The voice on the other end of the phone spoke with clarity and wisdom.
She gently said, “Our language creates our reality.”
I asked that she repeat it. This was worthy of writing down. I quickly grabbed a pen and paper, and I scribbled as she obliged. “Our language creates our reality.”
I was mesmerized and entertained by the poetic yet potent power of this phrase. I began to feast upon the words. I chewed on them for days and dissected the phrase carefully.
The first question was: “What is reality?” My humongous navy blue, college dictionary whose torn spine and paint speckles testify of its age and abuse, held the definition: “The quality or fact of being real.”
If something only has the quality of being real, does that make it true?
Quality is relative. What is a feast to a squirrel would be a snack to us. What may appear to be a leather couch because of the quality of the fabric, may actually be really nice vinyl. A really good imitation of the real thing. If someone tells me it’s leather and it smells like it, I will believe them! That doesn’t make it leather.
Where am I going with this?
Our words are powerful. They have the power to bring life or death. If we are always speaking darkness and sadness, blame and shame, this will be our reality. But if we are speaking hope and trust in Jesus, this becomes our reality.
When my sister could barely sit in the recliner in her living room, a bag of bones wasting away, a friend spoke these words to me, “Things are not as they appear.” I took great comfort in those words still believing Christy would one day suddenly rise up from that chair healed.
Now I know.
Things indeed were not as they appeared because though my loved one was dying in this realm, she was being born into the heavenly realm I cannot see.
Maybe Paul said it best:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen (our perceived reality) but on what is unseen. For what is seen in temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18).
Speaking the True Word of God has power to change our reality because nothing else is eternal. All will fall away except His Word. (Does anyone know the scripture reference for this? I know there is one.)
It’s always good for us to do a reality check. If our reality is cloudy and dark, we should do a language check. What are we speaking? If our words do not line up with Scripture, chances are we are struggling or even worse, miserable.
Our language creates our reality.
Do you agree?
Grace and Peace,
andy
