The Heart of Words

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”    John 1:14

I was asked to visit her dad.  On my way, I prayed for God to give me the words they needed to hear.  I asked that God would speak through me.  I make a living with words.  I have preached sermons and funerals using the words of Scripture, faith, and hope.  I listen to the words of clients as they share their problems and concerns for life.  I share words of discernment and hope for life with them.  I write words in books and this blog to give guidance and light on the journey.

Words are all around us.  When we travel, we are guided by signs that lead us to our destination.  We follow road signs of “Stop.”  We read signs advertising places of interest and businesses enticing us to visit their new location.  Words are even in our homes.  My walls are filled with words – Scriptures on a quilt, decorative wall plaques, barn siding with names stenciled and even words of “Faith, Hope, Peace, and Love” stenciled on the wall.   We listen to songs and feel the words.  The songs put our feelings into the words we could not find.  Many times, I ask people to describe how they feel.  Words do not come easily as we pull from within us the emotions of our hearts.

Sometimes words feel so empty and trite and are not enough to be supportive and meaningful.  We have experienced times in our lives when we have had no clue what to say, and we say something out of nervousness and anxiety.  We have experienced people saying empty words attempting to help us feel better.  We respond to “how are you?” with “Fine” which is a word spoken when we do not want to share what is really in our hearts.

We cannot express in words the depth of love we have for another person.  “I love you” does not feel enough to express the intensity of our emotions.  We love with our whole being and feel the weight of the love cannot be expressed in mere words.  When sadness and grief enter our world, the feelings of our hearts are impossible to put into words.  Words are not enough to express the emptiness, the pain, the loss of love, and the heaviness of our hearts. 

God hears the words of our hearts in the silence of our expression.  God hears the sighs and understands the words that have formed within us but are too difficult to articulate.  Even though we cannot put all our feelings and emotions into words, it is still within you.  Those words remain in your heart and over time we can put sound to those words.  As we experience the grief and take steps into this different life, we begin to comprehend the journey and name the feelings and emotions.  By naming them, we begin to accept them, to actually feel them, and to release them.

As we name these feelings and emotions of our grief and sadness, and we begin to take steps into this different life, the words begin to change.  Our focus is not on words of sadness, pain, heartache, but of hope, peace, and faith.  These are words we have not spoken in our hearts for a while but are words that begin to emerge in the silence of our hearts.  The life we lived is completed and the words of our hearts begin to change.  Hope and faith attempt to grow, and we remember the words – “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  Jesus is the Word that becomes life.  Jesus dwells within us and speaks words of life into our hearts.  We are attempting to hear the Word, and we desire that the Word grow within us and emerge from its dormant season and breathe life and hope into this next chapter of life.