YOU ARE BEING BUILT

I’ve met so many people over the years who can identify with the Israelites who lost their sanctuary when the temple was destroyed. Their sanctuary was leveled—that place in their lives where they felt safe and secure. A spouse may have died, and even though everyone knows the rule going into marriage—”til death do us part”—the parting still seems like a devastating tornado. A person may have been fired from his or her job. A child died of leukemia. A relationship turned bitter. Life fell to pieces.

Many of those people will tell you that the only thing they could cling to was God. Amid unanswered questions and threatening sky, an instinct inside said, run to God, and wedge yourself into him as if into the crevasse of a great mountain. Or, better yet, seek God at the temple.

How the iPhone got its name, and what droid and kindle really mean

Did you wait for hours to be one of the first to own the iPhone 4? If you think people who stand in line for new devices are silly, fill in the blank: “I can’t live without my ——————” 

You may not be a super early adopter, but your gadget/gizmo/doohickey/thingamajig/mobile device of choice is probably more essential to your day-to-day existence than you care to admit.

That little machine that feeds you emails, videos, Facebook updates and even some useful information now and then has a name. The author Philip K. Dick once said, “If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” Names, and words in general, have a meaningful history that influences their use, whether you know it or not. Let’s briefly look at the story of some of these ubiquitous names.