Language Is God’s Tool

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Today’s reading: Romans 5:1-5

I am a reader and a writer. I majored in English in college, and I took almost as many classes in journalism. I used to be a newspaper reporter, and I like to read publications that have much more text than graphic art. I heard an old-fashioned, fiery preacher yesterday, and the beautiful cadence of his English brought me as many tears as his passionate message.

All of that, these days, means I’m weird.

When I come across an amazing turn of a phrase or a courageous piece of reporting, my first thought is to share it, to find a friend with whom I can marvel at its beauty.  I particularly find myself in this state when studying The Bible.

But I have trouble finding such friends.

“I’m just not into this English stuff like you are!” a frustrated relative told me one time as I tried to share with her some of the hilarious irony of a Mark Twain story. ” I just don’t get it. I don’t care about it! And you’re just going to have to get that through your head!”

That brought back the same ole’ thought:  books and letters are my cross.

It’s lonely being a lover of language and the ideals it communicates. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve never even started to write all the books I know are in me: I worry I’ll never find an audience for them.

But today’s reading helps me understand that I need to write, read, and love language anyway.

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”

I know God communicates with me (and us) through language, and my own use of language can encourage others (even if it’s just a few).  So, since I am indeed justified by faith, I am at peace with the thought that old fashioned reading and writing are all but obsolete in our society.  I boast of hope that this condition is temporary. I know The (written) Bible, in all of it’s beauty and glory, will rein in the hearts of all men.

Thanks be to God for language. May I always use it for His glory.