How’s that for a title?
You are probably wondering what on earth I’m talking about.
Well, let me tell you.
Growing up, my father was an intellectual. And in his younger days, he was a bit arrogant. He’d tell you this himself. Serving God has mellowed him into a dear man. But it has not always been.
Anyway, the point is — growing up in his house has been very interesting and has developed areas in my personality in certain ways.
Here’s an example. My father loved big words and using words other people didn’t understand to talk over their heads. Observing this and being subject to this from time to time has developed two things within me. I may be wrong, but I don’t think either one is a bad result. Someone else can let me know if they think I’m wrong.
The first thing it developed was a reaction against using big words in every day communication. I don’t fear big words, as I will demonstrate later. But I tend to not use them a lot, except in certain situations. Because, you see, I decided early on that the purpose of communicating is not to wow people with your (self-perceived) intellectual superiority, but rather to… Ahem… Communicate.
I even like talking about complicated principles using simple language so the anyone can be inspired by the depth or beauty of the principle in question. I’m not saying that I’m good at this. But I am saying that it is one of my goals in communicating.
Then there is the other thing I developed, growing up in a house where big words (known as $5 words) flew around freely. Fearless intellectual fellowship.
Big words don’t scare me. Hanging out with people who use big words does not intimidate me. Even when, maybe it should intimidate, it doesn’t because my dad routinely used words I didn’t understand, either unknowingly, or as a joke (see below), or some other reason.
As a joke, my dad used the sentence, “If you don’t refrain from this behavior, I am going to perpetrate abuse upon your person.” I swear to you, as eight years of age, I had no idea what refrain or perpetrate meant but knew it had something to do with something I wouldn’t like.
So, anyway, back to this fearless intellectual fellowship bit. As a result of my up bringing, I also like intellectual stimulation. So at times I pursue it. I have a few places on the internet that I go to where some of the people study Greek and Hebrew. They know what the words hermeneutics, exegesis, and apologetics mean without having to look them up in the dictionary. But not being intimidated by those words, even not knowing what they mean, I fearlessly fellowship with those people. I’ve learned a lot from them and have enjoyed their intellectual exchanges.
So what am I saying here?
Well, for one thing, I’ve come to the place where I’ve finally had to look up these big words (hermeneutics, apologetics, etc) up in the dictionary and find out what they mean and how they apply to me and my pursuit of understanding God and the world around me.
So next post is going to be me defining a few of these words and talking a bit about why they are important. But don’t worry, I still think actually communicating with people is more important than using big words.
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