February 19, 2008
I Swear
For years I have been friends with Jane Doe, a woman in her late 70’s. Jane and I were visiting one day when she used a four-letter word. More than a little shocked I said, “Jaaane!” She responded, “Whaaat?...It’s not like it’s a swear word. My family’s always said it. It doesn’t mean anything.” A week or so later, still bothered by my pronounced judgment on her family-friendly word, Jane decided to get a second opinion. Going to someone with more authority, she said to the preacher’s wife, “Gail’s trying to tell me that *----* is a swear word. I say it’s not, what do you say?” Gasping the preacher’s wife said, “Jaaaaaaane!”, and Jane said, “Whaaaaaaat?” In all innocence Jane still doesn’t categorize her expletive as a swear word…but she’d feel so much better if she could just find another person who agreed with her.
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Gail;
-----Maybe your friend, Jane Doe, needs to befriend me. When I was four years old my dad hired a young man who swore badly. I idolized this guy. By the time I was five I was swearing badly, too. And I always have, ever since. During spells of my life I have tried hard to stop. During other spells I have just given up. But I have never enjoyed such success against the habit as I have the last couple years. I have more or less stopped working on the swearing problem and have been working on the attitudes that cause it.
-----The hardest attitude for me to overcome is one your friend would probably recognize. All things are what they are. And part of being truthful is speaking of things as they are. Some things are disgusting, very disgusting. To call something glorious is well and good, to speak of someone as fundamental may convey some meaning, but the full meaning of the things of the Lord seem to find conveyance only in associations such as, The Rock, The Lamb, The Lion, The Alpha and the Omega. Then you open the Bible and see some of it’s other associations about the more detestable side of life, such as, “…the joy of the godless lasts but a moment…he will perish forever, like his own dung…” (Job 20:5-7), “…bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel…" (Ezek 4:12), “…Moab will be trampled under him as straw is trampled down in the manure…” (Isa 25:10), “…it is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile,” (Luke 14:10). I am no Hebrew scholar, so I do not know if the original writings used the euphemisms that the translations do, but the symbolism is all the same. It portrays the disgust and horror of what is disgusting and horrible. And when the topic of something truly disgusting arrives in my conversation, I too have an ambition to portray it as it is. So then, I too am left digging through the basket of trash words wondering why a few of them would not be appropriate.
-----But beyond even that, when Paul writes, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths…Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place,” (Eph 4:29 & 5:4) is it only with swearing he is concerned? Listen to the way people talk to each other, especially the way parents can talk to their children. Reviling runs deep, and it cuts deep. Not to excuse profanity, but we would do our social system well to consider our very mannerisms toward one another.
-----Although I have had a lifetime problem with profanity, I try not to use it around those whom I know it offends. Sometimes that includes me, and that is when another spell of hard work to clean it up begins. Thank God for mercy and patience.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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