The Value of Words

Words, words, words... They're everywhere. There are so many of them! And their numbers are growing. In fact, according to the English Oxford Dictionary there are currently well over a half million words in our language. Up from about 50,000 total words in the 1600s. (Making new words is a big business!) As the number of words go up the value of each individual word appears to go down. Less and less people pay attention to all this verbosity. Why? Because the more words we use the harder it is to communicate. Seems backwards doesn't it? Think about politics for a moment... Imagine the conversation that you often see and hear between politicians? How would you characterize it? Most likely you would say they use a lot of words! Words that are politically correct, influenced by special interest groups and full of rhetoric. After a while most people tend turn it off or look the other way. Think about marketing… Look at how many words are turned down, turned away from, or flat out ignored every day in advertising. For example: I live in a development called ‘wildcat ridge’. There are no wildcats. (At least there haven’t been any in a while.) And there is no ridge. The development’s name is used for marketing... to make the area sound more exotic… to entice those who are looking for a home. (Apparently a bunch of families moving into North Phoenix find it appealing to raise their young children around mountain lions?) After a while most people realize that the development’s name means very little. Think about how we talk… For example: Our society uses the word 'love' often. I even do it. I might say, “I love playing football.” And that’s true but not like I love being with my kids. Or I might say... “I love chalupas from Taco Bell.” Yeah, I love chalupas, but not in the same way I love my wife. (And the truth is I really don’t love chalupas I just love saying the word… try it...) No doubt after time we diminish meaning as we misuse the word 'love' so often. (Barbara Brown Taylor wrote a book entitled, "When God is Silent", that has some of the best thinking about ‘words’ that I’ve read. It’s not a long book. I would highly recommend it.) One last example… look at how many words it took me to get to this paragraph which is really at the heart of what I want to say! (418 up until now if you haven’t been counting) Often our words matter very little. The way we live our life does matter. A common temptation among those who call themselves Christians is to hide behind words. We hide behind them because it’s easier to do that than to figure out what they mean and really live them. Or as one of my favorite quotes along these lines goes… “There is ambiguity between terminology considered as words about the faith and words as faith incarnate in living men. Our task is to bridge this gap, preserving both creed and meaning. It challenges us to clothe mere words with life.” Mildred Bangs Wynkoop. ”Clothe mere words with life…” think about it… that’s what God did when He created this world. He spoke and life was created. That’s what Jesus did when He walked this earth. He was the Living Word. His words were valuable yes, but it was His life backing up those words… living in congruence with those words… that changed all of history. So, what should I do with words? Two things God is teaching me. 1) Use them less. This really smart guy in the Book of Proverbs says, “Where words are many sin is not absent.” 2) Most important I think... make sure my words match my life. J

Car Art

What I wish I could do to my window after today’s rain in N. Phoenix. From the ‘just when you thought you’d seen it all’ desk come these images from dirtycarart.com. Does this guy have too much time on his hands? Or is he just overflowing with creativity and can’t contain himself? Or maybe he’s just looking for some medium that hasn’t been exploited yet? Probably all of the above! I could try to make some spiritual connection here but I would most likely just take away from the ‘coolness’ of it all. So, if you’ve got a comment go for it. renovare (Which, in case you are wondering, is Latin for renewal or recreating or trying something new. All of them quite appropriate for the dirty car artist.) j

Don't Miss the Bus

1st day of school! School started this week for our kids. Wow. We now have a child in Jr Hi. (yes, we are that old). One in fourth grade and our youngest in Kindergarten. Quick, where does the word kindergarten come from…? Huh? Got you, didn’t I? It’s German. Yep, ‘kind’ means child and ‘garten’ refers to garden. (Apparently before school young German children played in the garden a lot… OK, I made that last part up. I have no idea.) Anyhow, is there anything sweeter than watching your five year old, with his new backpack get on the bus for the first time with his brother and sister? (You’d have to be a parent to answer that so in case you’re not a parent the answer is no.) So, we communicate to the 9 year old about how he’s supposed to help the 5 year old get to his class, right? Because it would be lame for a parent to just send the boy off by himself with no direction. And yet I’m not entirely sure the 9 year old understands the importance of making sure the little guy goes exactly to the right spot. So, the first couple of days I drive behind the bus and setup a reconnaissance post just outside the school playground, behind the fence. (Come to think of it I probably looked like some perpetrator with my pajamas still on, cap on backwards with sun glasses peering in through the fence… Probably not good advertising for my church… hmm… I’m going to have to rethink that in the future…) All right, got the mental picture? Dad’s watching the boys. They don’t know it. It’s the first time for both of them. For one, it’s the first time to ride the bus and get to class from the bus. That takes a lot of courage. For the other it’s the first time to get the younger one from the bus to class. That’s a big responsibility. Dad’s watching the whole thing go down fighting the urge to just ‘step in’ and make sure it all happens like it’s supposed to. You’re already ahead of me probably… Don’t you think there’s some correlation there to what Father God does with us? (except for the 'fighting urges' part and the peering thru fences looking like a perp!) The idea is that God is watching us. For some He's watching us attempt to be courageous during our ‘first time’… the first time to confront someone, the first time to admit to being a Jesus follower in front of people, the first time to make a big move, start something new, experience some new challenge, etc… God ahead. Be strong. God is with you. For others of us God might be watching us during our first time to help someone. Sometimes we fail to see the importance of helping others. Or maybe like my older son we don't get the 'communication' right. Let me put it this way: As you pursue Jesus, God will allow people to come into your life that need your help. You might say, I don’t want them or I don’t have time or I can’t do it or I’m not ready… It doesn’t matter. They’re going to come. Following Jesus is not an individual thing. It’s highly relational. Our 21st century, Western culture twists our understanding of following Jesus and tries to make it strictly personal. That’s not the way the Scriptures approach it. It’s not what Jesus had in mind. Rather we are to “season” the world. We are to “bear with one another”. We are to “love as Christ loved us”. Well, of course, I cannot follow the bus everyday to the school and watch my boys. But there is someone who follows us everywhere we go, day and night. He’s watching us. He loves us. He expects us to attempt new things with courage and embrace the responsibility of helping others do the same. don’t miss the bus, j

Go with the 'Flow'

Black Sand Beach in Maui

Johnna and I got back this week after a week in Maui. (obligatory pause long enough for you to say, “oh, it must be rough!” or something like that) I guess a highlight for me (besides the wedding and baptisms which were the real reasons we were there in the first place) was a trip around the East side of Maui which many call, “the road to Hana.” Right before you enter Hana there is a state park called Wayana…. OK, something that begins with a W. Within the park are some caves, incredible lava rock formations jutting out into the water and a black sand beach which is really misleading because although it’s black most of the beach is rock not sand. The pictures above don't completely show the grandeur of the area but it does show a bit of the progression one goes through while descending down to black sand beach… lots of warning signs… jellyfish, man of war (if there is more than one man of war around do you call them men of war?) breaking waves, etc… And then, of course, there’s one of me in the water. We’re not sure whether it’s a foot and a hand or two feet that you can see of me. Truthfully, probably one of the scariest things I’ve done in a long time was to walk down that short beach (black rocks) watching the hungry water eye me. (Why did I do it? Well that’s really for another entry. But it’s mostly because it was there.) While creeping along trying not to get knocked down by waves some of which were breaking chest high even right at the shore line I remembered something… If you fight the wave you will lose almost every time. (Especially if you are standing on rocks in bare feet.) But if you go with the wave and let it take you out a little the next wave will bring you back in. For some of you great swimmers out there letting the wave take you out a bit is not a problem. For me it’s simply counter-intuitive. Muscles, tendons, molecules… what’s smaller than molecules…? Atoms! Even down to my atoms I wanted to stay standing and enjoy the relative comfort of my feet being on solid ground. Everything within me wanted to fight it. But my only chance for enjoying, not to mention surviving was to ‘go with it’.

There’s a pretty obvious connection to our lives here. What I experienced in those few minutes before I capitulated and allowed the waves to go ahead, knock me down and pull me out a little was what many, many people put themselves through frequently… fighting the flow of life. (I’m not talking about going against society’s accepted norms or standing up for what you believe. In that context you have to fight the flow and that’s a good thing.) What I’m talking about is going against the flow that God has allowed (or ordained) into your life in order to get you to a different spot or to teach you something. I’ve learned something about myself: I spend too much energy fighting some things just because I’m scared. I really have no idea what is going to happen when I stop fighting and the fear of the unknown keeps me from giving into it. Meanwhile if I would. If you would. Just let go… give up… (make up whatever phrase is applicable here)… stop fearing… trust God… (truthfully, isn’t that what this is all about…? trusting God…?) If we could just trust God then we’d get pulled out a little, be scared, wish we could swim better, pray a bunch and then just about when we’re going under another wave would come along and bring us back to shore. And then we’d learn that God really could take care of us.

Now obviously this analogy I’m working with here has a strain of difficulty in it because we all know that there are events in life that work like an undertow, which is a strong current pulling out to sea. These events can drag us out and it can be very dangerous. (My family experienced this in a literally as my brother was drug out into the Atlantic as a young boy, was lost then found and taken to the ER to be revived.) In light of those 'undertow events' it seems apparent that this analogy doesn’t always work. But hold on… I think it does… You see, even when a ‘wave’ breaks us in the physical sense we know there’s more than meets the eye… despite the physical signs, there are spiritual things going on all around us, all the time. So, we trust in the ‘waves’ coming in even when we don’t see them. There’s always another ‘wave’ coming in. There’s this guy in the Hebrew Scriptures named Joseph who made a fantastic statement one time. He said, “What they meant for harm, God meant for good.” He had experienced enough of life to realize that you can’t always see it but God is working for your good. There’s always another ‘wave’ coming in. One more comment…we trust in that ‘wave’ even though it takes a long time to come. Another guy in Hebrew Scriptures starts out a poem by saying something like this, “I waited for the Lord and He heard my cry.” If you are serious about following after Jesus sooner or later you will have to wrestle with the idea of waiting. It’s one of God’s primary tools to build character in you. Waiting for the job… waiting for the relationship… waiting for redemption… waiting for the answer… waiting for direction… waiting, waiting, waiting…

Go with the flow. Don’t fight it. Let it take you out. There's always another 'wave' coming in. You’ll be back, stronger than ever and glad for the trip.

to the wave,
j