I have been thinking about the
currency of words – how we value them, spend them, jingle them in our pockets,
get into debt. Words in themselves have
no intrinsic meaning (onomatopoeia aside), just the meanings we collectively
choose to assign and the relationships they build with each other:
syntactically, synergistically. In all
this relativity, how do we find truth?
If words are like money, abstract
concepts existing only because there is a consensus of people willing to
believe, then what happens when there is a crisis of confidence in
meaning? Following the recent financial
crises around the world, we understand more clearly now that money is a
question of relativities: exchange
rates, interest rates, stock market values.
Our wealth becomes arbitrary, subject to sudden dips as the citizens of
Cyprus have unfortunately discovered. Words are slippery devils. Are we meaning what we say or saying what we
mean?
A cloud within a web encircles the planet, squeezing it smaller as a child
squashes a ball of plasticine, overcoming laws of time and space. With the touch of a button, the time-space
continuum is subverted; messages are delivered around the world faster than the
speed of light. First the Word, then
words, finally a web of words: multiple
and opposing incantations, destroying certainty, diluting truth. A digital Babel.
How do we orientate
ourselves among the multiple meanings of our postmodern world? How can we understand our wealth and our worth
in a world of relativities? I believe it
is by knowing the one Word which gives meaning to everything else. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, NIV). Jesus is the Word. He is our treasure, and in Him we can find
our worth.
