CreatorWorship

I love words. God has graciously created language so that we may commune with Him and with each other. Language enables us to think and create abstractly.

Certainly language is changed and molded by culture, but culture is profoundly and deeply effected by language as well. For example, as my pastor is preaching, he will occasionally explain how a thought is put at the beginning of a sentence in Greek for emphasis. English generally places the subject and verb at the beginning or in the place of prominence in a sentence. In this way the language influences how the conveyed thought is perceived by the hearer or reader. I think that means that our language is an action language. Subject, action, emphasis- how do they influence our communication, intent, and meaning? In another example, Don Richardson in the book “Peace Child” says, “The Sawi have no word for nor concept of God; they believe only in disinterested or malevolent demons and spirits of the dead.” (1) The result was an elevation of treachery and revenge killing in their culture. But their culture also had a redemptive analogy, the “peace child”, that Richardson utilized to teach them of the ultimate peace child, Jesus Christ.

I have favorite words. Some because of meaning or usage or connotation and others because of sound. Below I list a few of these with explanation for why I like them. (I have already discussed my liking of many of these words, and I have links to some of my past blogs. But some of these terms have categories of their own on the sidebar of my blog. For instance, you can click on “Grace” here or on the sidebar for articles that specifically include the idea and workings of grace in Scripture or in my life.)

So: (“So..?!”)- I like therefore also, but so is a more intoned, intense than therefore in my mind and usage. I can hear it being pronounced “soooooo” or “so?” or “so cool”. Or it can mean “therefore” of “in conclusion”. It seems to function as an idea conjunction. (2) In short, I am fascinated by the multi-function of this short word.

Copious: An abundant supply of examples has been my usual use of this word. Newton’s Third Law comes to mind, in that every action is met with a reaction. You cannot touch without being touched. A normal force as read on your bathroom scale in the morning is also weighing the Earth. (3) The word itself has a narrow meaning, but the focus of that meaning possesses a cornucopia (4) of extent.

Ubiquitous: “Everywhere all the time” is how I think of this word. By example, most of the fundamental forces (5) are very short range. Gravity is by far the weakest but exerts its influence beyond galactic distances, and therefore may be said to be ubiquitous in the universe. I am seeing a trend in my liking of words: I seem to like words that reflect the big, complete, and abundant. Let us see if this continues.

Colloquialism: I am neither from a big city nor a rural life. My home town has grown into a small city after I left it, but when I was there our family lived in the older middle class suburbia in houses many people wouldn’t even look at on a real estate sales sheets these days. The houses were not run down but neither were they fancy. So, where did that come from? I have never felt like I grew up with nearly so much culture as I would have liked nor devoid of much culture that I only became aware of later. TV (now streaming) and cultural elitism have greatly damaged cultural diversity. Regional sayings and idioms seem to hold on most tenaciously and tenuously. Some of the language needs to go because of its crudeness and disrespect of others, but many sayings are informative of meaning and perspective, “I reckon”. It is more interesting to have different perspectives, ascents, and ways of saying things.

Jesus: I am forever and always thankful that the meaning and power of this name has been revealed to me. His name means “to rescue”, as the angel said, “for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) “For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11) At the mention of His name the demons obey (e.g. Acts 16:18) and tremble (James 2:19) for they “recognize Jesus” (Acts 19:15). I call on His name when I am afraid, when I am thankful and excited, and when I am confused or needy.

Grace: (“All of Grace” and “Of His Grace” and “Grace Enough” are blog examples) When speaking of it, I define grace as “getting what we don’t deserve”, while mercy is “not getting what we do deserve”. Where would I be without grace? I am grateful for God’s saving grace, His “manifold grace” (I Peter 4:10 KJV, NASB1995) for serving Him in the church and the world, and the abundance of grace for living (II Corinthians 1:12). It is my desire to make grace my life theme, but it is a struggle since everything in my upbringing seemed to speak otherwise.

Apropos: The word means “being both relevant and opportune” (6). Both of those ideas are connected to time and context. Speaking the right words at the right time for the right reason to a hearer in the right frame of mind to receive them in the right way is crucial for wisdom to be imparted rightly. I feel deep contentment when those moments occur. In fact, I hope that such a moment has occurred as you have read this blob entry.

If you have made it this far into my ramblings, I have a request to make of you. Put in a good word for me. That is, comment on this entry with a word that you like or is your favorite with a reason why. I look forward to seeing what you have to say.

1. Peace Child (1974) …review and/or viewer comments – Christian Spotlight on the Movies – ChristianAnswers.Net
2. Idea conjunction is my thought on connecting ideas as opposed to word or phrase conjunction like “and”, “or”, and “but” So is considered to be a regular ole conjunction, too.
3. As I taught my students, weight is not gravity nor the pull of gravity, but the measure of the pull of gravity. Because of the interaction of Newton’s Third Law that measure may differ between the two objects because of distance, relative motion, and the mass of the two objects.
4. Etymology is an interesting study, too. The “copia” part of the words comes from the same Latin word for abundance.
5. three, four? It changes, but I think in terms of Strong Nuclear, Electromagnetic, Weak Force, and Gravity, recognizing that Strong and Weak have theoretically already been combined as Electric and Magnetic were many years ago.
6. Apropos | Definition of Apropos by Merriam-Webster (merriam-webster.com)

Read Full Post »