Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Strong Words

One of my pet peeves is words -- words that have strong meanings that are used in ways that weaken the words. I have tons of these, but today I'll talk about the word "miracle."

A miracle is something that occurs outside the natural order only with the direct intervention of God, such as instant healing, walking on water, etc . . . I may even give you salvation as a miracle, but I just think that "miracle" is a pretty high standard and should only be reserved for truly miraculous events.

I love sunsets, but sunsets are not miracles; they happen every day at specifically predictable times; they are by definition part of the natural order.

Babies, too. They are born every day all over the world; again, they define the natural order as oppose to violate it. It doesn't get much more predictable than that.

These events are awesome, cool, wonderful, breathtaking, amazing, etc . . . they just aren't miracles.

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