A web site called One Word 365 has attracted much attention at the beginning of 2012.  Instead of making and breaking a list of resolutions, this web site encourages people to choose one word as a focal word for the entire year.

Even before seeing this site, I encountered my word while reading my Bible a few weeks ago.  While reading the 92nd Psalm, my attention zeroed in on the phrase that now sits in the header to this blog just under the FrankGantz.com.  (If you are reading this via email or in your RSS reader, you will need to click through to the actual website to see it.)

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In almost every culture it is appropriate to greet somebody who has entered into close proximity.  Likewise we send away that person with another verbal call or physical gesture.

Many cultures perform these civil duties with some version of “hello” and “goodbye”.  What are we communicating with these words?  We’ll get to that in a moment.  First some observations.

When we see somebody we like that we haven’t seen in some time, we are prone to some sort of greeting filled with emotion.  The words might be difficult to make out, but the rest of the body demonstrates to the other person that they are welcomed.

More frequently, our society seems to practice the departure of a disliked person with a profane mumbling under the breath.

Whatever our first and last words, we typically are blessing or cursing the arriving/departing person.  The mumbling mentioned above is an example of cursing.  What would happen if we were more intentional about extending an appropriate blessing as people enter and exit?

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The above chart was released today reporting the top 10 Christian populated countries.  Keep in mind that the only criteria for this report is that a person says they are a Christian.  It does not distinguish between those who practice and those who do not.  It does not attempt to define the term Christian.  With that in mind, it is still an insightful chart.

Here are my observations:

The Cost of Claiming Christianity

Almost 80% of Americans claim to be Christians while only 5% of the people of China claim the same.  It is worth noting that in the United States, most people have a heritage of Christianity.  Americans also have many societal expectations to claim Christianity.  In China this is not so.  Communistic atheism has been the norm for some time.  Most Christians have to break from family and societal expectations to be Christian.  They may even face persecution from the state and culture.

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Turn down the volume, please.

Does it seem like we are living in a world in which yelling is becoming the normal tone of conversation?  I do not have any hardcore data to back up my claims, but my experiences have convinced me that this is so.  If your experiences are similar, then perhaps we should begin by lowering the volume when we have access to the controls.

The other day at the grocery store, a mother screamed at her child so loudly that everybody else in the produce department stopped to look.  The child was not in danger nor misbehaving.  The mother was simply conversing with the child.  I suppose she was so accustomed to yelling that she did not realize she was.  I think the staring eyes of onlookers may have reminded her to tone it down.  Besides the child was not really listening.  He seemed immune to her voice.

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Dictionary.com has released its selection of the word of the year for 2011 – tergiversate.  You are probably like me and have never used the word in any conversation.  Just be sure that this verb does not define your faith if you are a Christian.  Here is the definition:

1.  to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.

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Perhaps you can relate to the Psalmist.  He sees greed and corruption all around him.  He hears the voices of the proud denying or doubting God.  He sees the righteous struggling.  In his mind evil should bring pain and righteousness should bring joy.  But what he thinks in his mind does not seem to match what is happening in real life.

But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task,

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I know what you are thinking.  Halloween is past and we are on to thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas.  But let’s back up a moment.  For the past few weeks, I have been mulling over what Christians have been writing and saying about Halloween.  I realized that in my 50 plus years on this earth, Christians have turned a full circle on what to do when October 31st rolls around on the calendar.  This article is not going to argue for or against Halloween.  It is merely to observe the shifting opinions that have dominated different times in my life.

1.  A Cultural Community Event

In my early years Halloween was a community event.  One did not have to go to the church building to participate.  Christian kids and teenagers celebrated like the rest of their neighbors.

2.  Scaring the Devil

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