Was thinking today a lot about WORDS. Yup ... simple ... taken much for granted ... often over used ... WORDS. The amount of reading, researching, writing, office chit-chat, phone-answering inquiries has me at the top end on the 'words-in-a-day' metre. Though as my day carried on today, and God started to poke me with his rod of "don't miss this' stick ... I started to think about these and - "other WORDS".
WORDS: no matter what language we speak - we can't escape them. Understandably ... most of the words we use daily are required and have little consequence to anything life-changing - except perhaps in getting your coffee order correct - life changing with little sleep and first thing in the morning on a busy day! Frankly, I'm intimidated by the Starbucks 'half-cafe, full-shot, no-fat' ramble when my brain has barely been functioning well enough to catch the right bus and make it successfully into my office ... I'm more the Timmies "Double cream, double sweetener" kind of girl! But I ramble (lol) ... where was I? Right ... WORDS!
WORDS. According to Daily Mail in the UK, if you are a woman you daily use 3 times more words than a man. Huh ... who knew? (He did!) Regardless of how many we use, do we grasp that words are not only a communication tool, but when sharpened and preceded by the Holy Spirit ... WORDS HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE ... yes, I'll dare to say it, and you may think I'm overstating it ... but hold on ... the power to change - the world.
Ask President Obama or Mitt Romney last night how much their WORDS mean this morning ... was everything they said TRUE? It certainly was recorded, replayed, analyzed and regurgitated today. Every word they said was monitored and responded to electronically by the masses - "liked that", "didn't like that". Words determined the winner of this all important debate... and potentially, the leadership for the 'free' world.
WORDS are powerful ... they can build up, tear down, inspire, or demolish dreams. They can say "I love you" or "it's not you, it's me"; to read "Good Night Moon" or bellow "because I said so, that's why!" Sometimes the most life-changing words are only two and three letters long. "Yes" and "No". You've heard them many times ... and those two words have certainly changed your life, of that I'm sure! Pretty powerful stuff - WORDS.
WORDS simply a way to communicate - wake the kids up before school, say goodbye to your hubby before leaving for work, send emails at work and keep things moving, wish your colleagues a goodnight before you leave, check on your kids when you get home "pizza okay for dinner?" ... (usually I hear only a one word reply) "yup". Limited use, but gets the job done - yes? And teens do seem to understand the finer points of 'less is more' when it comes to words.
As mundane as our WORDS can be in our regular routine ... there are moments when our words are stronger than any strong man, sharper than any razor-cutting edge, and more penetrating than the heat of a the sun on a -40 Celsius cold day. Sometimes we walk into and out of these kinds of moments without even realizing we've done so. And the trail we've left behind may have encouraged and motivated someone ... and, though sometimes unaware to us, left devastation for another.
WORDS ... sometimes have no voice, not a voice others can hear, anyway. We do this so often that it goes undetected really and repetition of the same words - hit play, rewind, repeat - over and over. Often without grace or compassion - in fact for the majority of us NEVER with Grace and Compassion. They're the words we speak to ourselves - "Failure", "Loser", "Imperfect", "Insufficient". And we, the receiver, always so accommodating and accepting of the message. These kinds of words - so devastating to our spiritual and soul well-being, so crushing to our spirits. Doesn't have to be that way though ... when realigned with God's Word, when we let HIM tell us who we are ... and begin to say those WORDS instead - utterly different result.
Powerful stuff ... WORDS. Theirs has the potential to "call on the better angels of our nature", and the equal ability to crush, devalue, kill, steal and destroy.
A less often heard WORD, but oh so needed and longed for by many --- is the Proverbs 25:11 WORD.
"A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver."
Apples of gold ... in settings of silver ... beautiful. Treasured. Valued. Timeless. Eternal. Changes everything. You know what I'm talking about here ... that moment when you are desperate to know the hand of God, of affirmation, of direction, of wisdom, of assurance, spoken by someone who understood that WORDS could be so much more than their opinion - or flippant advice. When partnered together with the Holy Spirit ... these words are LIFE CHANGING. We so need more people who are willing to give them.
Finally, today I came across one other kind of WORD ... also LIFE CHANGING. In court it's used to 'give witness' to something known or seen. In Christian circles it's boldly declares the tangible presence of Faith in a believer's life - called a 'testimony'. Don't hear it as much in church anymore ... at least not done the way we used to. It used to be spoken by someone so passionate about God's hand in their life that they couldn't contain and and sit in their seat any longer.
I think the most powerful WORD of TESTIMONY I know, is the declaration of faith in Jesus Christ ... under the very threat of death and loss of life itself. Difficult for us in the West to imagine ... what risk is there to speak these kinds of WORDS here? Perhaps being shunned by friends and family as some kind of religious-fanatic? Pretty benign in comparison ... pretty humbling to witness in the context of the following video.
Watching it I was reminded of just how powerful these kinds of WORDS can be. So powerful, in fact, I am confident God's voice could have been heard in unison as they were spoken. Can you hear the immovable passion these WORDS are spoken with, the confident knowing of the WHO - the WHAT - and WHY of the reason they speak them? Hearing them changes something in me. Though the man who spoke these words would never see what his WORDS produced ... they had such an eternal and lasting impact that I am sure the Father will be eager to show him just how much when he stands before that Great Throne.
His TESTIMONY crushed the power of hatred that killed his children, his wife, and finally himself. It obliterated his enemy's scorn and ridicule. They had the ultimate POWER to turn DEATH into LIFE.
I wondered today ... do we remember the power these kinds of TESTIMONY words have? Have we forgotten what scripture has promised will occur when we courageously give a word of TESTIMONY? It's a bold and affirmative promise in Rev. 12:11
"And they overcame him (the enemy)
by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus)
and by the WORD of their TESTIMONY;
and they did not love their lives
so much as to shrink from death."
Listen to the impact of one man's WORDS ...
Ultimately, this man's WORDS began with a DECISION ... a decision to love his God above all else, and to declare true WORDS - even in the face of ultimate fear, and loss. I wonder ... what changes might happen in the deep places of our hearts, in our our marriages, our relationships, our communities, our countries, our world and yes, even in eternity ... if we were to DECIDE to use our WORDS in a way that echos GOD'S WORDS and their powerful consequences. Their far, far reaching and powerful consequences. What impact for eternity might our WORDS have?
Powerful stuff ... THOSE words.
