How to Change the World
a writing prompt for you
Welcome to Writing in Company.
This is a community where you are welcome whatever your experience with writing. It’s my own writing outlet where I play with words and ideas and hope you’ll do the same. It’s an experiment in following a new call to ministry, inviting you to write about what matters—grief, gratitude, grace, and more. Each week I share some words and a writing prompt, meant to be jumping-off points to write about what matters to you. Use the prompts however you like—to journal, to draft thoughts for your own writing project, as meditation or prayer ideas, or for another creative endeavor. You can always look back through the archive for more ideas. Grab your pen and paper, and let your words loose on the page.
Friends, find your headphones. Clear your schedule for 18 minutes and 25 seconds, so you can watch David LaMotte’s TED talk.
David is a rockstar in the church circles in which I work, and in plenty of other circles, too. He is an author, musician, speaker, teacher, and international peacemaker. I’ve had dinner with him, read his books, and sung along with his songs, and I like to believe he remembers my name. Yesterday his recent local Asheville, NC TEDx talk was selected as a TEDx Editor’s Pick and shared with their 40 million subscribers, and you need to hear it, too.
It’s about changing the world, that’s all.
It’s also about the stories we hear and tell, and the narratives about heroes and change that make it into movies, newspapers, and our consciousness. It’s about Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement, but also about other people and events in that story and that movement that you probably haven’t heard about yet. It’s about how change happens, and—hallelujah, amen—can still happen.
David’s talk below is timely and important. It made me want to close my computer and go sign up to work on something that matters. Maybe even write something that matters.
I hope it will inspire you, too. Let it be your writing prompt for today.
a writing prompt
“You are changing the world whether you like it or not.” —David LaMotte
Find out more about David’s work at https://www.davidlamotte.com
like | comment | share
Join in the conversation with others in the comments. Tell me what you think about the prompt, or where your writing takes you.
Know someone who might enjoy this prompt or others? Please share!
Clicking the heart to like this post helps keep my writing prompts visible and my own writer’s heart grateful.
Hi - "We Need You" - how many times have I actually heard that? Especially following an idea that has such power? David got MY attention. My next thought was of you, Julie, selecting "Writing in Company" as the title for this shared writing adventure. Did you intend to launch a movement, coming together to change the world with our words? It sure fits with David's theme and I am inspired!!! Thanks for sharing David. I think I will like having him in my life. Diann
Julia,
Thank you so much for the introduction to David’s TEDx talks. New to me! His words are simple, and his thoughts easy to comprehend and truly inspiring. My writing this morning was about how we are change in the world and about how that change begins in our souls. This is where we find that ‘tug in our heart’ that calls to us.
JoAnne