Why the World Needs a Thesaurus

Before I begin this particular tirade I need first to credit Josh Cousineau for giving me today’s thought. (You can read his inspiring post here) He has a strange habit of usurping all my ideas before I think of them. I’m sure you can imagine how frustrating that is for me, so thank you in advance for your sympathies. But I digress.

Even before Josh’s blurb though, C.S. Lewis pointed out that our hackneyed use of language could distort the value of what we love

“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” 

It’s easy for us to snicker at this thought, as I did initially after reading Josh’s post.  But beyond this apparent absurdity lies truth.  Even Jesus alludes to the importance of our vernacular. Here’s Mark 10.18

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”   

Now admittedly, Jesus is primarily drawing out the truth that he is God. But that fact doesn’t lessen the meaning of the word used. No one but God is good.  We throw words around like a monkey flinging poo. But it isn’t just that we use overly expressive words like ‘awesome’ or ‘epic’ to describe the mundane.  Sometimes we choose the wrong ones altogether.

I’ve heard it said many times, from guys to or about their significant others, that they’re  ‘smokin’ or ‘hot’ and for more than a given situation, they mean it perpetually.  While there isn’t anything inherently wrong with those statements (other than they’re oftentimes influenced by lust) why would we use words that we would eventually want to retract? Honestly, does any man really think that their wife or girlfriend is going to embody those traits at ninety? We have a language so equipped as to give us more affluent and endearing adjectives to describe what and who we love. Like ‘beautiful’ or ‘elegant’ or ‘resplendent’.

Tim Keller identifies with this point while answering a question about Rob Bells new book Love Wins. (In case you are unfamiliar with the controversy, I highly suggest you read this very articulate review) Keller asserts this about Bells book, that by removing wrath from God’s person we devalue what Christ has accomplished. He explains it like this

“when we lessen the penalty for a wrong you make the wrong less serious and make the wronged less serious.” 

   In this instance Keller is saying  if the weight of sin was only that of a paper-clip, than that is all Christ died and atoned for.  But the opposite is also true.  If we give undue esteem to items of less importance then we are devaluing things of a greater kind.

Some people may say that it would then assume increased status or caliber. But this isn’t that case. Especially in light of Christ and his gospel.  I refer back to Mark 10.18, only God is good.  The word ‘good’ is pretty nondescript. It doesn’t display a picture quite like ‘grand’ or ‘amazing’ but it neatly places everything else beneath it.

We know God is described by those words and described so into infinity. So we should be aware of how close our verbal associations become.  Our words are important, so while we can use greater words to describe other things, we should take care to note what they should first describe. Christ.

Anything less would be an epic fail.