Words Matter

Words matter.
The old cliché was that words would never hurt. The truth is that words have such great power. When someone chooses you, and says to you, “I choose you,” your world is changed. When you stand before God and friends and say, “I do,” your world is changed. If you stand before the judge and say, “I don’t,” that, too, changes the world.

We learn the power of words early. We learn the power of “no.” I had to convince my children that “no” was a very good word, but not a word that could be effectively used with mom and dad. We taught them the power of their kind words, “Please,” being the most operative.

Words matter. They are full of our shared hopes and dreams.

Barbara Brown Taylor is one of America’s preeminent preachers. She says:

“You don’t need a grand pulpit; any old housetop will do. Even the sun room will do at the nursing home, where you stand by the piano surrounded by wheelchairs full of old people. Some of those old people are dozing, some whimpering, and less than half of them are aware you are there.
Say “Resurrection!” in their presence.
Say, “Life everlasting!” say, “Remember!”
Just let those words loose in the room; just utter them in the light, and trust them to do their work. Speak to a support group for people with AIDS. Worship with them, laying hands on their heads and praying for their healing.
Say, “Mercy!” to them.
Say, “Comfort!” Say, “Beloved children of God!”
Just let those words loose in the room; just utter them and trust in their power to make people whole.

“Here’s the plan: God showed Jesus how; Jesus shows us how; we show the whole people of God how; they show the world how.”

(“Words We Tremble to Say Aloud”)

Your words matter. Your words change the world…for someone.

Major in Majors

This is the news from Houston today.

Yes, it is hot and humid in Houston, but I wonder if there is a lesson about majoring in minors. You are familiar with that term, right? It is something that is rather common in church, too. We spend huge amounts of energy on matters that are not central. We get upset and we upset others over issues that are on the margins.

Here is the story...
An undercover sting operation in Houston nabbed more than two dozen air conditioning repairman performing work without a license, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation said Thursday.
TDLR officials said the sting took place at a home in Houston between July 12 and 14.
The agency is expected to issue cease and desist orders to the unlicensed companies identified during the sting until they are in compliance with the law. Businesses that fail to obey the order could be subject to a $5,000 fine.
"We want every person in this state who is performing air conditioning or heating work without a license to worry every time they answer a call," TDLR's Executive Director William Kuntz said in a news release. "If they meet the requirements for a license, we want them licensed. If they don't meet the requirements, we want them out of business."
State law prohibits unlicensed businesses from offering to perform air conditioning work to actually performing it without a license.
Kuntz advises consumers check with the state's Web site to see if the repairman they are about to hire is properly licensed.
"The consequences of hiring an unlicensed, unqualified person can be disastrous. Your home can burn and your family may be harmed or killed. Even if you escape without injury, unlicensed contractors rarely have insurance. You will have no recourse if the unit fails to function properly - or function at all," Kuntz said.

At least is was not a police sting operation!
....

Let's stay on task. The task has everything to do with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).

Heritage

Is heritage disposable?
When a young couple comes for premarital counseling (or even if they are not a young couple) I ask them to do a three generation family tree. I would like for them to see the significant relationships that have been a part of their heritage. We learn to be who we are in our families. This is the story of our lives. When you think about your grandparents and your parents, your aunts and uncles, what do you see? Some families are close-knit. They are dependent upon one another. Some families are far-flung. You may not even know the stories of our family. But that IS the story. Is your story full of fractured relationships? That does not mean divorce, necessarily. Sometimes the fractures are tolerated. We learn what we live. We live what we learn.
Heritage counts.
But it does not count for EVERYTHING!

This is the old hotel in my old home town of Dewey. I grew up going to the Dewey United Methodist Church. We were Democrats. Dad worked for a susidiary of Phillips Petroleum, and we had a photo studio across from this old hotel. Across the other street was the Tom Mix Museum. Tom Mix was the mayor of Dewey and a cowboy actor in the silent movie era. The Harbours came to NE Oklahoma before statehood to sell contraband to the Cherokees.

Our heritage counts, but we are not bound by it.

Spanglish

Have you seen Spanglish – movie with Paz Vega, Adam Sandler and Tea Leone?

It is about rearing children, about love and neuroticism, and about the cultural divide. What I liked about it was that Adam Sandler’s character had the capacity for understanding the women in his life. That was amazing, and the women were amazed at him, and loved him for this ability. This is something of the idea that I think we are trying to communicate about God’s love.

If we could take a moment and move out of the significant bundle (or jumble) of pressures that we face on a constant basis, we might be able to see the reality of the life of the other person. If we could do that, we could make room for them in new ways. We could make allowances for their troubles. We might even have the energy to help bear their load.

God loves us, knowing us.
Remarkable.

A begining

Hey friends,

How much can one person think about? From time to time some of you might be interested in knowing what kinds of subjects are running through my mind.

Some of that might even be useful from time to time.

Today for instance, I am thinking about how people relate to Christianity. The classical liberal approach to Christianity was to make the story of the Bible reasonable in our culture. People still hunger for that apparently. They want to know about the pay-off for being a Christian. They also what to know of Christianity makes sense. Many are suspicious that it does not.

From Hans Frei – a theologian from Yale:

“The Bible’s claim to truth is not only far more urgent than Homer’s, it is tyrannical – it excludes all other claims. The world of the Scripture stories is not satisfied with claiming to be a historically true reality-- it insists that it is the only real world, is destined for autocracy. All other scenes, issues, and ordinances have no right to appear independently of it, and it is promised that all of them, the history of all mankind, will be given their due place within its frame, will be subordinated to it. The Scripture stories do not, like Homer’s, court our favor, they do not flatter us, that they may please us and enchant us --they seek to subject us, and if we refuse to be subjected we are rebels.”

What do you think of that?