It’s getting close to the end of reading through the Bible this year. Today I’m reading in 2 Corinthians, the second letter that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, and it made me think about the power of words, even in a letter. When was the last time you really contemplated the power of the words you write? Power to lift a person’s spirit up, power to wound and hurt—wounds through words that could last a person’s lifetime, or power to heal and help a person take the power of words said in the past and lift the burden of them from their soul.

When I write, I need to remember that I’m welding a powerful sword as I type words from a keyboard, or write a note and post it in the mail. So do you! So with everything you write, be sure love for each person permeates the message you share.

Yesterday we saw “I Heard The Bells” produced by Sight & Sound theatre about the life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I cried and laughed, and hurt for Henry and the family, yet out of the tragedies that were part of his life, Henry grew to know God closer, and as he wrote his pain, his words rang out, even to this day. Henry wrote the poem “I Heard The Bells” on Christmas Day in 1863. Here is what he said:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

———

Do you hear his pain, his despair, yet his triumph and renewed faith in God?

Dear friend, write your pain, and let God heal your fractured heart through the writing.