three-words time

God Bless You! That's probably my all time fav 3-word greeting!

There's something about the rule of three.  I find Anne Lamott engaging and love her casual conversations on Facebook, but I am equally glad for the precision of the title of her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow.  (Make a Note: Got To Read.)

No matter how the morning is going, the TV gets my full attention whenever GMA on ABC asks, "tell us your three words."  I like the homemade banners, the children passing cards from one hand to the other.  Surely here are locally-grown, good-for-you, root-vegetable messages.

I'm drawn to these current expressions because they are the newest version of a life-long obsession.  I think I may still have a bits of poetry embedded under my skin, stuck like pencil lead from early school days when I didn't know any better.  Mark-my-words.

I had to read Dickens too, so I realize that some very significant words have a different m.o..  They're deliberately convergent, closing in from all directions with gradual, stealthy steps.  Other words seem prone to meander, strolling away with contentment, having made their contribution merely a point of departure, perhaps?

Nevertheless, there are always some words like the sharps I save in a sturdy, Tide detergent container under my sink, resting only after having delivered their intended, necessary, sweet pricks through thin skin. Those are bloody welcome.

For St. Augustine, the three words were, "Take and read," and that was the beginning.  I know this about myself:  I never outgrow the thrill of bracing myself for the puncture point of "a word fitly spoken."  God and I meet there and I realize that all the rest is "sound and fury, signifying nothing."  Yes, God comes in the flesh, a word that is true and holy, holy.

Take all of the above and mix in my call to be a minister of the Word, (not to be mistaken by me for a call to wordiness.)  It's definitely three-words time for this blog:

Yes, Much, Others.

Yes (as in 2 Cor. 1:20),
Much (Acts 4:33), and
Others (Phil. 2:4).

Dare. I. Add.
Look. Them. Up?

PS