Prayers from my Pencil

Are you into poetry? Even if it doesn't always rhyme? Does it help you push back from life's desk to shift focus and gain fresh insight, if only for a moment, on everything from the mundane to the majestic? My longtime pal Greg Asimakoupoulos, born in central Washington but living on the tundra in northern Illinois, emails his original poetry my way almost weekly. When I first met Greg thirty years ago, he was a student at Seattle Pacific University. He had a creative flair and a heart for God, but, like each of us at that age, there were rough edges around his youthful idealism. What I couldn't see then was how the Lord would temper him for a lifetime of Christian service, including a slide into clinical depression. In this dark tunnel a Christian therapist encouraged him to journal his prayers, a key to his therapy. After God's healing came into his life, Pastor Greg continued to write poetic prayer verses as a way of caring for members of his flock. Those in deep anguish, unable to pour out their hearts to God, found in his penciled prayers a language for hurting souls. This art form he'd learned in the lab of personal despair is now a creative balm for soothing others.Prayers from My Pencil is a collection of a hundred of Greg's personal psalms dealing with such issues as the loss of a loved one, prodigal children, employment woes, financial loss, miscarriage, depression, divorce and AIDS. It also contains lyrics of praise songs and psalms that express gratitude to God for answers to prayer.Greg's verbal gymnastics and spiritual sensitivity have touched my heart many times. If you're looking for something to ramp up your personal worship, try Prayers from My Pencil. If you counsel people capsizing in life's changing currents, here's a welcome lifeline. And it could be the perfect gift for a new Christ-follower who's grappling with Praying 101.