Bob Hamp

Language fascinates me.  Sounds and symbols somehow connect us to realities much bigger than actual words.  We had a fun night with amazing people in our house last night.  I was struck that my family was the only monolinguistic crew in house.   

Everyone else in the house had at least two languages, two sets of vocabulary and structures with which they could describe and share their reality.  I love the setting where in the corner two people converse in Hebrew, because it connects their common history, while others, dripping with international accents, (like Louisiana…) engage in hilarious story-telling, connecting one another to uncommon moments. 

I am struck by how much life is exchanged in our exchange of words.  Not just lifestories—life.  How much energy, and aliveness is transmitted in relationship through words.  Sounds and Symbols.

Behind every story is a real experience.  Every word, or cluster of words connects us all to a moment and a set of feelings.  The moments, and the experiences are the REAL thing.  The words somehow draw us all together to share one persons experience, and make us more than a gathering of 0ne-persons.  The words make us a community, connected and related.

Words.  Powerful little sounds and symbols.  Like currency, we should both choose carefully, and enjoy fully how we exchange them.  Wrapped up in these sounds and symbols can be either life or death.  And we can give either to anyone we choose.    

Now, read this:

“In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.  HE was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. And in Him was Life and the Life was the Light of men.”

God had something to say.  When He said it, out from His mouth came an infant. An infant who would heal the sick, raise the dead, and transform the the hearts of the heartsick.  He would turn the selfish and the fearful  into lovers and givers.  When God said the Word, it was not merely a sound or a symbol…it was The Experience…Him Loving us.  Listen, He is saying it again.