Almost every Sabbath morning, I share with my Twitter network a series of tweets rooted in an aspect of faith or religious ethics. These tweets, tagged #SabbathWisdom, are often inspired by study conversations or sermons at my church. A sermon about the power of the word resonated with me yesterday. I may have been primed by Friday’s post about religious violence.
“What you say can preserve life or destroy it; so you must accept the consequences of your words.” —Proverbs 18:21, GNT
“Your words can preserve life or destroy it… Words form us and deform us.” < Language and constructs matter: take care.
We look at ourselves and the outer world through lenses
We’re probably past the days when our holy texts can be changed, but we can determine how to read & be named by them.
We can’t choose our bio relatives, but we can decide whether to live by their words or change the corpus they gave us.
“I have come in order that you might have life—life in all its fullness” (John 10:10). That’s the offer. It involves responsibility.
We’re not responsible for the tapes we were given. We’re responsible for the tapes we play and our impact on the world.
We can record new tapes, practice a life-affirming vocabulary, and insist on constructs that are healing, not destructive.
“Recognize and live like the accuser has been defeated.” —Mike Speegle
Carol Dweck writes: “Beliefs are central to the way people package their experiences and carry them forward.” And so they are.
Take responsibility for your words, your beliefs, & how they shape you and your impact on the world. Take responsibility.