I wrote a book of study tips. One tip encourages visual learners to make the content from their classes visual if possible. But visual media have their limits:
“IF YOU DON’T KNOW ANY OTHER WAY TO STUDY, THEN CONVERT YOUR NOTES TO DRAWINGS AND DIAGRAMS. If you’re a ‘visual person’ (everyone says they’re a visual person, right?), then prove it by making the stuff visual. Just be sure you can put it back into an essay form at test time. There are many ways to convert things to pictures, charts, graphs, maps, and more. However, though I am a visual person and though I love drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, maps, graphs, and charts, I don’t recall ever using any of those visual options to prepare for tests. Words are better, faster, easier. (There is a reason we use language to convey complex ideas.) … Creating something visual is better than not studying at all…. But I am one visual person who will tell you that for most academic subjects, words are the better medium.”[1]
There are many ways to express ideas. You might sing, dance, paint, sculpt, mow patterns in the lawn, or rent a plane and do some skywriting. Some people express themselves with clothing or tattoos or personalized license plates or tongue rings.
But WORDS ARE THE BETTER MEDIUM. WORDS ARE BETTER, FASTER, EASIER. THERE IS A REASON WE USE LANGUAGE TO CONVEY COMPLEX IDEAS.
The Bible contains sixty-six books by forty authors. There is material in the Bible that might have been more easily conveyed with spreadsheets, family trees, paintings, architectural drawings, and more. But God chose words. And that was the best choice. Language is the strongest, most versatile medium. Words are everything. Yet every day our culture wanders further from an idea-filled forest of words into the less-propositional, less-rational plain of images, videos, and cheap laughs. We are feeding our minds less by feeding our eyes and giggles more.
Every work of art communicates ideas. But think of this: an artist may spend a year working on a painting. But the five-minute act of choosing a title can completely change the idea that painting conveys. Consider the famous 1893 painting THE SCREAM by Edvard Munch. Look at the painting above (one of several versions in both paint and pastel) and imagine how different the reaction would be if the title of the piece was “THE SNEEZE”?
A single word has the power to change everything. Words are powerful.
Do you pay attention to words? Do you read song lyrics? Do you catch what people say on TV shows? Do you read personalized license plates or words in tattoos? Have you ever received a letter or card and read it more than once? Words are not chosen without a reason—someone is trying to say something. Pay attention to words.
God, the Creator of all the arts, chose words to explain and clarify the deepest truths:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” Genesis 1:1.
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life” John 3:16.
“In the beginning the Creator made them male and female” Matthew 19:4.
I am in no hurry to raise controversial topics. But it is interesting that when the Pharisees asked Jesus to comment on the legality of divorce, He began His answer by reminding listeners that God made people male and female. Would there have been any doubt in first-century Israel? No. Perhaps Jesus restates this truth from Genesis 1:27 for the benefit of future generations: “He created them male and female.”
Words matter. God chose words as the medium to contain His truth.
The King James translation contains 788,137 words—and those words contain all the truth God captured for us to master. Can you imagine the volume of wisdom contained in a single Bible? Yet you will not benefit from God’s truth until you master His word. Study His word. Words matter.
Read Matthew 19.
ΑΩ
[1] https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-As-Journey-Professor-ebook/dp/B0CFGPZQN2
Dad's Daily Devotional 