Sneaking up on me...

I glanced ahead on the calendar this morning, and realized that it is only 2 weeks until I head back to Virginia for a few days (3, actually), to celebrate Christmas with family.  Yikes!  (and YAY!)  Christmas is sneaking up on me this year.  I've heard quite a few people say that Christmas seems to be coming faster this year because Thanksgiving came so late in November.  Makes sense to me.  Regardless, we're in a stage of life where I am glad when time seems to pass quickly, so bring it on!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how the words that we say often have more of an effect on the people around us than they do on us who say them.  Makes me want to be much more careful in my choice of words and discussion.  Sheldon Vanauken shares a letter that C.S. Lewis wrote to him in his book A Severe Mercy, which sums up the idea in a much clearer way than my thoughts ever could.

"My feeling about people in whose conversion I have been allowed to play a part is always mixed with awe and even fear:  such as a boy might feel on first being allowed to fire a rifle.  The disproportion between his puny finger on the trigger and the thunder & lightening wh. follow is alarming.  And the seriousness with which the other party takes my words always raises the doubt whether I have taken them seriously enough myself."

I can say that I do not possess the mind or eloquence that would make me comparable to Lewis in credibility or influence.  But, I think it is a principle that we can all relate to -- I often have those doubts in more than conversations about conversion.  Seems like something that creeps up after many a conversation, on many a topic.

Just oddball thoughts today.