“Ain’t No Journey Hopeless.”

Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she is a pastor's wife and mother of three adult daughters. She was the winner of The Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone and also has two devotional books in print. Her work has been endorsed by Sigmund Brouwer, Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. The sequel to One Smooth Stone will be released in 2011Visit her website at www.vinemarc.com

In the film, Hurricane, there’s a thread that I’m sure warms the heart of every writer. A young man, whose life is full of distress, picks a book from a bin at a second-hand store and takes it home. The book not only changes his life, but, because he is moved to connect with its author, in prison for a crime he did not commit, it changes the writer’s life too. When the young man and the writer meet, Hurricane Carter asks him, “Do you think it was an accident you picked up my book?” Hurricane implies it was not. He implies it was in the plan. The book was meant for that young man. It set him on a path, a journey designed for him.

God often works that way. He puts things and people in our path, like books on the top of bins, which give us what we need for that time in our lives. Some years ago, it happened to me. I was on the campus of a Bible school with my husband. He was not having a good day. I don’t remember what the issue was, but his mood was decidedly gloomy. We went into the campus bookstore and I headed for the bin of reduced items. Right on the top was a book called Writing Religiously by Don M. Aycock. I snapped it up, thrilled that I’d found something that seemed to confirm what I believed God was telling me to do – write for him.

I showed it to my husband. His reaction was not very polite. In fact, it stunned me with its harshness. Please know this was not characteristic of my husband. In fact I can’t remember another time when he has ever spoken to me the way he did that day. I was so stunned I put the book back and left the store. A few moments later he joined me, book in hand, and apologized. We then had a “clear the air” kind of conversation in which I told him how much writing meant to me now that I had become a believer. It was the first time I told him that I believed writing was my calling, just as being a pastor was for him.

I believe that day and that conversation were meant to happen. That book was waiting for me. It was the spark that launched my career, and my husband’s comment, though it was harsh, was the spark that gave me the determination to begin. God knew exactly what I needed at that time in my life. He used an ordinary book that day, but I also believe He uses a very special book to do the same - the Bible.

A friend recently sent me this quote – “..And in Bible-story journeys, ain't no journey hopeless. Everybody find what they supposed to find...” (from "Sounder" by William H. Armstrong.) Talk to anyone who reads the Bible regularly and they will tell you that statement is more than true. Hebrews 4:12 says – “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow...”

The Bible story journeys are meant for each and every one of us. They will provide the hope, the joy, and sometimes just the dogged determination we need to keep going on the path we are meant to follow.

Never underestimate the power of your words, or His.