Thank God for Conjunctions

I very much enjoy writing. Thinking back on my childhood, I suppose I always have. It wasn't until the last couple of years however that I've actually put pen to paper, and fingers to keyboard, to formally share my thoughts with others. I think my hesitation has always been that I was never a great English student. I always felt inadequate and inept in that regard. Some may say for good reason. I misspelled words, my penmanship was horrific, and I couldn't properly conjugate a sentence, even if my life depended on it. 

I've come to learn though that words both spoken and typed, even if imperfect in structure, if genuinely coming from the heart, are powerful. As words are often used on social media, they can degrade and demean, but words lovingly spoken and shared can also lift up and give hope to others as well. I would argue that's what conjunctions often do in the Bible. Thank God for conjunctions.

"Coordinating conjunctions," as I understand them, "connect parts of a sentence." I read that they can be identified by the acronym "FANBOYS" (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So). If a sentence has two thoughts/two important parts, coordinating conjunctions bring them together. 

We as a people have found all kinds of ways to separate ourselves, but Christ, through His words, and His life, brings us together. Consider Matthew chapter 16. In that chapter, we read that Jesus predicts His own death. He tells His disciples "he must be killed, AND on the third day he will be raised to life." Peter, like most of us, immediately focuses on the first part. The part where Christ shares that He must be killed. Peter immediately responds, "Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you." Peter was so consumed with how he felt after hearing the bad news, he failed to even listen to the beautiful conjunction. Yes, Christ must die...AND on the third day, He will be raised to life! Amen for that, right? 

If that verse read, "he must be killed" and that was that, the harshness of that period would echo for lifetimes to follow. If Christ was simply a man who lived AND died, period, where is the significance in that? We know that Christ is significant because He was more than simply a man. Christ was the son of God. He was killed but He didn't remain dead. Just as He predicted, He was raised to life three days later. Thank God for conjunctions. 

In John chapter 16, we again hear some bad news/great news from Jesus, "In this world, you will have troubles BUT take heart, I have overcome the world." Jesus didn't say, "in this world you will have troubles, sorry about that." "In this world you will have troubles, deal with it." "In this world you will have troubles, hate that for you." No, He said, "in this world you will have troubles, BUT take heart, I have overcome the world. Thank God for conjunctions. 

Our Savior died...AND He was raised to life. In this life you will have troubles BUT our Savior has overcome this world. As you read this, you may be struggling. You may feel hopeless. You may be in a dark place. Please, don't focus on the first part. Don't insert a period where one doesn't belong. Instead, thank God for conjunctions. 

Much Love, Adam

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