Containing Letters and Pennies.

Words are like money, like paper bills. They can be worth one or one hundred dollars, but unless there is gold sitting in a treasury somewhere, you are just holding disappointment on fancy paper. They can be powerful, but if what they represent does not in fact exist, they are worthless.
Actually, even gold is not intrinsically worth anything. It is shiny metal, valuable only as long as other people are willing to exchange stuff and services for it. Money is only potential- it does you no good until you trade it in for toilet paper and plane tickets. The only reason to keep any of it around is so that you can exchange it later for unforeseen doctors visits or car repairs. Likewise, words are only potential- promises that we trade on, representations of ideas and feelings that may or may not be true. We learn slowly the individual inflation rates of the Jacks and Sues around us, and decide how many of their words they will be able to make good on. We don't want them to show us the money to back up their promises, we want them to show us the time, effort and materials to back up their money. We know that their words are solid, trustworthy and valuable by the gold in their hearts. We know that there is gold in their hearts by the works of their hands.

A guy I know recently gave me some words that represented an agreement to stay away with me, which in turn represented the respect he owed me. He did not honor his words. How could he, when there is a bankruptcy of honor in his heart? It is impossible to render respect that you do not have, even if you should have it. You cannot keep your word if you do not have what your words promised you to have. We are only as trustworthy as the words we keep, and we can only keep the words whose meanings we truly possess. These meanings are largely abstract things that I have very little capacity to keep. For instance, I can promise to tell the truth, but that is dependent upon my capacity to know it. This is dependent upon my ability and determination to seek it out. This is dependent upon how ready I am to be confronted with ideas that have implications I may not like. To keep my word suddenly becomes an ambitious and costly affair, and largely reliant upon the grace of God to keep me supplied with what I have told you I will have. I may say I will call you tomorrow, but that assumes that tomorrow I will still be breathing, still have access to a phone, and still have a heart that can choose to make you more important to me than myself. I am responsible for trying to keep all three intact, but I do not have sovereignty over these things. If they do not happen, I take all the blame, but when they do, I cannot take all of the credit. When others give me words like dollar bills, I can ask my heavenly Father whether or not I can spend them-- He knows if they represent anything He has created. When they do not, the counterfeiter still bears responsibility, but it is up to me not to take his or her money again. When the promises are made good, I have my heavenly Father to thank. A person whose words are backed up with sincere meanings is worth hearing.