No seriously.
I am not well spoken or even overly educated for that matter but I love words. They can pack a lot of punch, have more power then intended or they can quickly lose meaning as we lose site of what we are hearing.
Words penetrate our souls. Deepen our understandings. Expand our imagination to places impossible.
Why is it then have they lost there value when it is seemingly most important? In todays world negativity abounds. I am bombarded with negative words by the hundreds upon logging into Facebook. Words like; "Hate","Don't trust ", "Kill", "Some people really need too..", "Stupid."
My question is why? Why do we feel the need to label, citizen, judge, and hate others before we are compelled to love, trust, encourage, and embrace one another? Do not get me wrong, I have been just as guilty of these words hitting my posts at times too.
It is my opinion that we don't think of the impact we are having when we are spilling our frustrations and reflecting our hurts. Not only to those reading it but to ourselves. By making the choice to put those words out there we are storing them in our hearts until they become all we see in the world.
We focus in on the negative and lose sight of the goodness and light of the world.
You see, I started down this path tonight when I was reading and soaking in the words of this great book. In it was words that HIT me. Words that came from God. "He was pierced for our transgressions..."
Well, being the squirrel that I am ...I thought of the song and immediately had to YouTube it.
Pretty intense. I cried. I bawled. I blubbered. Then I had this embarrassing epiphany. Even I had failed to literalize the words I knew to be true. I have read the bible as a story. Reminding myself later that it actually happened. I was not letting words sink in.
Words God intended for us to absorb with every ounce of our ability. To read and experience the pain, torture, and turmoil that Jesus has to go through for us. We don't picture the gruesome images that were portrayed in that video and I am sure were far worse then our imagination will allow. We don't let the impact of every ounce of sacrifice Jesus made FOR US hit our hearts as it was intended to do. At least not regularly.
How would we live differently if we watched this video every morning and started our day praising God for the gift only he would have been able to give?
He was pierced for our transgressions.
By His wounds we are healed.
It is horrifying that people could be that cruel to someone so perfectly good. We could totally and probably justifiably (I happen to be queen of justifying things) go down that road, but then we would be missing the point.
Jesus loves us enough to endure every lashing and piercing He received. Each one would have been enough for most people to give up. He believed we were worth every stabbing ounce of pain. He loved us in a beautifully, uncontainable way.
Leaving His words to guide us. Leaving His words to comfort us. Leaving His words to teach us.
God knew the power words can hold if we let them. We just have to choose to instill the right words into our hearts.
Mark Batterson said it perfectly:
“‘Let there be light.’ 4 little words that began to defeat darkness at 186000 miles per second. A minute later there were 11 million miles away with all of creation in its wake. Sound waves that God spoke began to create not just our little planet or our nearest star not just our tiny little galaxy but billions of galaxies. Those 4 words spoke at the very beginning of creation are still creating galaxies at the outer edge. That’s the power of God’s voice. That’s the power of words. That’s a picture of the words and the power of words that God has entrusted to each one of us.”
What will you do with the power the Lord has given you?
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