Words… An Introduction

Life, Death, Power, Weakness, Hope, Discouragement, Victory, Defeat, Love, and Hate.
Words are powerful tools, placed in bold, italicized, or underlined; read, typed, written, highlighted, spoken, shared, shredded, misquoted, mistaken, misheard, enjoyed, examined, extracted; they govern our thoughts, they dictate our actions, express our desires, relate to others, govern our beliefs, illuminate our imaginations, and puzzle our preconceptions.

Our lives come to life by the words and stories surrounding us. Words are never to be underestimated, though often abused, words are the lifeblood of our world. All of humanity, though separated by dialect, is united by word.

Words have taken lives, words have given life.

My mother has always reminded me of the most profound statement I made when I was a child of about three years of age; she asked me what I was thinking about and I responded by telling her with precision, “I’m thinkin’ bout words…”. This would be a marker concerning the direction of my life I could not have possibly comprehended at that time.

After God called me to vocational ministry, I have continued to think about words. Having taken two years of Koine Greek so far, I became very familiar with the word λόγος. This is translated in English as ‘word’. In fact the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), is Jesus. Even if you have not read the Bible, or been away from it for many years, I encourage you to read some of the most powerful words ever written… and the best-selling book of all time.

There is a responsibility that comes with our words; we can tear people down, or we can build them up, we can waste our words, or use them wisely. It is my hope that this blog will be an encouragement to learn more about words, to use them with care, and to think about the words we read, write, and speak.

One of the “rules” for blogging is to have your target audience in mind. While this is helpful if you are running a clothing store, or sharing ideas about building log cabins, words are universal. No matter what your background or ideology, I hope you’ll consider your words and how you’re using them to shape the world around you.

Thank you for reading!
-David W. Bunce