Awesome and Amazing
What most captured my attention while watching the New Year’s Eve festivities on TV was the number of times I heard the word amazing. According to Miley Cyrus, the crowds were “amazing”, the weather was “amazing”, indeed, the whole night was just “amazing.” I wondered what happened to “awesome” as the catchword of the day. Not to worry, someone else threw out “awesome” as well as “amazing”.
Since I am convinced that our use of language guides our thinking, I thought how odd that these words, previously used to describe God, were now used to describe purely secular things and events.
Popular worship songs continually refer to our Awesome God in direct reference to many Bible passages, with one of our most enduring gospel songs being Amazing Grace, of course. So how did a rather neutral slang expression such as “cool” come to be replaced by two words that, more often than not, previously were used to refer to God? Could this be another clear indication of our society replacing God with the things they think we should really be worshipping?
If our shoes and dresses are awesome and a crowd of people gathered for a secular event is amazing, then what words do we have to describe God? We still have the old standbys such as “all knowing”, “all-powerful”, “holy”, and “righteous”. Except most of those words have also been usurped. Oprah and her ilk tell us we can “know” and “have the power.” And “righteous” has been a slang term used to describe an “ok” person for quite some time.
What most captured my attention while watching the New Year’s Eve festivities on TV was the number of times I heard the word amazing. According to Miley Cyrus, the crowds were “amazing”, the weather was “amazing”, indeed, the whole night was just “amazing.” I wondered what happened to “awesome” as the catchword of the day. Not to worry, someone else threw out “awesome” as well as “amazing”.
Since I am convinced that our use of language guides our thinking, I thought how odd that these words, previously used to describe God, were now used to describe purely secular things and events.
Popular worship songs continually refer to our Awesome God in direct reference to many Bible passages, with one of our most enduring gospel songs being Amazing Grace, of course. So how did a rather neutral slang expression such as “cool” come to be replaced by two words that, more often than not, previously were used to refer to God? Could this be another clear indication of our society replacing God with the things they think we should really be worshipping?
If our shoes and dresses are awesome and a crowd of people gathered for a secular event is amazing, then what words do we have to describe God? We still have the old standbys such as “all knowing”, “all-powerful”, “holy”, and “righteous”. Except most of those words have also been usurped. Oprah and her ilk tell us we can “know” and “have the power.” And “righteous” has been a slang term used to describe an “ok” person for quite some time.
Those of us who believe in an all-powerful and all knowing God also know we have no words to adequately describe the indescribable. Yet, because we are mere mortals, it is through our language that we must attempt to convey to others the greatness of God. George Orwell knew this when he wrote “1984.” Change the language and you change society. The emptiness of the secular world is mirrored in the language they use and they clearly have no use for God.
