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We hunger for good words. “Mother Teresa told a roomful of lepers once how loved by God they were and a ‘gift to the rest of us.’ Interrupting her, an old leper raises his hand, and she calls on him. ‘Could you repeat that again? It did me good. So, would you mind… just saying it again.'” (Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart)
Good words – gracious words, guiding words, inspiring words - come at us all the time and we want to hear them again and again. Sometimes we’re ready for them and sometimes we’re not. We could be sitting or walking, in an airplane or a lecture hall, on a walk alone praying or drinking coffee with a friend. But for me the feeling is always the same – a deep “yes” that bubbles out of me when the right word appears. I recently had such an encounter while reading a book on Christmas Day. The author used a phrase that I was unfamiliar with but which totally resonated with me. He used the phrase “idiot compassion” to describe a kind of love that continues to allow someone to harm herself or others. And deep down I recognized, without ever having heard the word before, that I knew that word – in my soul, the truth of it. I had done it – even though I hadn’t used it. The poet Marie Howe writes of such an experience when she says, “Bedeviled, human, your plight, in waking, is to choose from the words that even now sleep on your tongue, and to know that tangled among them and terribly new is the sentence that could change your life. ~ excerpt from the poem, The Meadow, Marie Howe
The words that sleep on my tongue, which Marie Howe revels in, however, are not often awakened by my own effort but delightfully discovered. They are nudged to wakefulness by God through people, Scripture, and the Holy Spirit.
There is a recent trend which practices this – the word of the year. I’m not talking about the annual practice of the Oxford English Dictionary to highlight a particular word that has captured the cultural moment. No, I’m referring to a more personal practice of discernment when people pray and think about a guiding word for the coming year – to spark and encourage authentic connections with God, others, and themselves.
These are the kinds of words praised by the Wisdom Teachers of Scripture which ground us, captivate us, and guide us, to a deeper life of faith. They aim to offer grace and truth in order to heal, to build, to benefit, and to guide. We hear from God’s Word:
Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. ~ Proverbs 16:24
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. ~ Psalm 19:14
Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious, but fools are consumed by their own lips. ~ Ecclesiastes 10:12
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ~ Ephesians 4:29
I’d like to quickly offer a drive-by Christian spirituality of words and then lead us in a brief time of discernment so that each of us might come to a gracious and guiding word for ourselves this year to ponder, pray, and practice. According to God’s Word:
The world is enchanted, use words carefully.
This is an area where were Biblical wisdom, science, and art all come together. We live in an enchanted world where our words of blessing or cursing are like spells that conjure help or healing or harm. They can literally clothe or feed us or sting worse than any needle. Words affect our mental states, our blood pressure, and can even create physical pain. We need to revise “bad language.” The unwholesome talk mentioned in Ephesians is not so much speech that uses words considered impolite. It refers to words that tear down, that harm others, that have no benefit. Psalm 59 speaks of words sharp like swords (cf. Proverbs 12:18; Eccl 12:10). Neuroscientist show us that criticism physically creates grooves on our brains. The sentiment of Scripture is best captured by the Rabbi Abraham Heschel to speaking to his daughter Susanna: ‘Words,’ he often wrote, ‘are themselves sacred, God’s tool for creating the universe, and our tools for bringing holiness — or evil — into the world.’ He used to remind us that the Holocaust did not begin with the building of crematoria, and Hitler did not come to power with tanks and guns; it all began with uttering evil words, with defamation, with language and propaganda. ‘Words create worlds,’ he used to tell me when I was a child. ‘They must be used very carefully. Some words, once having been uttered, gain eternity and can never be withdrawn. The Book of Proverbs reminds us,’ he wrote, that ‘death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Words create worlds, friends. What kind of world do you want to create and live in?
Words always lean toward incarnation.
There is a sense in which words aren’t simply to be taken seriously but that they move to be embodied. Scripture enjoins us often to ritualize good words, God’s Words, by wrapping ourselves with them, by physically placing them on our doors, or our bodies and even prescribes eating them (Deuteronomy 11:18, Jer. 15:16). This is more than practice what you preach but recognizes that the words which you use will anchor themselves in you and be enacted. It’s a further reminder that the revelation of God was ultimately “made flesh and dwelt among us we behold his glory . . . full of grace and truth.”
Finally, the best words are the fruit of silence and listening. Words are like salt – more is not always better. Proverbs 10:19, 17:27. The entire book of Ecclesiastes sets out to make this point (5:2-3, 6:11). One of our missional values, “Inspired by curiosity,” leans heavily on Jesus’ thoughtful warning: “So pay attention to how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” (Luke 8:18).
In the spirit of God’s Word and with an invitation to God’s Spirit, I would like to you to consider and pray about what might be your “gracious,” “pleasing,” “building” and guiding word for the new year.
I would like to invite you to center your mind and heart first with a song. Let this song invite you into an intentional communion with the Holy Spirit. Take a moment to breathe, let go of trying to figure things out, and silently remember that God is speaking gracious and guiding words at this very moment.
As you sit silently, consider this question: What action/emotion/idea do you feel yourself being drawn to? Is there a word that bubbles to the surface of your life? What do you feel God is drawing you toward in order to teach you and grow you in order to make you more like Jesus? Take a moment and carefully and prayerfully discern the “gracious,” “pleasing,” and “building” word that God is inviting you to explore this next year.
If you need a bit of background music, listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_C5Vch_qTg
If you don’t feel like you fully grasped the word – that’s okay. This is neither a magical or rushed process. Take the time you need. If you were able to come upon the word that seems right to you then I also invite you to consider these questions:
What are the possible definitions of the word?
What does this word challenge me to do?
What questions does this word call me to ask?
What’s the opposite of this word? How will I know when I’m not engaging or enacting it?
Does this word connect to a verse of Scripture or Biblical example that helps illustrate it?
What images does this word evoke?
If a word didn’t come, don’t worry. There’s no need to rush this process. Prayerfully take your time. Ask God for guidance and don’t hesitate to sit in silence further to await a word to awaken. Regardless of whether you discovered your word or not, I want to invite you write your word down and place it where you can see it regularly, and invite God to use it to shape and grow you in more Christlike ways. And, if it’s not too personal, do one more thing for me. Tell someone about your word and invite them to share theirs.
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