The Power of Words
“..in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…”
John 1:1
All words are spiritual---nothing is more spiritual than words. Whence are they? Along how many thousands and tens of thousands of years have they come? Those eluding, fluid, beautiful, fleshless, realities, Mother, Father, Earth, Me, This, Soul, Tongue, House, Fire.”
Walt Whitman
“Words and deeds are…modes of divine energy.”
Emerson
Words, depending on how we use them, have more power than atomic bombs. I think of some of Jesus’ words in particular---“your sins are forgiven---be at peace---blessed are the peacemakers…come to me all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” You feel them sink into your body and calm your nervous system? Words like, “Today we have declared war…” and “Today in Afghanistan
Words like, “I hate you,” and “I love you,” have the power to change our lives, change the way we feel about ourselves, and cause us to see our very existence differently. Hateful words break our hearts and kind words change our minds, and either may turn us in a entirely different direction. Words such as, “I have a dream…” and, “We the people, in order to form a more perfect Union …” have changed history. With our words, we can be “modes of divine energy” or modes of destructive, dark energy. We have the ability to bless, or curse.
I remember Mrs. Kidd, my high school English teacher, saying to me, “Don’t you know that you are the only student I have in this class. If you aren’t with me, I might as well not be here.” In those two simple sentences, years of feeling inferior dropped away. When I saw myself through her eyes, I felt I had potential. Our words make a profound difference, either for good or for ill. They are potent energetic realities. It is well to choose them carefully and with that in mind.
In the spirit,
Jane
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