Sure, we can quote Inigo Montoya. But perhaps we have more in common with Vecini than we would care to think. For those of you unfamiliar with the Princess Bride, I suppose we can still be friends, but I might need to explain. In the movie, the character Vecini constantly uses the word “inconceivable” for things that simply…aren’t. Eventually his companion in crime points it out in his glorious Spanish accent, “you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Taylor and I have found ourselves saying this phrase quite frequently when referring to our native language in which we both grew up- Christianese.
If you know what a Bible drill is, who Steven Curtis Chapman is or the words to “I Can Only Imagine” then you likely speak some dialect of Christianese. And while Bible drills taught me how to know the Word, Steven’s lyrics taught me the value of filling my mind with truth to an upbeat acoustic and I can Only Imagine reminded me that Heaven is in fact not here, I think there are a few things that got lost in translation. When we are around others that speak the same dialect of tongue, we don’t notice the differences ourselves- but others do. For the same reason my Maryland cousin stills laughs every time I say y’all and we laugh when she says warsh the clothes… it takes another accent to shed light on our natural bent towards a way of speaking. The more time we spend with people that don’t know Jesus, with friends who met Him later on or with people just burnt out by religion, the church, Christians- you name it- the more aware we are that we have to dig into the Word of God and ask ourselves some hard questions. Why do we do what we do? Why do we say what we say? And what on earth does that even mean?! In asking some of those hard questions over the last year and a half, we’ve found that Inigo Montoya is pretty spot on.
For the next season, Taylor and I are going to tag team write a “I do not think it means what you think it means…” series. Rest, Guilt, Blessing, Justice, Church… words that I thought I knew until I opened the Word a little wider and got my mind blown.
As the Lord is challenging us to take a long hard look at ourselves and our culture as Jesus followers we welcome you on the journey. We promise no answers- and at times even more questions- but we do promise honesty and vulnerability. Our plum line is the Word of God and our desire is not controversy, or even good conversation. Our hearts long to love and obey Jesus in a deeper and fuller way. We would love to have to along for the ride- if you have thoughts or vocab words we can explore- let us know! And if you happen to be around in the San Antonio area January 13th we would love to see you at the Kingdom Culture Conference where we will worship God and explore what is means to experience a crazy culture of people that want to say YES! to obeying Jesus.