First of all, I want to thank the well-known-yet-ever-humble
John Piper for the idea/concept behind the third part of this post. Sometimes,
it takes a mouthpiece/instrument of God to verbalize what our hearts and minds
are going through. To speak into our lives what our hearts are already
overflowing with. To recognize it’s okay to acknowledge where we are and
remember that God is so-big-and-powerful, yet right-in-our-midst – even and
especially when we don’t “feel” it to be true.
Part 1: Words
To start, let’s go here: There’s power in words. I know this
to be true. You know this to be true. We’ve all felt the stings, zings, and
overwhelming things people can inflict or infuse into us with their words.
Knowing that words have power is more than a first-hand experiential knowledge,
however. It’s Biblical truth.
In fact, the Bible says that life and death are in the power
of the tongue.
Life.
And.
Death.
Before you open your mouth to pronounce another syllable,
let that sink in for just a moment. You’re either giving life or taking it away
by the words you say.
(Now, after we’ve all self-committed to fasting from talking
for a while, join me in exploring/reading the following….)
Yes, my friend, there’s power in words. As a teacher, I know
this to be true. Just recently, I taught a lesson on the power of the tongue to
my little ones, kiddos, students, etc. the other month in Bible class. We
discussed when and how and why and where and to what extent we should talk (and
not talk) to honor God and uplift others. We
mentioned that silence is sometimes the most encouraging breath you can
take and the most encouraging word you can speak. They’re only 9 and 10
years old, but they’re getting it. Well, all except for the ultra-chatty one in
the far back right corner. [Enter: Sunday school song lyrics, “It took Him just
a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the Earth and Jupiter and
Mars, how loving and patient He must be…. He’s still working on me.”] I tease,
I (kind of) tease. He’s still working on all of us, is He not? I’m
ever-grateful for that. J
[Notice, I said silence is sometimes the most
encouraging word you can speak, not absenteeism... but that’s another
blog for another time.]
As we continued on into the lesson on our words, we demonstrated
Bible verses about our tongues and about our words by incorporating experiments
with sour patch kids and fireballs. Ironically, all the kids left my classroom talking about it all. [My hope and
prayer is that they left talking about the candy AND the Bible verses that went
with them. Not. Just. The. Candy.]
Yes, my friend, there’s power in words. (and candy!)
As a writer-in-my-mind-and-in-my-own-little-world, I
especially know this to be true. Words can move us to action. They can kick us
in the tail, sometimes. They can be used to kick someone else’s tail into
action. Words, sound effects, and the like can be used get on someone else’s
nerves [enter the Despicable Me 2 minion sound-effect “BE DOO BE DOO BEEE
DOOOO…”…. As parents and teachers of little ones who’ve seen this movie, you’ll
understand]. I digress.
Words can be used to heal. (Oh my, yes, they can.)
They can be used to hurt. (“Oh, no they didn’t!”)
And they can be used for a variety of purposes in-between on
the heal/hurt spectrum of life.
In case you haven’t gotten it yet, you see, there’s power in
words, my friend.
Your words.
My words.
Words in general.
There’s a bunch of sucker-punch-power-potential there.
Part 2: Perspectives
Which leads me to this: Words come from perspectives.
Take this mental survey-of-sorts:
If someone has hurt you recently with their words, have you
taken a moment to step back and look at their perspective on life? Are they
themselves hurting? Deeply? And it just happened to ooze out on you?
If someone is trying to control or manipulate you through
their words, are they themselves being manipulated or controlled? Or, rather,
are they out-of-control themselves?
If someone has recently encouraged you (even in the
slightest way), despite what they are going through, perhaps, they’ve caught a
glimpse of the Comforter Himself?
You see, if I could pause here for a moment and make a
life-observation, it would be this: Life is all about perspective. We
trivialize it and sometimes compartmentalize it and oftentimes think life’s
about words, the power they carry, and how we use them or how they are used
against us.
Many battlegrounds are created and
self-protective-fortresses are built in our lives around the words we choose to
use and the ones we let penetrate our hearts and feelings. Entire kingdoms rise
and fall on the power of the spoken word, which turn into disputes, wars, etc.
But allow me to go back here for second with you: our words come from our
perspectives on life.
Not only does the Bible say that our tongues contain the
power of life and death, but it also says that our words are an abundance of
what is in our hearts (a.k.a. our perspectives on life).
Everything we say is filtered through how we perceive
things, which leads me to John Piper’s devotional and message from this
morning….
Part 3: John Piper on Microscopes, Telescopes, and
Perspective Shifts
This morning, I got up as I usually do and decided to read a
devotional out of the John Piper app on my Iphone. I normally listen to John
Piper in a hit-or-miss fashion, but I’ve been trying to listen to him more
consistently, as he’s one of my fiancés’ favorite preachers as well as a
humble-yet-wise-and-insightful man of God. After reading the devotional on the
app, I was intrigued and couldn’t help but follow the link to listen to the
sermon that goes with it.
Here it is in its entirety, in case you are interested and
have the time:
Basically put, he was describing what David meant in the
Psalms when He was saying, “My soul magnifies the LORD.” He wasn’t
acknowledging that God was small, and so he had to, like a microscope, make Him
seem or appear bigger than what He was. He was acknowledging that David was
magnifying the LORD, like a telescope would magnify the fullness of the expanse
of all the galaxies in the universe.
David was simply showing the bigness and the greatness and
the grandeur of Who God is.
Part 4: Ok, so, how does this all fit together?
Well, in my mind, it simply and perfectly does all fit
together.
1. Words are like
microscopes. Yes, they have power. That’s Biblical. But they shouldn’t
control our perspectives in life. Our words spring from our perspectives, not
the other way around.
We get so hung up on the “why did he say that” ‘s and the “I
wonder what she meant when she said that” ‘s of life. We get so detailed. So
over-analyzing. So hurt. Over the pettiest
things in life. We magnify others’ words and intentions like microscopes.
We triumph in torture over the trivial.
We pause and pose on the pedestal of the petty.
Quite honestly, we “prayer request,” gossip, and linger on
the grounds of very ungodly topics of conversation.
In other words, we oftentimes major on the minors.
We all do.
2. Perspectives are
like telescopes. There are certain things in life that cause us to shift our
perspectives. More often than not, it’s the sad circumstances of life that get
our attention long enough to force us to do this. For me, it probably comes as
no surprise that my fiancés’ deployment has prompted this in my own heart.
If I can make a confession in all of this, it’s this: I
spend waaaay too much of my life on the microscope issues of life. Not just
overanalyzing other peoples’ words and intentions, but a whole slew of
in-the-grand-scheme-of-things-microscopic-issues-of-life.
As a teacher of fourth graders, it’s oh-so-easy to major on
the minors. If I were to explain this to you
fully, I’m sure it’d be humorous
and sad all in the same stroke.
It’s easy to let things, words, minor issues, etc. taint my
perspective of life and frame my opinion and day-to-day beliefs about God. It’s
easy to take life with a microscopic
view.
And often we do.
Because it’s what we know to do.
It’s what’s comfortable.
It’s what’s modeled to us at every turn.
But through all of my babbling this morning, I end with this
challenge: Sit back. Zoom out.
Marinade in your own silence for a bit.
Put down the microscope of your own hurts or current situation-of-the-day.
Pick up your telescope and join David in magnifying God for
Who He is and what He is actively doing admist and in-the-midst of the events
in your microscopic world.
