One Little Word
Sunday, October 20th 2024 (week 84)
Jeremiah 29:11-14
As a writer, you might expect that words are important to me, and you would be right. But that doesn’t really sum up just how important they are or how I wrestle with them all the time. And not only my own words but all those I read throughout the day.
I know it’s an occupational hazard, but it’s now engraved in me to question how words are used and structured. If you have ever attended one of my Creative Writing courses, you will have experienced my preoccupation with this. For instance, is it better to say, “It’s a lovely sunny day outside today”, or “outside, it’s a lovely sunny day today”? Actually, do I even need the word “today” in there, or “outside”? Ultimately, it’s all about individual writers finding their own style; that personal heartbeat and rhythm that sets their writing apart from others. It’s about putting the right word in the right place. When that happens, it can bring a passage alive.
There are many different Bible translations and the general difference is the words used and the order they are placed in. We will all have our favoured version, but we know that others can be helpful too. My early morning read is always from the New Living Translation but on my desk at both home and work sits the Good News Bible. Depending on which version you read there are approximately 800,000 words in the Bible. The Good News translation uses just one small word in a passage that highlights the power of words, but more importantly the benefit of having a relationship with God.
In Jeremiah 29:11 God says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” That`s from the New Living Translation and every other version says something similar. However, the Good News version adds one small word, “I alone know the plans I have for you….. .” God “alone” knows what’s best for us, the “….good things he planned for us long ago.” (Eph 2:10)
God is clearly telling us that there is no point in looking anywhere else for the direction we need in our lives. Fortune tellers, daily horoscopes, tea leaves, palm readings or psychics can’t provide the answers you need for a fruitful, peaceful and blessed life because they are not from God.
God has all the answers we need and the starting place for a truly fulfilled life is the Son He sent to the cross to be crucified and die for you and me because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and we don’t need anything else.
Prayer: Lord, thank you that you are all we need, that you are faithful when we turn to you and that you have so much more for us than we can imagine.
Neil has been a Christian for nearly thirty years and prior to joining Gatehouse Church spent all his Christian life at Christ Church with All Saints Blackpool, where amongst other things he was a leader in their Campaigner Ministries children and youth work.
Neil is an award-winning and widely published writer. Over twenty-five years he has written for a range of mainstream media including The Times, Sunday Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, and Financial Mail on Sunday as well as Reuters and numerous magazines. How To Books published his first non-fiction title 100 Ways to Make Your Business a Success and he has recently added The Great British Property Scam.
He has also taught Creative Writing extensively for Blackpool and the Fylde College, The WEA, and Lancaster University and launched www.seasiderswrite.com a community-based creative writing project funded by Arts Council England. Writing as C.J.Neill he is also a published novelist.
You can find out more at www.neilbromage.com or drop him an email at neil@neilbromage.com
Neil Bromage, 20/10/2024