Pastor Dan at my church back in PA has been blogging about words and their power to bless or curse (dannold.com) and i've been thinking a lot about the vacuum that is created when words are withheld as well as listening beyond the surface of the words spoken...
i think we block the blessing many times by being scared or uncomfortable or shy or concerned with propriety or whatever and so we choose to not speak. there is power that can come, but is held back when we do not give or accept forgiveness, when we do not recognize or encourage growth in one another, when we do not verbalize that we care for one another. i think of the many fathers who are uncomfortable and so do not say to their own children "i love you". i think the absence of these words is in itself passing on a curse instead of a blessing. i also think that sometimes we hold back on speaking words that may wound, but are actually the very words that need to be spoken in order to recognize the curse and push past it to the blessing (i think of how "the wounds of a friend can be trusted", and the quote that "grace must wound before it heals")
this past sunday, the pastor was talking about aspects of biblical community and one of his points focused on "greeting one another with a holy kiss" - he suggested that this meant that we demonstrate our affection towards one another... i think this has some physical dynamic to it, but the larger chunk of it has to do with the outward expression done publicly and i think words are a major part of that.
on a similar note, i think it is important for us to listen beyond the words that are spoken - to hear the blessing or to hear how God wants to redeem the words that may have been spoken as a curse (by Him speaking truth over us). i've learned that though my father may not say "i love you" when we part, he does say "you be good now, ya hear" and if i listen at the surface level i could receive a curse (he thinks i'm not good and am disobedient), but if i listen more deeply - i know his heart is hoping for good to be ahead of me and is actually speaking a blessing
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