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Pray Now for the Poets – They May Be Our Last Hope

Posted Saturday, April 23rd, 2016 8 Comments
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writing-923882_640We say prayers for the preachers and prayers for the hands of missionaries and teachers in foreign lands. We say prayers for the soldiers who are off at war and prayers for the workers serving food to the poor.

But a time is coming, twisting round like a cloud, when the preaching of truth will be disallowed. When the prince of the air and his kingdom of lies will be embraced by the masses who truth now despise. So I tell you this:

pray now for the artists, the poets, the kings of composition, of stories, and fantastical things. Pray for the hearts of the writers who weave truth into stories a few will believe. Pray for the filmmakers, novelists, and more to be courageous and bold when the world is at war with the beauty of truth, with the scandal of love, with the Lordship of a God who rules from above.

When the preachers are silenced and true teachers banned, the mission will fall to the poets on hand.

Like graffiti on street walls we’ll work in the night to spray paint the gospel with aerosol light. We’ll write Him in novels, in screenplays, in poems.graffiti-225395_640 We’ll paint Him in murals in the square, in our homes. Like an underground railroad we’ll pass Him along in stories, in dances, in sculpture, in song.

There won’t be room then for the spirit of fear so writers and artists should train now to draw near to the heart of the Almighty, to drink from His wine, to feast at His table and ingest the divine so it flows from our fingertips into our art and pours from our spirits fed straight from His heart.

Pray now for the artists, the writers, the scribes, for courage, for commitment to truth above lies.

Creativity is the last bastion of truth when convention is silenced and fear takes root. So pray for the souls striving alone with their art to labor with courage and to live from His heart.

once-upon-a-time-719174_640Pray for boldness, for bravery, for insight, and power – to this work we’ve been called and now is the hour for each artist, and writer, composer, and bard to graffiti the world with the scandal of God.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears bible-879087_640tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4 NASB

*offered humbly with apologies to true poets everywhere and dedicated to Cathy Baker

I invite you to take a sneak peak at the cover of my next book, Jesus and the Beanstalk (Overcoming Your Giants and Living a Fruitful Life), scheduled to release in September from Abingdon Press. What do you think? Just click on the link.

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    The Conversation

  1. Mary Harwell Sayler says:
    April 23, 2016 at 10:28 am

    Wonderful word! Thank you, Lori. May God give us the prayers to pray and words to write in Jesus’ Name.

    Reply
  2. Lynn D. Morrissey says:
    April 23, 2016 at 5:51 pm

    Powerful post, Lori!!! Thank you so much for this challenge and reminder! And as poets, ourselves, let’s pray that we have the courage to keep crafting words that are true and noble and right, and yes, creative and excellent–words worthy of hearing. And let’s pray that people will listen and that our words will not reverberate in silent caves or in deaf ears or in caverns of vacuous minds….pray that we will tell the truth, that they will hear the truth, and that the truth will set them free!
    And pray that we will be able to disturb the silence. I leave you with the eery and challenging words of lyricist Paul Simon:
    And in the naked light I saw
    Ten thousand people, maybe more
    People talking without speaking
    People hearing without listening
    People writing songs that voices never share
    And no one dared
    Disturb the sound of silence

    “Fools” said I
    “You do not know, silence like a cancer grows
    Hear my words that I might teach you
    Take my arms that I might reach you”
    But my words like silent raindrops fell
    And echoed
    In the wells of silence

    Reply
  3. Sherry Carter says:
    April 23, 2016 at 9:58 pm

    Lori, I never thought of this but you are so right. Only writers will be able to weave Jesus into story and song in a way that will touch hearts but not catch the attention of people who want to eliminate knowledge of God from our world. As a Bible study writer, I’ll have to find a less obvious way to teach of Jesus.

    Reply
  4. Barb Irwin says:
    April 24, 2016 at 5:31 pm

    Thank you for this. It reminds me to keep my poetry dusted off and ready to share when and wherever my Lord wants.

    Reply
  5. Jay says:
    May 3, 2016 at 10:44 pm

    I stumbled across the site, thanks to Ridgecrest Conference Center’s upcoming event. That is self-contraditory, but whatever.

    You have a style of writing that I gravitate towards. This particular piece reminds me of the Holocaust poem, “First they came,” by Pastor Marti (according to the ever-scholastic Wikipedia). Both pieces convey a timeless truth: We need to be ready.

    Your attention to creativity as a loophole is good point. The power of tune is another good way to encourage those who already know Christ. If someone cannot talk about Jesus at work, then simply humming a hymn could serve as a boost to those familiar with said song.

    Unrelated: I was so used to the poetry that I kept reading the closing Scripture passage… as though it sohuld rhyme. 🙂

    Reply