Shade Tree Wisdom 9/11/09

The rain it falleth on the just,
But also on the unjust fella,
But mostly on the just because,
The unjust stole the just’s umbrella.

But the rain, it
Falleth as a gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the earth beneath.

So it does, gently, day long, refreshing the landscape, greening grasses, making us say large prayers of thanks to God Who does all things in His Time.

Recently I read an article by Marilyn McEntyre, who wrote, “Caring for Words in a Culture of lies”. She begins the article by quoting Zechariah, that old testament prophet. “Speak the Truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true, and make peace”. Zech. 8,16 ESV. Mark Twain is quoted as saying, “Tell the truth, and you won’t have to try to remember what you DID say”. Because, as the authors of the Power of Excellence point out, “The reality is, if we tell the truth, we only have to tell the truth once. If we lie, we have to keep lying forever.” Quoting Rabbi Dosick.

So in the article I started with, the author writes “this solid piece of advice from the old Testament prophet seems like an ethical commonplace. “Tell the Truth” is one of the first moral principles we learn as children. Be fair. Resolve conflicts in honest conversation. But following such advice, she says, can be difficult and complicated in our age when new ways of expressing things seem to come every day. And in this, we Christians have to find the way to speak the Truth of the Gospel to our age, an age that is so in desperate need of this Saving Gospel.

In our day, she writes, that lies are hard to identify because they are so evasive and come disguised in imprecision or posing as enthusiasm in well-placed propaganda. As example she notes that spring colors are “essential” or a school is dedicated to an undefined “excellence”, or that a group trip was simply “awesome” or an industry is practicing what is described as “cost effective”. This might just mean, “We are firing 10% of the workforce”. And using the term “collateral damage” spares us the discomfort of seeing bloody bodies of women and headless children blown apart by their use of the “smart bomb”. So we drive a truck loaded with explosives and park it near a building to destroy it, and everything else becomes “collateral damage”, too bad.

So caring for the words we use, and using them correctly, is simply a must. A look at the Scriptures gives is the proper example. In the Garden, the lord said, plainly, “Do not eat of it”. The message was plain. Both Adam and Eve understood it.
Then came Satan. He was imprecise, “Are you sure this is what God said”.
That is always an invitation to problems. When people today start using terms like “lifestyle” or “my rights”, look out! Look for what they mean. Usually what is meant, “we don’t want to follow the rules any more. They are too old fashioned and just do not suit the way we want to live.

Precision in language. Make it plain, as Nehemiah’s speakers did, so that he may run that readeth. And may God bless the doing.

GPD 9/11/09