It's been a very long time since I've written a blog. I don't say that modestly, or to try and apologize for a few days off or even a week or two; basically I haven't written for four years, and even then that was only like my sixth post of real importance in the blog that I created specifically for my trip to Nigeria. Well folks, it's been four years since getting back and I'm hoping that now is the time that I can start writing again, and writing about things that are just as important as those six or so posts.
Today I was thinking about the power of words. SUCH an overused topic, I know I know, so why did I gain a new perspective today? Perhaps because I need some sort of intellectual outlet since it is about the time of year I would have started new classes if I hadn't graduated last spring. Or perhaps because I at last have the freedom to devote my time to reflecting on whatever topics I choose, whether leisurely or aggressively. Or maybe because I have found that my calling is to write and this would be a good segue from years off of writing to a more regular, deeper journey of writing. Or perhaps because the presidential election has brought out all the hiding slandersauruses who emerge to watch the bloody gladiator matches of rhetoric. Yes, that's it. Maybe partially the first three, or maybe largely the first three, but definitely because of the slandersauruses. Definitely.
I could probably write you a wonderful, college-level paper on the history and behavioral patterns of slandersauruses (not joking, I could probably write a good one), but instead I think I will just focus on what these fascinating creatures have inspired me to think about lately.
For some reason as I was working on a creative project at work today I started thinking about a time when I was a customer at a different store, and how the positive attitude of one random sales associate improved my whole day. Not today or the day before, but recently I have had a major problem controlling my mood at work, letting the customer's mood determine mine, which is probably why I started thinking about this. This is a bad idea, but like I said I was having a hard time controlling it. For quite a few days I seriously was actively aware of my mood and could not figure out how to fix it, control it, or make it anything but worse. Which of course is more discouraging, at least for me, the one who apparetnly tends to strive after control. So when I thought of this one person, at whatever previous time in my life, in some random store, that I distinctly remember making my day better, I stopped thinking about trying to fix my mood and marveled at a new insight to the possible consequences of my words and attitude to my customers based on what I was often mirroring in them. Not that I'm like that all the time or have had serious problems being the positive, helpful, cheerful, patient employee that I strive to be in the past, but that other people's (slandersaurus's) words were bringing me down that much.
And that I couldn't bring myself out of their sad pit of slander. My intention is not to focus the blame on other people here, but actually point out what an important, and different revelation this is to have. The main point of this blog site, as I wrote originally five years ago and believe in today, is in serving other people. This is what Jesus calls us to do, and what he did as an example for us to follow. But I'm not sure I've ever connected that mission with the use of my words. Serving = verb, words = noun. As simple of a contradiction as that. So it kind of makes sense in my grammatically-correctly-obsessed head (that was so not grammatically correct, by the way) that I would refuse to combine the two different parts of a sentence as synonyms, if you will. But what I discovered today -- or rather now, as I write this -- is that perhaps they are supposed to make up a sentence together; a complete, grammatically correct sentence that serves as a lesson for greater meaning in life.
I serve others with my words.
My words serve others.
This isn't specific to me because I'm a writer, and this doesn't only pertain to me serving when I want to; whether I want to or not, my words affect other people, either negatively or positively. And that's not new news, especially for Christians who have heard the lesson over and over again of controlling our tongues. But that controlling our tongues moves past a personal struggle with sin and becomes a part of our mission that Jesus calls us to do - how many of us have truly connected those ideas in our head? That I don't have to actively do the one thing I was called to do (the one thing I'm best at) all the time to reach others, but just by speaking (and writing) my positive, purposeful thoughts I am carrying out the job that Christ assigned to me.
I often have worried and stressed about carrying out the work Christ has given me through the gift of my strengths, when I often feel like I am not doing anything at all along the lines of that specific task. More clearly, I never write, but I know that is what I am called to do. It is a relief to think of serving other people simply by crafting something I use all the time, everyday: my words.
