What I learned from Christopher Hitchens

Notorious atheist Christopher Hitchens is dying of cancer. For most this isn't new news, as his diagnosis was wide spread through the news and over the internet.

Unfortunately it was easy for the evangelical church to villify him, and forget his humanity. And as he lay dying, now loosing his voice as the cancer takes over, it is all too interesting for me to see what he muses on in his article for Vanity Fair...

Words & Friendship.

He writes "For me, to remember friendship is to recall those conversations that it seemed a sin to break off: the ones that made the sacrifice of the following day a trivial one."

and adds

"My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends. I can’t eat or drink for pleasure anymore, so when they offer to come it’s only for the blessed chance to talk. Some of these comrades can easily fill a hall with paying customers avid to hear them: they are talkers with whom it’s a privilege just to keep up. Now at least I can do the listening for free."

The power of friendship, the power of words, the power of relationships. All themes I have wrestled through this year, and am finding my footing once again. How powerful the words of a man who soon will lose his ability to speak.

I can't help but wonder if somehow the words we speak, or the ones we don't, will be judged by God in a different way.

Words.

This simple form of relational currency that almost all of us have. This indispensable resource that we all have at our finger tips, that we so often abuse, or use, or twist, manipulate, or withhold. It made my mind spin as I mulled over these ideas.

As a recovering Penetecostal, I usually stray from the prophecy laden, "I know the will of God for your life" church circles. But, I still have some wonderful people in my life that find their connection to Jesus through those services. On occasion I will find myself at church of this denominational persuasion , usually watching with a careful eye, feeling as though I am watching a re-run of my youthful Christian exuberance.

But recently when I attended, I couldn't help but be intrigued by a "message" that God had for me, as delivered through a middle aged man.

He told with much certainty that God wanted me to know there were people on the edges of my circle of influence that were speaking ill of me. He said these words were persistent, and very personal in nature. He warned that these words have picked up traction, as the enemy has gotten wind of them, and now they pose a threat. He encouraged me that God wanted me to build up a hedge of protection around myself and my family and pray against the lies that are being spoken of me.

A few years ago I was also told by a well meaning middle aged man that God wanted me to know I would be a wonderful missionary in Romania.

So, you know, I take these messages with a grain of salt.

But, for reasons that will go un-mentioned, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a grain of truth in the words the man spoke. In the past, after hearing something like this, I would start a roladex of names in my mind, figuring out who could be saying things, what could this all mean...

This time the first thing that passed into my mind, was that I would never want God to have to send a message to someone because of the words that I spoke about them.

I couldn't imagine knowing that the words I chose to use, could somehow build traction and effect the life of another.

If even the slightest truth could be pulled from this "message" I was sent, I wanted to make sure that my mouth was "washed out with soap" as it were. And that I would never be found using the power of my words to create something unsavory about someone else.

So when Christopher Hitchens mused about his approaching lost of the ability to speak, I wondered about what I would feel, as the end of my life approaches. Could I say with certainty that my words were always used to build up and edify?

As if we didn't need reminding again, how powerful our words are, Christopher Hitchens reminded me that my words count, my relationships matter and that time is fleeting from all of us.

Use it, and your words wisely.