When I was in sixth grade, I wrote a short little note to a new girl in my class, at the behest of my friends, explaining to her why it was a terrible idea to be friends with another girl in the class.
Needless to say, I got into a bit of trouble for that incident, and to top it all off, it didn't work. I didn't understand it then - the girl about whom the note was written was in fact constantly in trouble, and I was trying, the only way I knew how, to save the new girl from a lifetime of difficulties. What's so bad about that?
Legally, of course, the answer is called slander, or defamation of character. Morally, it's a severe violation of the Golden Rule. Logically, we should have stayed out of it altogether. But what twelve-year-old thinks logically?
What's my point? The title of this blog really says it all. It's a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by a character named Treebeard, who is a tree-herder, and caretaker of the old forests. He later says in the book that he is older than the elves (who are immortal) and that he will live long past the point that the current troubles have any bearing on the world. You knew right then that if Treebeard said something, it would be profound, and it would bring great change.
Words are powerful. Whether we speak them, sing them or write them, they cannot be taken back. When I was the editor of my school paper, I spent three months on a story - working with the writer, the parties involved, my advisor, and my staff - because a) it was controversial, and b) I wanted it to make people think.
That is my first goal with this ministry. As time passes, and I meet more and more people, I am given greater and greater vision for this position. I can do a great deal, I believe, but my primary goal is to make people think about the Kingdom and their place in it.
Our time here is short, but what we do now will have meaning for eternity.
Think about it.
