Watchword

Setting a Course

I have found myself drawn to writing. Nevertheless, I have been reluctant to create with words–who cares what I write? Who wants to read it? Probably nobody. What does it matter? Still, I take pleasure in words and the telling of stories.

I feel drawn to the keyboard and to the shaping of thoughts and stories. I get a feeling that to create with words, written and spoken, would be a blessed relief from trying to implement ideas that cannot succeed without acquiescence from others. I can read a paragraph or chapter and say, this is done. It is good. It speaks.

Lord, have you brought me to this place? Yesterday I got the feeling that I may have been wasting time by not writing and giving myself to the task. The question echoes back, what if I am a writer? Have I been a writer all along and not allowed myself to be? Or has Father brought me to this day purposefully? How many men come to a place of beginnings when they thought they had already begun? Thought they were nearing the end?

I confess to feeling encouraged when I hear of people who step into a vocation late in life. The idea that Benjamin Franklin joined the revolution as the oldest member of a group of founding fathers is heartening. And there are others who, late in life, wrote a book or painted a picture, started a business or stepped into a new passion. I should like to be one of them. Perhaps that is why I am so inspired by words of Mark Twain:

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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

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Open the gates. Let the words flow out. Let’s stories be told; ideas be kindled and stoked. Become a writer and teacher. Let your voice be heard before it is stilled by time. What can be lost by letting the words flow? More importantly, what can be lost if you don’t?