Communal dinners always brought me out of my comfort zone on the Camino. I generally walked alone and solitude was my focus.
On this night though, once I saw the older burly guy in the corner, I knew we would get along. He motioned for me to sit down. I asked where he was from. “Germany,” he said. I asked what part of Germany. “Stuttgart” was his boisterous response. I loved how he said it. Shtoootgaart was how it sounded. I bet I said that word out loud 500 times the next day.
He said it with such pride. He asked me where I was from. “Holland,” I said. He got all excited. “Not that one.” I was sad to let him down. I asked him where he had started his pilgrimage. “Stuttgart,” he said again. He too had just opened his front door and started walking.
“Why, what made you start there?” I asked. He told me a story about how as a young child he was playing in the forest and came across a sea shell carved into a tree. He went home and asked his father what it was. His father told him about the Camino de Santiago Compostela.
After pestering his dad with more questions, the young boy declared that one day he would walk to Santiago from Stuttgart. He beamed as he recounted that his father proclaimed, “Son, if you want to, I have no doubt that you will.”
My dinner companion went on through school, began to work his career, and even raised a family. But all the while he knew that his journey was coming. His father had told him so. Now, in his 60’s with the words of his late father echoing in his ear, he began his walk.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1 recounts how God spoke the world into being. At least according to the narrative, God created the universe with nothing but words. As image bearers of the divine we too create worlds. And most of the worlds we create are with the words we speak.
In the sixth century, Pope Gregory the Great preached a sermon in which he portrayed Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. With no real biblical support, the accusation stuck. A world had been created for Mary even though she had long passed.
In 2020 it suddenly dawned on me that my words were helping to create a negative world for my son. The crazy part was, I was his biggest fan. I saw in him such potential for life. I saw him living as a 7 when I knew he could be a 10. I pushed him. And then it hit me. My desire to make him a 10 — whatever that means — was making him feel like a 2.
I sat in his room with tears in my eyes, apologizing to him for how I had treated him. We had a good relationship, but I don’t think he could yet comprehend the world I was helping to create for him. We have a great relationship now, and while I make mistakes along the way, his world is looking better. He’s a 12, at least in my eyes and, more importantly, in his own.
Words are so important. Words are what I do for a living. They don’t have to be profound, but they are still so important.
“Son, if you want to, I have no doubt that you will,” isn’t exactly Cicero, but it helped form the world of a young German child. How amazing is that?!
As the USA goes through another ugly election season, we are hearing a lot of words, and so many are negative. Truth is gone, and the gutter now flows right through main street. I wonder what kind of world is being created?
Unfortunately, the church has often chosen to weaponize our words. That has cost us dearly. At best, we have simply joined the ugly conversation. At worst, we have contributed to the creation of an ugly world.
I want to be a better creator. I want to be a creator whose words get young children to dream dreams that may not come to fruition until they are old. I want to be a creator whose words lift up my spouse so that she sees herself for the amazing person she is. I want to be a creator whose words exude love and grace to my congregation as they grow in faith and reach out in love. I want to be a creator whose words simply make the worlds of those around me just a little bit better.
How amazing it would be to look back on the worlds we helped to create and be able to say, “it is very good.”
” I want to be a creator whose words simply make the worlds of those around me just a little bit better.” Yes, putting the Christ back into Christian. Thanks for this.
Thank you Chad. As I get older, 80 now, I tend to be more reflective and this writing helped. Too often I find myself caught up in the negative of the world and sadly contributing to it. I too with tears in my eyes as I read this works reflected in my life. I need to be better and more grateful and loving to everyone in my life. Could I be a positive in just one more life?
I am 90 and your words reflect my being and feeling.
Thanks for that, and thanks to Chad Pierce for this needed self-look.
Thank you. Your wise words both soothed and inspired me during Sunday morning breakfast.
Thanks Chad! I so appreciate honest, transparent prose! It helps me and others to enter into the world you are creating with your words. Indeed, I too, am sorry for the negative words I have often spoken and negative worlds I have created. Your simple story is an inspiration to do better! Thanks again!
Such a grounding and encouraging reminder Chad. Thank you for sharing this. It is so easy to get swallowed up in the tornado of negativity right now.. the calm at the eye of the storm is God’s promise. May we all speak that into the world for others as we encourage them to live their dreams.
Thank you so much for this meaningful message. We are such a large part of creating the world we want to live in, through our words, our actions, and our inaction. Let us all choose to participate in the betterment of our shared lives.
A welcome reflection— thank you.