Posted on in Aging, Faith, Just do it, Poetry, Spiritual growth

A Prompt in Plain Sight

Found this a year or so ago on the sidewalk. I have kept it ever since. It is a writing prompt and in some ways a prod. How so? you ask.

If you have a broken pencil you cannot write much unless you sharpen it and determine to use it. And that is the prod part. Was I willing to use it and sharpen it? This was before I started writing the blog. For years I had been putting off actually writing with regularity and purpose. Once again, I was being given the choice of just keeping a broken pencil, throwing it away, or putting it to work.

And the prompt? Even the stub of a pencil can be used to write. What is to stop the finder from using it? Yes, some kid is missing a green pencil from their colored pencil set, but what about the senior citizen who found and kept it. Will she make use of it, even in old age and gray hair? Will she step out in faith and just do it?

You can scroll through my posts and see if you agree. I think I am onto the discipline of using it and helping the last years of the pencil produce a harvest! Not to mention, the older woman holding said pencil.

Steve Green summed it up nicely with the song “You Want To, Now Will You”


You’ve heard the words
And know they’re true
And now they ring inside of you
They’re calling you to come away
Now will you come or stay.

You want to, now will you
You want to, now will you
The truth that burns within you
Like a bed of fiery coals
Contains that power to liberate
A thousand captive souls
But if the truth will ever set you free
Depends on you
You want to, now will you
You want to…now will you

10 thoughts on “A Prompt in Plain Sight”

  1. I think this is pretty funny you saw something in that broken pencil, you picked it up, and you still have it and using it!
    Steven green what an artist!
    You prompted me to download his music to Spotify.

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  2. What a wonderful post and a great reminder that God uses broken things–like us–to do his work. Thanks too for sharing the Steve Green song. I had not heard that one, but noted it was on the same album as For God and God Alone, a song that I sang a lot in the 1980’s. I remember too singing other popular songs of his like People Need the Lord, which still rings true today.

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      1. I have been in a church choir for almost my whole life and have done a variety of styles ranging from traditional hymns (I was raised in a Baptist church in New England) to more contemporary music. In the church I go to now I am part of the worship team and we use an electric keyboard, electric guitar, and drums for music.

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