Yesterday a friend and I were discussing a quote she had found that reminds us that our souls are shaped for a relationship with our Creator – a concept that I recently saw described as a God- shaped dent.  If we do not turn to God to complete us, if we do not fill that “dent” with intimacy and friendship and love and honor for God, each of us instinctively turns elsewhere to fill the void.

My friend mentioned that she thought Facebook is a major substitute that many of us – Christians and non-Christians alike – use to fill the longing for God that God placed within us.  We mourned the fact that many pouring-out-my-heart comments on Facebook postings are poor substi-tutes for prayer to and connection with God.

This morning as I rethought the power of words for good or for evil or merely for wasting time, I remembered an inscription at the beginning of a daily devotional book, Wings, by Jill Briscoe.  She prays,

Give my words wings, Lord.

May they alight gently on the branches of men’s minds

bending them to the winds of Your will.

May they fly high enough to touch the lofty,

low enough to breathe the breath

of sweet encouragement upon the downcast soul.

Give my words wings, Lord

May they fly swift and far,

winning the race with the words of the worldly wise

to the hearts of men.

Give my words wings, Lord

See them now

nesting-

down at Thy feet.

Silenced into ecstasy,

home at last.

A lofty ambition for any poet, novelist, journalist, song-writer, parent, teacher, preacher, lawyer, singer, comedian . . . and most certainly this blogger and all other bloggers, isn’t it? Actually, the concept applies to painters, dancers, composers – all occupations.  We all play to an Audience of One . . . . and however we express ourselves (even if we are plumbers or cooks or pilots or doctors) should honor that One.