A couple of days ago, I sat on the sofa in my den. The yellow light of a mid-October afternoon streamed through the window, illuminating particles of dust suspended in the air. They swirled up and down, each movement surprisingly graceful. In a day or two they’d meet a lemon-scented end when I attacked that room with a dust rag and a bottle of Pledge, but for the moment, they were almost beautiful.
I took a deep breath in, and then exhaled, like I was trying to blow a candle out. I expected to see the tiny dust-dancers immediately respond to my breath, scurrying this way and that in a frenzied retreat. But I was surprised and a little delighted when it took a second for the response I was looking for to occur. I pondered the collision of particles that I had just witnessed. I breathed out again and waited, as molecules bumped into one another in the stretch of space between my mouth and the light-soaked rectangle in front of the family room window. And when that microscopic domino effect reached the tiny dancers, they jumped and scurried again, and I smiled.
But then I stopped smiling. Because what I was watching reminded me of something more serious but no less predictable. Words, when released into the world, have a similar effect. Once uttered, they travel across any distance, any time, colliding into insecurities, past wounds and the lies the Enemy weaves into the fabric of the universe and have tremendous effect. Over the weekend, I had a conversation with someone about this very thing. Words spoken decades ago continue to echo in this person’s mind, and their thoughts still dance a twisted dance, in frenzied response to the put-down uttered in another time, another place.
I wonder if someone had been on the other side of the room that sunny afternoon and had breathed at the very moment that I had, if their breath would have countered mine, and the collisions would have been off-set by the opposing force?
I pray that when God speaks His truth into the universe- through His Word, through His people- that collisions of grace and kindness off-set the damage created when selfish, unkind words collide crippling the hearts and minds of His people.
Still my heart, let Your voice be all I hear hear now. Fix my eyes on the things I cannot see now. Spirit, breath like the wind… come have Your way. -Hillsong United
