I've been thinking a lot about words lately. Words, and how we use them.

Words matter. 

Words mean things.

Word can be used to comfort or to wound.  To heal or to hurt.  To bless or to curse.

Words can be used to persuade or to manipulate.  To build up or to tear down.  To reveal or to conceal.

The Old Testament book of Proverbs - a collection of wise sayings and instructions to help people live with wisdom and understanding:

"To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, 
to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; 
to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth..."
          Proverbs 1:2-4 ESV

is full of caution and instruction for how we use our words.  Here's just a sampling...

Proverbs 6:2-3
"if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, 
then do this, my son, and save yourself... go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor." 

Proverbs 10:19
"When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent."

Proverbs 12:6
"The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers them."

Proverbs 16:24
"Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body."

Proverbs 29:20
"Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him."

Words matter.  Words mean things.


How are you using your words?  


To build up or to tear down?  To reveal truth or to hide "inconvenient truths" that weaken your position?


To bring glory to God or to yourself?  To point others toward Jesus or to make yourself look good?


To get your way or to find the best option for you and others (even those you disagree with)?


I want David's words in Psalm 19:14 to be my prayer when I speak, when I right, when I communicate.  


Will you join me in this prayer... 


On the Potter's Wheel...

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. " 

Amen.

In one of my notebooks, I have a square card that I have kept there for about ten years. I picked it up at a stationary and art shop in one of my favorite places on earth – Canon Beach, Oregon. The card – in very cool lettering – contains words from the artist who designed it, Mary Anne Hersey. The card reads: 

        Live with Intention
        Walk to the Edge
        Listen Hard
        Practice Wellness
        Laugh
        Play with Abandon
        Continue to Learn
        Appreciate your Friends
        Choose with no Regret
        Do what you Love
        Live as if this is All there is
        Live with Intention 

I like those thoughts… that’s why I take the card out of its pocket in my notebook and read it every so often. I do pretty well with most of those admonitions most of the time – Laugh, play with abandon, continue to learn, appreciate your friends.

There are a couple of lines on that card, though, that take a bit more… well, intentionality for me. One in particular stands out –

        Walk to the Edge

The edge can be a scary place. Nothing to keep you from falling but your own tenuous sense of balance.

Now, some people revel in that. They love climbing up on ladders, leaning over railings, standing with their toes right up to the verge of a cliff. While getting out there may give you a great view… the Edge can give me the willies.

It wasn’t always that way. I used to love to climb up on ladders… I wasn’t so good at climbing trees for some reason. I liked to be up on our garage roof and get out to the edge of some of the drop-offs overlooking Shilshole Bay near my childhood home in Seattle. It all changed for me one day during my senior year at Ballard High School. I was helping some of the cheerleaders change a reader board on the side of the School’s gym building. I used a 24 foot extension ladder to get up to the sign and sat on the eight-inch or so wide ledge below the sign to reach across and change the lettering. Not a problem! I loved it. Then the girls thought it would be funny to take the ladder down for a minute. Now… that was a problem! The ladder was too heavy for them to handle. They dropped it as they took it down and couldn’t lift it back up. Over the next ten minutes or so, I kept myself balanced – half on, half off the ledge – while they ran through the school looking for the custodian to come help them with the ladder. As the minutes slipped by, so did my enthusiasm for ladders, high places, and being on the edge like that. To this day ladders make my knees turn to not-quite-set jello.

But, that’s a literal Edge. That line on my card is pointing to a more metaphorical Edge, I think…

        The Edge of my experience…
        The Edge of what I know…
        The Edge of Myself.

The Edge can be a scary place… but it is a very important place to be. It is at the Edge that we get the best views… both of where we’ve been and where we hope to go. It’s at the Edge that growth happens… good, healthy growth. It’s at the Edge that we can go beyond ourselves and step into a future that God unfolds before us.

To walk to the Edge means to move to the spot between what you know and what you’ve only wondered about. To walk to the Edge means to walk right up to the point where all of your experiences – good and bad – have brought you to look ahead into the unknown. To walk to the Edge calls us to move with trust that the words of Proverbs 16:9 are true… 

        “In his heart a man plans his course,
        but the Lord determines his steps.” 

And, it seems to me, that to walk to the Edge challenges us to take the next step… not off the Edge – that sounds a bit fatalistic – but the step of faith.

Maybe that’s what makes Walking to the Edge is scary. It takes us beyond ourselves. It deposits us right at the spot where to move ahead means to move beyond ourselves… to move where only faith can take us.

To get there doesn’t just happen… it takes Living with Intention.

That's a line from one of my favorite books - "From the Corner of His Eye" - by one of my favorite authors - Dean Koontz. He uses it to describe what one of his characters is experiencing as she ponders some strange and definitely unexpected happenings in the life of her family.

And, it describes well what I hope this Blog will become - a place to faithfully nibble on the mysteries of life, faith, the Bible, meaning, God, purpose, and more.

One of the passions of my life is to help people engage the Bible in a real way... 
         taking it off of the shelf or out of the pew rack and putting it into their daily lives and thinking... 

Sometimes I will be serious with them. Sometimes I will be humorous. At all times, my intention is to be faithful to what the Bible reveals about God and his will for each us as part of his good and dearly loved creation.

One of my favorite quotes comes from William Willimon... it strikes a sympathetic chord in me - and I hope it will in you.

"The good news of Jesus is so odd that we never get so used to hearing it or living in accordance with it that we don't need to hear it again."

What do you think? Can we hear the Good News - the words and story of the Bible - enough? Or is there always room for a bit more?

Something to ponder....

There's a burden that comes when you set your life toward God.

Once you've taken those first, tentative steps of faith - not sure what it all means or where it will take you, either in the short term or ultimately - your life is no longer your own.  What you do, why you do it, how and even when you do whatever it is you do has a meaning, an importance far beyond you....

"You are not your own," the Apostle Paul says, "you were bought with a price."  And, what a Price!

When you set your life toward God, your decisions matter more.  "You are not your own..." and neither are your decisions. Or the consequences of those decisions.

When you set your life toward God, your "yes" should be "yes" and your "no" should be "no"... and your "maybe" should not be a simple way to brush someone off or to push a decision down the road for another day.  Your "maybe" should be the opening to prayerful, thoughtful, honest and ethical consideration and seeking.

When you set your life toward God, the burden of significance rests on your shoulders... reminding you that 

     You are not your own
     Your life is not just about you
     Your decisions matter, and 
     The impact of your life sends ripples into the lives of all those you contact.

But - and here's the Good News - when you set your life toward God, the burden is not your's alone to bear.

"My yoke is easy, my burden is light," Jesus says to those who come to him 

     Weary of doing life by the world's definition
     Laden down with the burdens of a self-focused understanding of purpose and even life itself.

The burden that comes when you set your life toward God is the "weight of glory"...

     The pressing in of the Holy Spirit's presence
     The gravity of being conformed to the image of Christ, and
     The substance of the God of the Universe being real and present and involved in your actual life.

The burden changes you.
Thanks be to God.