The English Language

I find the English language to be such a poor tool that we use in poor ways. When we think about an object we are describing and we call it 'that', then we want to say it did something. We want th say "that that thing did that other thing." We use it daily, yet we don't understand the full breadth of it. I find it especially difficult to use to describe God. That is why I think he has given us other tools of expression and art like music, sculpture, painting, etc. We can't even express certain things with the English language, and even if we try to, it takes 3 more sentences than in other languages.

This is why I want to master it the best I can. That way I can communicate the most effectively. Even creating a nomenclature to communicate has been helpful this summer. A few examples exist...

Love Languages: This is a highly recommended book/concept by Gary Chapman. The author is a counselor and he talks about the 5 basic ways we express love to each other . These are physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time, and gifts. Now, these aren't the ONLY ways we show love, but when we and someone else know the nomenclature, we can best communicate with each other and better know how to love one another.

Core Values: This is a concept heard before, but for me, refined in Craig Groeschel's book, Chazown. He asks what things made us passionately angry, or passionately joyful. So now I have a list of words that I can expound upon that explains how I feel about things I care about. It's just wonderful to have that.

Programming and Worship: Just knowing how a service works and understanding the words that people use, the concepts they understand, and the actions they take. I love this stuff. I love bouncing ideas off of people and seeing how they feel. It's also good to be able to communicate expectations clearly before a service is about to start.



As you can tell, one of my major core values is communication. I feel very passionately about communicating things effectively. I really want to strive to be the clearest communicator I can be.