Words

 At the beginning of the year, one of my colleagues was teaching about Martin Luther King, Jr. When she introduced him and explained that his birthday was on January 15^th, one of her second grade students raised his hand and said, “My daddy says to f#$% Martin Luther King, Jr.”

 

Children pay attention to our words.

 

On Saturday night, I was watching the NCAA tournament. To fill time, four commentators talked. When asked who he thought would win the game, one of the commentators gave his opinion. He simply stated who he wanted to win. That’s it. The other commentators picked on him for not saying more. But he didn’t have more to say. So why waste words?

 

We waste a lot of words.

 

Words are everywhere.

And they’re all the time.

People are paid to talk.

People are paid to commentate.

People are paid to share their opinions.

People are paid to create buzz stories.

 

A headline in yesterday’s paper asked if bold, outspoken, far from respectful politicians were the new face of politics—people whose thoughts have been unleashed by an abundance of words and a seeming freedom to share those words whenever they want, to whomever they want, without consequence or thought of who those words might affect.

 

Words have power.

 

I read a meme the other day that said: “The more confident you are, the quieter you become. Confidence whispers, insecurity roars. Confident people are not attention seekers. Their mere presence is loud enough for the world to see. Contrarily, the insecure ones are the loudest, drawing the most attention to themselves.”

 

Could it be that we live in a time of such unrest and insecurity that words simply bluster?

 

In the 1600s, John Heerman penned these words:

“Keep me from saying words that later need recalling.

Guard me, lest idle speech may from my lips be falling.

But when within my place, I must and ought to speak,

Then to my words give grace, lest I offend the weak.”

 

Sometimes to move forward, we need to go back.

Maybe we need to go back to talking, writing, and sharing less,

Listening more,

And giving our words weight,

Rather than haphazardly spewing hate.

 

God, help us. Amen.