Amen?! Words do transform lives. They can harm and they can heal. They can cause one to feel deeply and they can grant a much-needed escape from the world. Words can sting, and words can soothe. They are, in fact, only words...but when they are strung together into meaningful messages by the hands of a writer, they are enough to change the world...