Easily Amused

Apparently I'm easily amused but it started me thinking.
I was reading an email and it said, "You know him, there is a plaque in his honor in the fellowship hall."
The word plaque just looked odd to me. So I looked it up in an online dictionary it read in part...

plaque Pronunciation (plk)
n.
1. A flat plate, slab, or disk that is ornamented or engraved for mounting, as on a wall for decoration or on a monument for information.

2. A small pin or brooch worn as an ornament or a badge of membership.

3.
a. Pathology A small disk-shaped formation or growth; a patch.
b. A deposit of fatty material on the inner lining of an arterial wall,
c. A scaly patch formed on the skin
d. A film of mucus and bacteria on a tooth surface.
.

Friends, is it any wonder that English is a tricky language to comprehend? I mean seriously what diverse meaning that one word has... an honor or disease. Context...

And it is context that gives us a lot of information. It is the context in which words are given a good deal of their meaning and that is certain in the Bible texts. We learn to consider the context, who is talking, to whom are they talking, what is the distinctive time and background, where in the history of the people did this occur? These are important considerations.

Our own lives are lived in particular context. When a friend talked about the way certain churches behaved I asked is this in an urban or rural situation? He had not even considered there might be a difference.

The way we are people, church, school, community, all has particular context. Without understanding those differentiations we could be using the same words and speaking a different language.

Remember whose you are, where you are, and what God has in mind for you. Our lives lived in the context of God's love, grace and mercy can make all the difference in our lives well lived.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006