I know, the title of this blog is a little pretentious. But bear with me. I’ve had this on my mind lately, and thought I’d better share it before it leaves forever. I think I may have even blogged about this before, but it is back at the forefront of my thoughts again, so forgive me.
Several years ago, I finally read through Walter Brueggeman’s book, Israel’s Praise. In it, he asserts that the praise offered up by Israel during their years of captivity was meant to change their world. In essence, the words they used transformed their circumstance from one of slavery and degredation to one of freedom and supremacy. In reality, their circumstance was still the same, but their words changed the inner world of themselves and created an entirely new reality for them.
The example I remember most vividly was one of King David when his son, Absalom, was trying to overthrow him and take over the kingdom. We read that Absalom was killed and left hanging from a tree by his hair. David doesn’t know that. In his reality, Absalom is still alive and, thus, able to be saved. Then, a runner approaches and tells David Absalom is dead. In that instant, David’s reality changed. His world changed.
I thought about that story recently when showing a DE Streaming video to one of my classes. It was the story of Malcolm X. We were comparing and contrasting the lives of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcolm X was in a nearly, if not all, white junior high. He had dreams of becoming a lawyer. And then, one day, a teacher said that he needed to give up that dream. He was a negro. What chance did he really have of becoming a lawyer? In that instant, Malcolm X’s world changed. It was, perhaps, the driving force behind him turning to drugs and winding up in jail where he later turned to Islam for answers. How would his life, or the world for that matter, have been different if those words were never spoken?
In everyday life, we speak words that change worlds all the time. Two people fall in love and say, “I do.” In that instant their single worlds collide into one. Their reality is changed. Across town two people have fallen on hard relationship times, and the judge says, “I grant this divorce.” Instantly their single world is shattered into two. Their reality is changed.
How many times do we as teachers look at our students and say something that changes their world? Do we even know? Do we know what the words we say to our students even do to them? Is their world changed instantly for the better? For the worse? Our words are powerful beyond measure. In the New Testament, James writes that the tongue is a fire. It is like the rudder of a ship, such a small member, yet it controls our direction.
What about you? Has your world been changed in an instant by the words of another? Care to share something in the comments section?
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