Words from WW Blog

Every year, new words get added to the dictionary. For example, this year, some new words that have been added include angiogram, crazy pants, cheddar, porch pirate, gamester, and groomzilla. There must be a word elf holed up in a mountain-side cabin who comes up with these creative additions to the dictionary that is already too massive.

Just as Washington always seems to be talking about, not necessarily doing, cuts in the government’s budget, I’m thinking of a few words and phrases that I would become “giddy-licious” about not hearing anymore. Here are a few who didn’t make the cut:

“…A transfer from…”

“Yah, bro!”

“I saw it on TikTok.”

“Lowest price ever!”

End zone dances (You scored a TD, bro! You didn’t invent a cure for cancer!)

Biden-nomics and MAGA (Retire both, please!)

“Have you gotten this year’s booster shot yet?”

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift (I’d rather people talk about Kelsey Grammar and James Taylor!)

The new iPhone

Reality TV (Whose reality?)

Social influencers

Booty shorts (My sister would not have gotten out of the house!)

Call me old. You can even call me an old bro. You can even call me cheugy! It is what it is (Oh, that phrase should be retired also!)

My cell phone often chimes with an incoming call, and an unrecognizable number appears on the screen. Sometimes, the screen tells me that the call is coming from Way-Over-There, Wisconsin, with the warning “Scam Likely” below it. I don’t answer it. I figure that if it’s that important, and I don’t know who it is, they’ll leave a message.

Oh, that life would be that easy in our ability to discern whether a call, a decision, or a nudging is something we should pursue or delete.

Like a writer friend of mine who was approached by someone interested in turning one of his novels into a movie. The offer was enticing until, on the second call, he was told that he’d need to front several thousand dollars to get the project off the ground. Or when I finished my first novel in my RED HOT: NEW LIFE IN FLEMING series, and someone from a vanity press contacted me. The excitement of having someone want to publish my novel was intoxicating. But then the person told me that I’d need to do a couple of things to make it happen. The “couple of things” meant I’d need to give the company about $7,000 upfront.

Those two situations made it easy-peasy to discern the correct responses.

But there are plenty of other situations where the right call is, at best, foggy. I’m facing one of those foggy moments right now. Someone I respect approached me, depending on one’s perspective, about an opportunity or a demanding challenge. The proposal came out of the blue and caught both Carol and me off-guard.

And the fog rolled in.

That’s something about me on a foggy morning. Being colorblind, I can’t discern which light on a stoplight is lit until I get within a few yards of it. I must see whether it’s the top, middle, or bottom light, before proceeding. It’s that red-green colorblindness affecting my judgment.

So what does a person do in the unclarity?

Let it simmer with patient prayer and pondering. Very few critical decisions involve the words “rush” or “hurried.” Just as “rushing to judgment” heads us toward uncomfortable conclusions, the hurry in the important issues of life has the potential to lead us to a dead-end consequence.

Get the wisdom of trusted colleagues, not “yes people”, but people of wisdom and experience who have the ability to ask the questions that enable you to uncover the answers. When there is consistency in what you are hearing, it’s a sign that the fog is lessening up ahead.

Try to envision the future. What picture can be seen a year or two from now? Sometimes, we have a way of romancing the present without seeing the turmoil in the distance. We end up saying things like “I didn’t realize…” and “I wish I would have known…” We need the farsightedness of our wise friends to help us see past our nearsightedness at the moment.

Finally, what might be the residual effect of the decision on those closest to you? What will it require of them? How do they feel about it? Is there an urging, a dread, a pushing forward, or a pulling back?

Even writing this today is helping me answer the question. Ultimately, I realize I’m not smart enough to simply answer it alone. After all, I used to drive an AMC Gremlin, the ultimate half-a-car.

I wrote a paper in my last year of seminary entitled “Afflicting the Comfortable and Comforting the Afflicted.” It came as a result of taking a class on Liberation Theology and the influence of one of my professors, Tom Finger, and Tony Campolo. My area of concentration was the exploitation of people in Third World nations by multi-national corporations in order to maximize profits and make their shareholders happy in places like the United States and other wealthy countries around the globe. remember being alarmed by stories that Campolo told about some of the largest and wealthiest corporations and the work conditions of their employees, and the low wages they would pay for back-breaking work.

Oppression is a theme that runs throughout the Bible. It goes to the heart of the human condition, that someone in power will do whatever is necessary to keep that power and expand it. For example, King Herod had all of the Jewish male babies two-years-old or less in the vicinity of Bethlehem killed because he had heard of a new king that had been born. Power corrupts and the powerful oppress anyone who threatens them.

On the other hand, oppression is sometimes mis-diagnosed these days. That is, just because someone says he is oppressed doesn’t mean that he actually is oppressed. Oppression is a term that gets thrown in the air like a red hanky by a coach at an NFL football game. To dumb down the terminology, anyone who whines enough seems to have the power to convince someone or some group that it’s oppression. Imagined oppression gets conveyed as real oppression.

So, who are the oppressed, the downtrodden? Who are those who have no voice and no hope? It has little to do with whatever label you’re wearing, conservative or liberal…union or management…educated or illiterate…rural or urban.

According to scripture, the oppressed include the poor who have no voice, the hungry who have no food, the pawns who are pushed to the side without the hope of justice, the enslaved who can only sing of a coming jubilee, and the peaceful folk who have war cast upon them.

Like a “Where’s Waldo” picture, other causes try to graft themselves into the scenery of the oppressed. Often, however, they are the whines of those who believe they are entitled. Entitlement is the ugly step-sister of an oppressed Cinderella on her hands and knees commanded to scrub the floor of other people’s mud.

“I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?” (1 Corinthians 3:2-4)

I’m in the midst of a time in my life that could best be labeled “the pullings.” I’m getting pulled in different directions. It’s not a bad thing, nor is it a good thing. It just is. The pullings occur in how I manage my time, where I put my resources, what I would like to pursue and achieve, and even what should I believe.

There’s also pulls in the lesser areas of life, like should I go to Sam’s Club and buy a cartload of junk just because I’m out of toilet paper, should I take a nap now or later, where should we go on vacation, is it okay to buy new underwear if the pairs I have only have a few holes in them? Questions that need answers, but don’t cause me a lot of mental anguish as I feel the pull.

As one who follows Jesus, I recognize that many of the situations that are a part of our world have more than one suggested solution or course of action. In the whirlwind of conflicting opinions, there are words that resemble culture, snippets of selfishness, and hints of godliness. Identifying the differences is like looking at a crockpot of chili and pointing out where each of the spices is hiding.

The issues that top the headlines are the tugging topics that pull us apart. Just as Paul experienced with the Corinthians, there becomes a separation, a polarizing, that offers no middle ground. For example, if I’m a proponent of world peace I’m pulled to condemn the Israeli response of retaliation but, on the other hand, if I advocate a military response to Hamas that continues until they are wiped out, I’m pulled to see there is no room for peace. To be in the middle of those two camps is to feel the yanking from both sides.

Insert any hot topic into that scenario and the result is the same. Discerning the will of God is sometimes a walk through the gray. Listening to that still, small voice in the noise of the clamoring of culture is a practice not often practiced. Whoever is loudest is prone to be the one, or the side that gets our attention.

A few weeks ago, Carol and I were watching our two youngest grandkids (2 and 4 year olds). In the middle of a playtime with them, each of the boys held on to my hands. One of them wanted me to come and join him in what he was doing, and the other was pulling on me to go and join him in what he was doing. Neither was wrong, but neither wanted to give in. Granddad was like a piece of taffy whose arms were getting stretched. Instead of sharing me, they wanted to physically influence me.

If I were to define myself in terms of political and spiritual leanings, I would say I’m a moderate who leans conservative. In saying that, however, I know there will be folk who label me as wishy-washy or apathetic. There will be conservatives who will pull on me even harder, and liberals who will grab the other end of the rope and seek to drag me back into the mud pit between the two sides. The question is how does God see me? Am I following Jesus or am I being swayed by the shouting of the talking heads?