Meaning Finding (pt.2)

by Lorie Codispoti

I play a lot of games with our grandlittles, & no matter how old they are (so far) they always request a scavenger hunt. There’s something about the art of discovery that has given this game universal appeal for centuries.

The word “scavenger” has seen its definition evolve over the course of time. Scavengers started out as medieval tax collectors, then they became someone who collected refuse from city streets. (Literally, a pooper-scooper.) The Germanic root, however, comes from a word that means to look at or inspect, which is what the word means today.

Following are three key things that I look for & inspect in order to find meaning in the suffering I observe in myself & others.

FIND MEANING IN WHO GOD IS & WHO HE IS NOT

There’s nothing like suffering to get us to question everything we know about God.

I don’t know about you, but darkness strategically incites the elevation of more than just physical pain for me. The chief of lies bombards my mind & tempts me to believe things that are not true about God… “He doesn’t hear my prayers.” “He doesn’t care about my struggle.” “He doesn’t love me.” “He wants me to suffer alone.” “He is punishing me.” “He has abandoned me.” Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!

Lies reproduce themselves in the dark, so we have to counter them by turning on the Light & watching them scatter like ghost crabs who run away when light shines on them. Suffering is a battle on many fronts, & without the indwelling Holy Spirit we’d all fall for the same lie peddled since the garden.

Embarking on a spiritual scavenger hunt means we have become desperate enough to want the Truth & tenacious enough to go after it.

Scavenging helps us counter the lies when we are tempted to…

...believe that God doesn’t hear our prayers His Spirit reminds us that “… He hears us” (1Jn5:14) Listening is a fundamental part of His ever-present character.

...believe that God doesn’t care His Spirit reminds us that “… He cares for you” (1Pet.5:7). His nature tells us He cares about everything.

...believe that God doesn’t love us His Spirit reminds us that He loves us “… with an everlasting love” (Jer.31:3), & that it is unbreakable (Rms.8:38-39).

...believe that God desires for us to suffer alone His Spirit reminds us that He is a relational, triune being & “… if one member suffers all suffer together” (1Cor.12:26).

...believe that God is punishing us His Spirit reminds us that He is merciful & forgiving. He “…does not repay us according to our sins” (Psa.103:10).

...believe that God has abandoned us His Spirit reminds us that He is unchanging. He has promised to “… never forsake you” (Heb.13:5).

FIND MEANING IN THE WISDOM & UNDERSTANDING GOD GIVES

“Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding." (Proverbs 4:7)

What is the biggest & most frequently asked question when confronted with suffering? We want to know “WHY, God!?”

Some think it’s wrong to ask why, but in reality we all ask it so why pretend we don’t? The why question is what drives us to find the meaning as we attempt to understand our plight. Scripture is filled with those who asked this question, including Jesus (Mtt.27:46). God may not give us the why, but He will help us understand what He intends for our suffering to produce: “…we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Rms.5:3-4) There is meaning to be found in what God says He will produce in us when we seek to understand His purpose. And when we search out & apply wisdom (“skill for living”) to our struggle, God’s counsel gives us the strength we need to press on (Prov.8:14).

FIND MEANING IN THE VESSELS GOD PROVIDES

The emotions we feel in the midst of our struggles count. Rather than denying them, take them with you on your spiritual scavenger hunt. There is enormous meaning to be found when we surrender every emotion to the containers God designed for collection.

In Psalm 56, David pours out his broken heart to the only One who can help him. He notes that God numbers his “wanderings,” puts his tears into His bottle, & records them in a book.

To wander in this context is the kind of mental roving that causes our thoughts to digress into confused ramblings. It comes from a root word that points to a grieving state of aimless fluttering. The Hebrew likens wanderings to a fugitive in exile, deviating us from a normal course of action. However, along with a full bottle of emotional tears, this collection of confused ramblings need not be relegated to the turbulent waters of our storm. We’ve been thrown a life preserver as we are encouraged to cast all our cares onto the Lord because He cares for us (1Pet.5:7). To cast off implies throwing off the emotional burdens that are designed to weigh us down & sink us. The force of the action flips the enemy’s intent by placing us on the offensive. With His Spirit & His word we are given the strength to endure the turbulence of the storm.

Along with a bottle to collect our tears, we read about a vessel that contains incense, which is the collective prayers of every believer since time began (Rev.5). When we “cast all our cares” on the Lord through prayer we are not throwing them to the wind & hoping God will catch one or two along the way. Every single believer's prayers are collected. Their fragrance reaches God’s throne & fills His nostrils with a “sweet smelling aroma” (2Cor.2:15, Rev.5:8). What a glorious picture.

There are many other beautiful treasures to collect on a meaning finding spiritual scavenger hunt; these are only a few.

We are all beachfront residents, which means we will experience some incredibly intense storms while we live here. And there’s something significant that every beachcomber knows. The best time for treasure hunting is after the churning of a violent storm. It strips away the surface sand & exposes the deeply buried treasures that reside on the ocean floor.

Don’t let the sands of time wash away the things God has designed for you to find. They will prove to be incredibly valuable when the next storm hits. And when the storms of suffering violently beat against your house you've built on the Rock, reassure yourself that God’ never fails to use each one to churn up the valuable things He knows will provide meaning.

He does all the work unearthing the booty & bringing it to the surface for us to discover & collect, so bring a big bag to collect every single treasure.

(c) Lorie Codispoti / GloryUsGate.blogspot.com

Meaning Finding (pt.1)

(by Lorie Codispoti)

Unlike my father, who would send us pictures of his underwater adventures & discoveries when he was stationed overseas, I never really took to being in the water. I enjoy being ON the water (boat) & looking AT it from the shoreline; I simply don’t like being IN the water. As a result, I am a lousy swimmer.

Suffering is like being thrown into a raging sea during a storm. And since I'm not a good swimmer, I immediately begin my search for a floating device that I can grab & cling to while I ride out the storm.

(In this broken world no one escapes suffering. We will either experience it ourselves or watch others tread their way through their own relentless storm. Sadly, the typical cliches offered by the shoreline lookie-loos are more like floating toothpicks than a life saving log of driftwood.)

Along with God’s word I have found a device that has helped me stay afloat, & I want to share it with those who feel like they are drowning in a sea of suffering.

In the world of psychology there is a technique called “meaning making.” It’s a process that enables people to make sense of their pain. The goal is to derive meaning from their experiences, & it involves constructing meaning from an event based on one’s “beliefs, goals, & feelings.”

This technique has a powerful influence on a person’s thoughts, emotions, & actions. And while it may produce some positive results I also think it is problematic.

I don’t know who said, “To change the response change the story.” but if I am the source that gets to change the story, if I am the one who reassigns meaning to my challenges then the outcome is based on my own understanding or wishful thinking & that's far too subjective for me. I don't need to pull a waterlogged toothpick from my pocket; I need a life-saving Source that is bigger than myself.

One behavioral therapist notes that we humans are all “meaning making, pattern seeking, story telling creatures.” That may be a great thing if you’re a writer seeking to bring meaning to the stories within your narrative, but what about the young wife & mother who has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer? Or the family facing foreclosure due to the loss of a job? Or the teenager who was raped by her neighbor? Or a child who suffers from 80% of his body being burned? Or the woman who desperately wants children but suffers multiple miscarriages? Or the one forced to flee with her children due to an abusive husband?

Sadly, I am familiar with each one of these cases. The question isn't which toothpick they need. It's about how to encourage them while I pray for God to send a giant piece of driftwood. While each one may be capable of assigning multiple “meaning making” scenarios to their individual stories, in the end it’s not about their ability to manufacture meaning in the midst of their suffering; it's about finding meaning in the midst of it.

Viktor Frankl was a Jewish doctor who survived the Holocaust.(His story is quite fascinating.) He wrote, “Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds meaning.” and “I think the meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected.”

Viktor tells the story of being stripped of his own clothes & being given the tattered & dirty rags of a prisoner that had died. He discovered a piece of paper in the pocket of his new clothes & on it was written the Shema (Judaism’s foundational prayer, found in Deut.6:4). The word “shema” means to listen to & pay attention. It implies putting action to what you hear.

This testimony presupposes a Source beyond ourselves & supports the concept that the meaning of our lives, as well as our experiences are designed & filled with intrinsic purpose - to be discovered rather than invented. Scripture supports this truth. Not only are we given multiple stories of those who suffered in unimaginable ways, but we’re encouraged to persevere in our faith as they did in theirs. There is a Maker who created meaning & infused it into every situation we walk through.

Beachcombers look for & pick up pretty sea shells, sea glass, or a uniquely shaped piece of drift wood along the shoreline. They might even find something less common & more rare, like a sharks tooth or a sand dollar. God’s word tells us that He has hidden mysteries & secrets for believers to discover (Col.2:3, Isa.45:3, Prov.2:4, Mtt.13:44). And like my earthly father, who wanted to share what he discovered with his children, God wants to share His treasures with us.

I enjoy beach combing, but when I'm suffering I find more value in being a meaning-finding wordcomber.

GloryUsGate.blogspot.com

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(Note: Word count has necessitated turning this article/post into two parts. In my next installment, we’ll embark on a spiritual scavenger hunt of sorts. Let’s uncover what God’s word tells us to look for in the midst of our suffering. There is meaning - not to be made - but to be found.)

Swan Song

(by Lorie Codispoti)

John & I have almost finished reading through the entire bible. While we’ve read it on our own, we’ve never read from start to finish, out loud, together.

Revelation, likely written by the Apostle John, has never been a book either of us has been excited about reading or studying. And for a handful of reasons we’ve pretty much avoided it. We’ve missed out on a special blessing reserved for those who read this book aloud as well as to those who hear the reading (Rev.1:3). We're fixing that now.

Some consider this apocalyptic book to be John’s “swan song” (his last & finest work). It’s where he provides hope to persecuted Christians. Others would cite his later works (John 1,2,3) which were written closer to the end of his life. In these letters he centers on the truth that Jesus is the Son of God & encourages believers to imitate His nature by loving one another. I can’t answer which work was John’s last, but I can say that both are beauty-full signature books.

What is a “swan song”?

Ancient Greek mythology tells the legend of a mute swan whose final act before dying was to rise up with his final breath, find his voice, & sing the most beautifully enchanting song his life was intended to emulate. While this may be a romantic example of folklore at its finest, it is a myth. The legend has been embellished & retold for centuries. Some zoologists believe the story originates with the whooper swan. They have large windpipes that enable them to produce loud whooping honks. When this swan is dying its lungs collapse & they “make a series of long, drawn-out notes. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the sound as a “clarinet when blown by a novice.”(That hardly sounds like a melodic masterpiece.)

Figuratively speaking, a swan song is an idiom that expresses someone’s final accomplishment, project, or last performance of a person before they die. It’s thought of as their finest work.

While a swan song may be more mythical than factual, Scripture does link the idea to several bible characters.

For example: the seemingly insignificant Simeon of Luke 2:25-38.

This old man (Some say he was an centenarian.) was part of the entourage of nobodies God used in His redemptive plan to save mankind. We don’t know a lot about him, but what we do know is that he was a significant somebody. In our culture the spotlight tends to focus on the young, but Simeon’s Light is projected from within as God spotlights His goodness through him at the appointed time.

Simeon’s name means “God has heard” & he models a faithful, patient, righteous, & devout man who was filled with the Holy Spirit, who promised him that he would not die before seeing the Messiah. On the day that Mary & Joseph brought their Newborn to the temple for dedication the Spirit revealed to him that his heart’s desire had finally come to pass as he held & gazed into the eyes of the long awaited Salvation. His spontaneous praise was both retrospective & prophetic as he anticipated what this meant moving forward. Both Mary & Joseph “marveled” at what was spoken.

So much can be said about Simeon’s prophetic “swan song,” found in Luke 2:29-35. If we are listening we will hear a few ways we can apply his finest work to our own lives.

~ Simeon waited & lived well.

The text (Lk.2:25) tells us that he was waiting & looking for the Messiah. And because of the Holy Spirit’s promise Simeon was looking for Him to show up on the scene in his lifetime.

What are we looking for, & how are we waiting?

Simeon was not waiting passively; he was living in the Hope of what was promised. It says that he was “just & devout.” Are we actively looking for the return of the King & living our lives in such a way that the Light within us draws others to Him? Are we following the leading of the Holy Spirit by being “just & devout” as we steward our days? Our answers will determine if we are waiting & living well.

~ Simeon departed this life in peace.

“Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word…” (Lk.2:29).

Simeon knew that he was a part of God’s plan. The moment he laid eyes on the baby Jesus he knew that his mission had been fulfilled. Like an athlete who is aware that he is aging out of the sport, but also knows the game is not over, Simeon knew that the old must make way for the new. He had done his part to remain faithful & was overjoyed when he recognized that the New had come to fulfill God’s redemptive plan.

As we age out of our mission have we been purposeful to pass the baton to the next generation? Will the annals of time show that we acknowledged that God’s purposes are much bigger than us & our lifetime? When we too have seen & testify that they eyes of our spirit “have seen Your Salvation” (Lk2:30) then we will be able to depart this life in peace, having a settled confidence that God will fulfill His plan.

Like Simeon, we can trust all of God’s promises & be filled with & follow the leading of His Spirit. We can wait with active faith while we look for & anticipate Christ’s return. And the hope of knowing that we will one day “see Him as He is” will fill us with the kind of peace that only God can give.

In the meantime, what will your swan song be? Part of mine will be that we read the whole bible together, aloud. And we were blessed to finish with Revelation.

GloryUsGate.blogspot.com

What's In A Name?

(by Lorie Codispoti)

What’s in a name?

I thoroughly enjoy everything that goes with the art of naming (onomastics).

I remember sitting at my desk in grade school, doodling my name in multiple styles. Being named after both of my grandmothers was a gift, & there remains a sense of connection & belonging associated each time I hear my name. I feel the same way about my maiden & married names.

While I may not be able to recall every critter, flower, or tree I’ve named over the years, I have a vivid memory of when the hobby of naming things began. I was in the second grade, writing my first & only fiction story. I needed a name for the protagonist, & while I remember little about the story, his name remains in my memory because it was a portmanteau (my favorite technique of blending parts of two or more words).

Have you ever heard of name-signaling - what names say about ethnicity, religion, social sphere, and socioeconomic background? The thought is that names signal a lasting impression based on the information that has been purposefully conveyed.

Today’s parents would be wise to consider carefully the long-term effects of naming their children. (Proverbs 22:1) Names label & identify us. For a child their name is linked to who they are & their sense of belonging. While names represent the experiences & values of the parents, & are influenced by multiple factors, they also have the power to shape (positively & negatively) how a child views themselves. Culturally speaking, names create a bond between you & your people group.

Naming children in Scripture was about more than identity though. There was significant spiritual intent attached to naming a child. It was a time for celebration, as the new little life was welcomed into the covenant community of Israel. The act of naming was also a prophetic signal that spoke of a projected character & destiny for that child. Typically there was a ceremony, & for boys it was connected to circumcision at the age of 8 weeks. (Can you imagine not naming your child for 8 weeks?)

I find it interesting that in the Bible it was mostly the women who named the children. The first example that comes to my mind is the sad story of Jacob & Rachel (Gen.35). She died giving birth to Benjamin & her last recorded words are of her giving him the name Ben-Oni (son of my sorrow/pain). Perhaps Jacob renamed him Benjamin (son of my right hand/good fortune) because he did not want his son’s name to be a regular reminder of his wife’s painful death, and didn't want that stigma to follow his son. Symbolically, maybe Jacob wants to shift his son’s path from sorrow to future hope & good fortune.

One of the things I’ve learned about this story, however, is that while Ben-Oni reflects Rachel’s pain, “Oni” also means “strength.” One name with intertwined meanings. Ben-Oni was the son of her struggle AND her strength. Rachel’s entire life was filled with struggles, but what if what she was saying on her deathbed was that those very struggles are what gave her the strength to press on? What if that is what she wanted to communicate to her son & it was meant to be an encouragement, not a curse? Perhaps both of Benjamin’s parents wanted the very best for him. Personally, I like the idea of combining those ideas & calling him Ben-Oni-Jamin. (Portmanteau anyone?)

I am likely one of the few people who reads through biblical geneologies slowly - in order to try & pronounce them correctly (which I’m sure I get wrong), but also because they challenge me to see how each one fits into the story within the main story (meta narrative) of Scripture. The more I learn the more I realize that everything points to Christ.

By the way, if you’ve ever read Pilgrim’s Progress you may recall that the main character, Christian, started out with another name (Graceless). Like us, his identity changed when he left the City of Destruction & assumed a new name.

In his book about heaven, Randy Alcorn points out that while believers will be known by the names we used here on Earth, God is going to give us new names, known only to us & God, on the New Earth (Isa.65:15, Rev.2:17). Does that imply that God not only gave us a new identity when we came to Christ (“christians”), but that He will continue to add identifying marks to our personhood for all eternity? I love it! (And I will now no longer be jealous of the Catholics who get to pick a new name when confirmed. )

I close with the question I opened with: What’s in a name?

Answer: Everything!

“What can be more a man’s own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him? And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the divine beauty better than any other creature can.” (C.S.Lewis, The Problem of Pain)

GloryUsGate.blogspot.com

New Earth

 (by Lorie Codispoti)

When I imagine what life will be like on the New Earth, I think of the joy of all things restored in a world filled with the unveiled, manifest presence of God.

However, when I read about it in Scripture there is something that interferes with my vision of absolute perfection & the unimaginable beauty of this world. And apparently I’m not alone in my angst.

Some people can’t imagine a life without their dearest loved ones or the animals they’ve grown to love. Others have a hard time thinking they won’t be married to their spouse. I’ve heard a handful even lament about the perpetual light because they love looking at the night sky & the beauty of walking along the shoreline in the evening. Then there are those who mourn the dreams they imagine they will lose should their life be prematurely cut short (marriage, children, grandchildren, travel, etc.). What about never having the need to sleep? Some people love to sleep in on their days off.

It’s hard to imagine things we can’t relate to, isn't it? We have a tendency to fear the unknown when we’re comfortable with the known.

I’m not uncomfortable with any of the things I mentioned, but my spirit squirms when I read one, repeated word in the description of the New Jerusalem on the New Earth. See if you can guess what it is...

“And I saw the holy city” (Rev.21:2)

“great city” (Rev.21:10)

“confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed & built by God…”

“for He has prepared a city for them” (Heb. 11,12,13)

“City of our God” (Psa.46,48,87)

While you extroverts may read this & be elated, the introvert in me shudders when I see the word “city.” My mind immediately pictures everyone (all believers from the beginning of time), living side by side (like sardines in a can) in a high-rise apartment complex. I seriously need space & I can't even tell you how much I dislike cities.

One introvert describes her heavenly ideal as “… a quaint cabin in forested heaven surrounded by flowers, next to a babbling book, fifty miles from the closest neighbor.” I too prefer this Edenic picture. My soul resonates with trees & rivers over stone & metal.

This uneasiness prompts me to question what is triggering my resistance, because I know it’s not God.

Whenever we feel uncomfortable about something that we read in Scripture we don’t need to feel guilty or ashamed. We need to grab a shovel. God uses our discomfort with His word as an invitation. So rather than dismissing or excusing those feelings let’s accept His invitation & start digging. When we take time to study & contextualize the passage we find that understanding follows. When you’re motivated to dig deeper you also find that, like potato chips, one shovelful is never enough.

One thing jumped out as I was reading Revelation 21:2…

“I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

This city is not a city waiting to be built. The New Earth, along with its capital city, New Jerusalem, is not some etherial dream land waiting to be realized. It is a real tangible, physical place, made up of material substances & in existence right now. It is where resurrected & embodied humans will live. When Jesus told His disciples that He was leaving to prepare a place for them, He was talking about a city that will be ready for habitation when it arrives on the New Earth. At the same time that betrothed believers are preparing ourselves for the wedding, our Groom is preparing a place for all of us to live together with Him.

The way the Hebrew language defines words is like putting together a puzzle, where each letter is a piece that helps to paint the full picture. The three letters in the word for city (eer) each represent something significant. The first one represents eyes & means to see, behold, & be aware of something. The middle letter represents God’s hand. The third letter represents a turning head. What this is saying is that the hand of God is central & always doing something, & He wants the eyes of all those in the city to turn their heads, look around, & behold what He is doing in the midst of them.

The next thing that stands out in this verse is where it says that this city is “coming down out of heaven from God.” Every city, throughout antiquity, was made by human hands, & then corrupted by human hands. Not so with the incorruptible New Jerusalem, as no man will have anything to do with its construction.

Putting all these things (& more) together has given me a diagnostic tool to evaluate things one shovelful at a time.

I have realized that my initial angst about living in a crowded-with-everything-I-detest city was the equivalent of looking through an old pair of lenses & digging in the soil of the OLD Earth without seeing the guiding hand of God at the center. When I turn my head & look at the idea of a city through the “mind of Christ,” anticipating the fact that at the appointed time we will inhabit resurrected & renewed bodies that look like His.

Having a better, more biblical, understanding (though still limited) of the New Earth & its capital city has shifted my shovel and redirected my thinking. Knowing that there is absolute, unfettered beauty & perfection in the presence of God. Knowing that the absence of all sin, death, suffering, etc. & the consequences that follow each will be completely obliterated forever. Knowing that the Light that illumines the entire city is what makes it out-of-this-world dazzling to behold. Knowing all of this frees me from fearing the unknown. It frees me to embrace the introvert in me that can see the restored, peaceful edenic gardens (multiple Edens), with all the sights & sounds of nature, encapsulated within the walls of the city. The introvert will no longer be drained by the crowds, but rather energized by the corporate worship that we hear from both the angels & every nation, tribe, & tongue. In the same way that the veil will be lifted from our eyes, in order to “see Him as He is,” the veil the darkens & skews the world we live in will be lifted to reveal what the Apostles John & Paul could not articulate because they saw & heard things that exceeded any point of reference they had.

The most amazing feature about the city of God is God Himself. The dwelling place of God will be with us, & where He is there will be such beauty, such joy, such perfection, such wonder, such elation, etc., that we will never, ever, ever have a desire to be anywhere else.

Close the door & lock the gate! Give me the key (fashioned from the metal on my shovel's head). I want to hang itaround my neck so that I can put this fact on display: There’s no place I’d rather be than inside the city of God, basking in His manifest presence & the Light of His glory for all eternity.

That is my reality to come. I hope it's yours as well. If so, I'm pretty sure we will love living together with the King.

GloryUsGate.blogspot.com

Brokenness

(by Lorie Codispoti)

Have you ever walked through a season of utter brokenness? Not the kind of broken that comes as a result of bad choices. (That kind of brokenness will hopefully lead to repentance & restoration.) The kind I’m talking about is a cumulative form of brokenness that comes from circumstances that are beyond our ability to stop or control. It’s something we experience physically, emotionally, & spiritually - all at the same time.

The longer it lasts, the easier it is to see a pattern emerge. On the good days it looks & feels like you are moving forward & making progress. Then the next day comes & you are back to watching your heart shatter into pieces. The cycle repeats & you wonder if there is any way to escape the misery.

On those days I find myself crying out to God in a different way.

When I have exhausted all my words - words that go round & round like a record on a turntable - I ask God to turn down the noise in my head & help me to focus on using His words when I pray.

“I’m bruised and broken, overwhelmed by it all; breathe life into me again by your living word.” (Ps.119:107)

Not only do I find that His words express what is in my heart so perfectly, but as I petition my Father I’m countering the lies that bombard me. His Spirit reminds my heart of His truth & promises.

“The LORD is near to the broken in heart, & saves the crushed in spirit.” (Ps.34:18)

When we dive into this text we find that this kind of brokenness is referring to our inner life (mind, will, affections). The brokenhearted person realizes how inwardly shattered they are. They have discovered that they lack the ability to control any of their circumstances, & they recognize their desperate need for deliverance. And for those “crushed in spirit” God is saying He is close enough to touch. Our God draws near enough to bind up the wounds of those who are broken. (Ps.147:3, Isa.61:1)

God uses our brokenness to draw us to Himself & comfort us in our affliction.

But, there’s more!

We tend to be so one-dimensional that we stop short of understanding & embracing the broader nature of what it means to break. The Hebrew word is the same word used for giving birth. Rabbi Daniel Lapin expounds on this thought by saying that “The Lord’s language is teaching us that when something breaks and is destroyed, it also can give birth to something entirely new which can provide ongoing sustenance.”

In his book, Intimacy With God, Chaim Bentora points out a a truth that will infuse hope into your suffering. He says that one rendering for “broken” is “breakthrough,” & notes that “A broken heart is often an opportunity for a breakthrough in one’s heart.”

Have you ever thought of your brokenness as something that can result in a breakthrough - a new beginning?

When my heart has been shattered & I’m left with a gaping wound that pulsates with cyclical pain I have a choice to make. I can draw back, close my heart, & let the bitterness of loss consume me, OR I can open my heart & expose the wound, all while crying out to my Father for help. When I choose the later He intervenes & reminds me of how close He literally is. He then responds with a tender touch that draws me close & “breathes life into me again…”

Brokenness is a natural occurrence in a broken world. But, my broken heart does not have to lead me to a shattered end. When we cry out, God supernaturally breaks-through the dark clouds of the natural. His closeness gives birth to healing & greater intimacy with Him.

GloryUsGate.blogspot.com

Loanwords

(by Lorie Codispoti)

English is my first & only language. I know how complicated it can be for others to learn English so I’m very grateful.

I understand that language is inherently dynamic, with words that are always evolving. We see that when we compare dictionary versions. But did you know that up to 80% of our English words are made up of words borrowed from other languages? They are called loanwords & some of them feel like they snuck across the border & invaded our lexicon without even consulting Noah Webster.

The ones that I’ve had the most difficulty with are those we’ve borrowed from the French language. (We’ve adopted approximately 80,000 loanwords from them.) Without the benefit of translation or context I am at a loss to decipher.

“I do not think it means what you think it means.” (Inigo Montoya)

Perhaps your iocaine powder is different than mine & comes from another continent, but my guess is that everyone has had a loanword deficiency they’ve had to contend with at some point.

What's fascinating is some of the loanwords we get wrong on a regular basis.

Starting with the French word, “duvet.” It means “cover.” Most of the time we hear “duvet cover” used, as if duvet were an adjective to describe the kind of cover we are talking about. In reality we are saying, “I found a nice ‘cover cover’ for my bed.”

That’s not the only one that we misuse either.

We say, “I enjoyed a nice cup of ‘chi tea’.” Well, “chi” means tea in Chinese, so we just talked about having a cup of “tea tea.”

Have you ever eaten or made Naan bread? Since “naan” means bread, you just repeated yourself again.

These redundancies can be embarrassing (Don’t ask me how I know that.) when we realize what we’ve actually said. We sometimes add the word we are familiar with to clarify and/or emphasize what we mean. We might tell our friend, “I am going to the cafe’ for coffee.” You guessed it... cafe’ means coffee.

In our attempt to sound all sophisticated we end up demonstrating a linguistic side effect by repeating ourselves in two different languages.

One has to laugh when one discovers they are more like a talking parrot than a walking dictionary when they say things like “Sahara Desert,” “Lake Tahoe,” and “ahi tuna.”

Perhaps I’m more bi-lingual than I thought I was.

If you want to talk about more loanwords you can find me under my duvet sipping on a cup of chi.

Bring a dictionary!