I remember lying on a bed at one point during the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college and crying out to God in frustration over the fact that I liked English. I did not understand why He would allow me to pursue such a worthless topic. Couldn't I be passionate about any other subject? I was complaining in my spirit until finally I grew quiet. In that quietness, I heard a voice say "In beginning was the Word..." I sat bolt upright and looked at my arm. I finished the Bible verse that had been brought to my mind "...and the Word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1, NKJV). I took this verse as a reminder from God that since He calls Himself "the Word", my love for words was not a waste, but rather an invitation from God to worship Him through the gift and love for words that He had entrusted to me.
Fast forward to my senior year of college, when I had an assignment to look for a word that I felt described me in some way. Having had the experience described above a little over a year before at that point in time, I thought how funny it would be if I could find the word that simply meant "lover of words". I must admit, I did not expect to find such a word. So when I found "logophile" meant just that, my mouth dropped open. As funny as it may seem, it was this event that truly cemented my love for words. I finally had a word that accurately described my relationship with words. I should also mention that one of the textbooks for this senior class talked about the concept of "caring for words" in the sense that such a responsibilty is a stewardship of sorts.
One of the quotes in that book that struck a chord with me was "Care of language begins in that experience of joy. Or simply in loving the graceful sentence...Loving language means cherishing it for its beauty, precision, power to enhance understanding, power to name, power to heal" (McEntyre, ch.1). This quote resonated with me because of the way that I had experienced joy in connecting my faith to my love of words. It encapsulated my journey up to that point and gave me the courage to keep growing in the joy I have from caring for words!
Works Cited
McEntyre, Marilyn Chandler. Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies. 2nd ed., William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2021. https://www.perlego.com/book/2985665/caring-for-words-in-a-culture-of-lies-2nd-ed-pdf.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright© 1982 by Thomas Nelson®. Used by permission. All rights reserved.