I am home from the Assembly, where I listened to many, many gifted speakers. I am grateful for the wisdom they imparted
However I took careful note of the words they used. I just noticed my box on the dressing table
now I have
unpacked it
so I can think outside the box
as we journey together
going forward
in this time of transition
not afraid to leave our comfort zone
[next year, please can we have the cliché bingo card sent out with our delegates’ papers?]
And by the way, here is a photo of my punch
For those who were at Blackpool and had not heard the quote from Robert Louis Stevenson before [“punching holes in the darkness”] may I politely point out that he was talking about a lamplighter, carefully doing his job illuminating a clear path down the darkened Edinburgh streets – and it is all about crafting, not boxing!
Surely we should be using our tools [God-given gifts] wisely and prayerfully as we seek to ‘Be the Light’ – not violently “Bible-bashing” people into submission?
The Stevenson family certainly knew all about ‘Being the Light’, as they were probably greatest lighthouse builders ever.
Brightly beams our Father's mercy from his lighthouse evermore
But to us he gives the keeping of the lights along the shore
Trim your feeble lamp my brother, some poor sailor tempest tossed
Trying now to make the harbour, in the darkness may be lost
"Going forward" is one of my biggest pet hates! We have a local chap to whose training sessions I have occasionally to go, and it is one of his favourite phrases and it proves to be such a distraction from the training that I find myself sitting there counting how many times he says it, and now I hear all sorts of people saying it, on the BBC News, on the radio, and it is a pain! What is wrong with "in the future" and just using the future tense when speaking rather than all this, "going forward"?!
ReplyDeleteDisappointed that there wasn't a new paradigm (still don't know what one of them is), or that you weren't exhorted to go the extra mile (at least that one is biblical!)
ReplyDeleteWas there any ' blue-sky thinking' in sunny Blackpool over the weekend? I think that's the one that irritates me the most!
ReplyDeleteBut please let us refrain from "re-inventing the wheel" whatever hackneyed phrases we use to describe what we are doing.
ReplyDeleteWould love to see the reaction if someone suddenly jumped up and shouted BINGO! after hearing one of those phrases!
ReplyDeleteThe cliche that annoys me the most is "at the end of the day"... Aargh!!
ReplyDeleteJane x
I knew 'unpack' would be on your list! I had real problems editing the work of a preacher a few years ago - he was writing essays for a theological degree and had little experience of essay-writing (due to his engineering background) and therefore didn't realise you couldn't use 'unpack' in formal English!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jane and Chris above- irritating cliche!!! And I don't like all those silly cliches that those on The Apprentice bandy out- what on earth IS a business acumen, sounds like some sort of verruca!x
ReplyDeleteIn one church I went to the most popular phrase seemed to be "It's a new day!". The trouble was, it was a "new day" for about ten years.
ReplyDeleteLesley x
Aaack! "Going forward" - can we not ban that dreadful phrase? What do such people say when they want to refer to the past? "Going backward?"
ReplyDelete"Moving forward" is another dreadful (possibly American?) variation of same. Drives me nuts.
Re "time of transition" - from what are we transitioning, and to what? There's nothing new under the sun.
Rant over. :)