A - Muse

My mom, among many other fun things, has acquired a nickname over the years. She is our grammar police. Spell check and Grammar check can’t hold a candle to her!

When we were kids she would check our homework for school and you could always count on her to stop those participles from dangling and “however” always had its own personal comma.

Well, yesterday she told me something she just noticed. With all her English background and knowledge, she had never seen this before. It was fun to see her face light up as she shared this insight and the reminder that there are still soooo many things right before us that we can learn from, if we’re looking!

It was the word amuse that caught her eye. Everyone one wants to be “amused”, to be entertained and engrossed by our amusements. Our culture is fixated on the pursuit of amusements. We have devices coming out our ears (really coming out our ears) like phones, i-things, TVs, etc. I mean, we have amusement parks, hello?!?! If you really think on it, the level of distraction, disguised as amusement, is staggering.  Well, these five letters jumped off the page to my mom the other day…A-MUSE.

I sat and listened, as she so eloquently explained the Truth in that word revealed to her. (should have recorded it!) I’ll try to relay it here for y’all. You see, the letter “a” is a negative prefix, like “non”, “dis”, “in” and “anti”. So, the root word of amuse isn’t amuse, it is Muse: to consider something thoughtfully, to ponder. That then means that the “a” added to muse, at its Latin core, turns this definition upside down. AMuse: is to not ponder thoughtfully. WOW! I will never look at that little “a” the same again. That is amazing! Hum, amazing…to undo the maze of confusion in our heads?  

We do live in a society consumed with visuals that amuse, but in the inundation of our days, here is a thought to ponder…How many thought-filled moments slip by completely unnoticed in the noise of amusement?  Those superficial seconds that ponder really nothing at all? It is so very easy to fall for the world’s redefining of Truth, but the Truth is...

Amusement is not Joy. 

Amusement cannot replace Peace. 

Amusement will never give us Hope.

I drove home, in my quiet car, so very grateful, thankful for the time at the kitchen table with my mom…just musing over five little letters. Praying we all find a few more musing moments in our days!

Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us, not by what we are and what we do for Him.

Romans 12:3b ~ The Message