“Words are sacred. If you get the right ones in the right order you can nudge the world a little.” (Tom Stoppard)
Words are important and powerful. After all, God created the universe by speaking, and Satan tried to tempt Jesus by twisting God's word. Words have the power to build up or tear down. Words have the power to clarify or confuse. Tom Stoppard got it right when he said that words are “sacred”:
Words are sacred. If you get the right ones in the right order you can nudge the world a little.
The culture of the world is filled with words that blind us to God’s purpose for work and business. Even some words and phrases common in the faith and work movement are disordered. Disordered words that embody the world's priorities rather than Biblical priorities infect our thinking, which ultimately infects our heart.
Disordered words can shape and distort our very identity and our behavior at work. In some sense, we can become who we say we are, which means we need to be very careful how we describe who we are. For example, striving to be a "Christian entrepreneur" (or a “Christian businessperson” or "Christian lawyer", or "Christian doctor" or "Christian artist", etc.) is an obstacle to working in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.
The Importance of Primary Identity
It is said that our words become our actions, which become our habits, which become our values, which become our destiny. You can become who you say you are (or who others say you are), which means we need to be very careful how we describe who we are.
Matthew 6:24 tells us that a person can have only one primary identity (and an organization can have only one ultimate priority):
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
Although a person can only have one primary identity, they can have many secondary identities, For example, a person can be a Christian, a businessperson, a wife (or husband), a mother (or father), a daughter (or son), all at the same time.
But when push comes to shove, there is one identity they view, consciously or subconsciously, as the primary identity—the one they will protect even if it means sacrificing success in their secondary ones. Our self-worth and value is wrapped-up in whatever we see as our primary identity.
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