"It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. I know, Lord, that your laws are righteous, & that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction."
Psalm 119:67,71,75,92
let it pour: words on a page vs words of the mouth
Are words on a page easier to believe than words of the mouth? Are we more apt to adhere ourselves to written words than spoken ones? Are words formed with the movement of lips, tongue, vocal chords, and nerve endings more striking than what can be made in letters lacking presence? I leave words here to be read at your whim - does that change their value?
That's a lot of questions and they're mostly I suppose rhetorical. I guess I am fixated on lips today, well, on one set of lips in particular. What is that old quote from Lord Tennyson, "In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." Don't be so sexist Alfred, it's not just a young man's fancy that turns.
I have been thinking today about words. It is written that God spoke the world into existence. "The heavens were made by the word of the LORD, and all the stars, by the breath of His mouth" (Psalm 33:6) "God said let there be... and it was so" (Genesis 1:6-7)
What will be my last words written and spoken? Will I recognize them as such as they are leaving my fingers and passing my lips, or will their happening catch me off guard? God had the ability to create out of what He spoke. Do we, in a looser sense, have that same ability? Can the things we declare shake the foundations of another's soul? To that I say, absolutely it can. A simple smile, a single look, a tiny gesture, can change all. Words can impress, alter, effect, remind, enlighten, and reveal.
It's storming outside, in the middle of April showers here. Just like with rain, when it comes to words written and spoken: let it pour.
No comments:
Post a Comment