On Working With Words
Before you speak, ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you’re about to say should be left unsaid. - Bernard Meltzer
Jeremiah 1.9-10
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
I love words.
I love how certain words sound, like puddle, purple, and punctuality.
I love how some words can change meaning just from the way you say them, like “I need to record these words” and “I’m going to spin a record on my turntable.”
I love onomatopoeic words that are from sound associations, like sizzle, boing, and gargle.
But my very favorite words are churchy words.
I love those words we keep locked up in the vault we call church, only to draw them out on Sunday mornings, like salvation, redemption, intercession, justification, exaltation, glorification, and sanctification. Similarly, I love those ecclesial sneaks that slip out the back door during worship and get used out in the wider world, like grace, hope, and mercy.
I even love how certain probing and perfected phrases that rhyme with the divine show up in all sorts of strange situations, like describing someone as “salt of the earth,” saying, “God bless you,” after a sneeze, and, wonderfully, “There but for the grace of God go I.”
Words.
I love words because I work in the world of words. I’m a preacher after all. I take God’s Word every week, pray over it, scratch my head because of it, write other words about it, and then I stand up before God’s people offering my words on the Word.
And yet, my excitement for certain expressions, my love of locution, and my appreciation of appellation is not mine alone. All of us, from the tall to the small, work with words. And our words are powerful.
A perfectly timed compliment can draw even the saddest person out of their stupor, just as a slicing ding can bring down characters with loads of confidence. A thoughtless comment on a social media post can destroy a relationship forever, just as a thoughtful comment can provide the saving grace for a relationship on the rocks. Words, and words alone, can produce the greatest emotional responses simply because of the power they provide.
Perhaps that’s why God commissions (literally) Jeremiah for the work of speaking creation and destruction into existence. Maybe that’s why James spends so much time waxing lyrical on the frightening power of the tongue just as a small fire can eventually set an entire forest ablaze.
Which begs the question: What would it look like if we were to spend just a little more time considering our words before we speak them (or post them)?
The radio host Bernard Meltzer ran an advice call-in show from 1967 through the 1990s and he is credited with a word of advice regarding words that could’ve come straight from the strange new world of scripture:
“Before you speak, ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you’re about to say should be left unsaid.”
For better or worse, we work in the world of words. Perhaps today God is calling us to consider the power our words hold, and whether or not they are matching up with God’s Word for us…