CAUGHT BETWEEN WORD & WORDS [F, 11-14-25]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter-- CAUGHT BETWEEN WORD & WORDS [F, 11-14-25]

 

As I listened to a recording of “It Is Well with My Soul,” I sang along. But then I was struck by the phrase, “the clouds be rolled back as a scroll.” As I sang along with it, I had sung “like a scroll.” Horatio Spafford [1] used “proper” English when he wrote it in 1873, meaning grammatical English. I had not used proper English when I sang it 145 years later.

I should have known better. At Indiana University, when I was in freshman composition, that would have been a “gross illiteracy.” If you committed 3 gross illiteracies in a composition, it was an automatic F.

I also remember the controversy over a 1950s Winston cigarette commercial that used the phrase, “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should.” Grammarians were offended and protested so much that Winston’s advertising agency actually came out with a new ad wherein an English professor marked through “like” and replaced it with “as,” while smiling college students looked on with nicotine addled approval. [Their bright teeth gave lie to the idea that they actually smoked the things.]

I have always been caught between the law of language and the grace of language, wanting to be accurate, keeping the laws of grammar, but also wanting to be creative, using the flexibility of the words to convey old truths in new ways.

That’s our problem, caught between grace and law, even in our language, caught between the language of the rules and the language of the streets, or these days, the language of the tweets. [2]

One of the graces of the English language is its flexibility. We have so many ways to say things. The more arrows we have to shoot at the truth, the more likely we are to hit it once in a while.

The laws of grammar are important. They help us to communicate clearly. I cringe when I hear someone say “I could care less,” because they are trying to say the exact opposite, “I could NOT care less.”

The main thing, though, is not to keep the laws of the words, but to use the words to express the grace of the Word.

John Robert McFarland

1] The music is by Phillip Bliss.

2] I’m quite sure I have mentioned this before, and I apologize for doing so again, but I think it’s insightful, and fun. Daughter Katie said years ago, when Vance Law played 3^rd base and Mark Grace played 1^st base for the Cubs, that the reason the Cubs could not win was that they were caught between Grace and Law.