The written word alone has tremendous power. Look at the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Sutras, and the Bhagavad-Gita, just to name a few. In the course of history, hundreds of millions of people have directed their lives based on the words expressed in these texts.
Look at the Declaration of Independence; originally drafted by Thomas Jefferson - a deeply spiritual, but not religious man - the Declaration of Independence gave birth to a nation that would become the most influential and powerful on earth. The Constitution of the United States of America has weathered more than 230 years of challenge, change, and controversy. Regardless of its flaws - of our flaws as a nation - you’d be hard pressed to name any other government on the planet as innovative, ingenious, or humane. Both documents were created out of the conviction that all men are free, created equal, and have a right to the pursuit of happiness.
Just words on paper. Pretty powerful stuff.
Words have power.
The spoken word has even more power. Put words and sound – vibration – together and you can move men’s hearts; you can change the world.
Look at President Barack Obama. The most powerful images related to his 2007 campaign – other than the now famous logo and those cartoon-like ears of his – were the tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of people who gathered just to hear him speak. Even on his Inauguration Day, when you didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of even catching a glimpse of him – and the temperature in Washington, D.C. dipped well below freezing – millions of people turned out to hear him speak.
His campaign relied very little on imagery and instead on the words he spoke to inform, inspire, and motivate people to action; this in a day and age when we have become an obsessively image-driven society.
Why is the spoken word so powerful? Because it brings together your mental and emotional aspects. It is these aspects that make up your electro-magnetic field, that is, the “energy” of you. The spoken word magnetizes (your mental aspect) your thoughts and resonates (your emotional aspect) with your emotions. Sound has vibration. Words combined with sound create magnetism, resonance, and vibration. This can impact you profoundly.*
Music has this effect as well.
Certainly, Barack Obama’s words have impacted people. But, so did Adolph Hitler’s words.
Adolph Hitler used images brilliantly; the reversed Christian symbol that became known as the swastika, the goose-stepping troops, the propaganda films of hundreds of thousands of German citizens lining the streets while tens of thousands of troops and tons of artillery rolled by.
But it was his words - and the impact they had on the German people - that influenced an entire nation to go to war with the world, to betray one another, to imprison millions simply for who they were, to exterminate more than 6 million Jews, and to systematically murder between 5 and 10 million disabled people, Slavs, Poles, homosexuals, Russian prisoners, Jehovah witnesses, and others. It is the greatest atrocity known to modern day man.
Hitler was a master of words. He used words to manipulate - and murder - millions of people. And the people of Germany allowed it.
If we are not awake - aware, informed, and standing in our own knowing - we can be easily influenced. There are masters of misinformation and manipulation and there are masters of inspiration and transformation. Be careful whom you listen to and whom you follow.
In fact, I would assert that anyone who wants you to follow them does not have your best interests at heart. Anyone who wants - or needs - followers, rather than partners, has some dangerous unresolved ego issues. Listen to their words carefully. Watch their actions closely. Do they walk their talk? Is their health and well being that of a well balanced individual? How about their finances and their relationships? Are they emotionally mature?
We have a lot of so-called “gurus” in our society today; political gurus, financial gurus, therapeutic gurus, entertainment gurus, and - my personal favorite - spiritual gurus. One so-called spiritual guru was convicted in the deaths of several of his “followers” during a replication of a Native American “sweat.” Following can be dangerous business.
Witness the words, the tweets, of President Trump...and their impact on our society right now.
Let’s look at a man who had quite a way with words. And, let’s look at one word with great power. The word is…suffer.
Merriam Webster Online defines suffer as follows:
Historically, most of the Judeo-Christian world, as well as the Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and most other religions and cultures, have embraced definition #1 above as the true meaning of the word “suffer.”
Certainly this definition of suffering is critical to the interpretation of the meaning of the life - and death - of Jesus Christ.
In the Bible, Mark 10:14 it is written:
"But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them; Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God."
In this passage does Jesus mean for the children, which is you and me, to suffer? Does he mean for us “to submit,” to be “forced to endure,” to “feel keenly,” or to “labor under?” Is this what Jesus meant for us?
Well, a whole lot of people have believed so with all their hearts.
What if we have misunderstood the intended meaning of the word “suffer?” What if we have misunderstood the meaning of the word “suffer” as it relates to this passage, to Jesus Christ himself, to Christianity, and to our beliefs about God and suffering the world over?
What if the intended meaning of the word “suffer” is really definition #2 above?
What if Jesus was saying…allow God’s children to experience, to undergo life…and then they will find their way to me, to the way of life I have modeled with my own life. Do not deny them their experiences, because it is their experience, their undergoing, that will bring them to the kingdom of God.
What if all that “suffer” means – all that it has ever meant – is to experience, to undergo? So then everywhere we have believed suffering meant pain, submitting, enduring, sacrificing – even martyrdom - it simply meant experience and undergo your life.
Experience and undergo your life and you will find the kingdom of God.
What if?
What if this is what “suffer” really means?
A change in one word could change the world.
A change in one word…could free the world.
Words have power.
*(for more on this, Google "Superstring Theory.")
