Blog Posts

Char Cox 9/8/22 Char Cox 9/8/22

Six Words

I have long been fascinated

By the six-word story –

Six words to tell a complete tale,

Six words to capture an experience,

Six words to engender emotion,

Six words to draw the reader in,

And

To leave the reader changed,

Six words to say everything there is to say,

Six words –

Succinct,

Carefully chosen,

Complete.

I first discovered the six-word

Phenomenon

several years ago

when I was reading memoirs.

My goal was to read

a book a week,

And in the process,

I searched for titles

by reading reviews online.

One day,

when I was scrolling through the results for

“must read memoirs,”

I stumbled upon

The Six Word Memoir ® project.

After finding the website,

I ordered and read,

“Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs,

by Writers Famous and Obscure,”

edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith.

By page 20,

I was hooked.

As I read

Entry after entry,

I was amazed

at how just six words

spoke volumes.

Six words

told complete stories.

Six words

captured

Moods

and memories.

Conflicts

and crises,

People

and poignancy.

“Born in the desert, still thirsty.”

-Georgene Nunn

“Savior complex makes for many disappointments.”

-Alanna Schubach

“Joined Army. Came out. Got booted.”

-John Baumeister

“Followed rules, not dreams. Never again.”

-Margaret Hellerstein

“On the playground, alone. 1970, today.”

-Charles Warren

“Everyone who loved me is dead.”

-Ellen Fanning

“Time to start over again, again.”

-Dan Petronelli

And, still one of my favorite –

“Asked to quiet down; spoke louder.”

-Wendy Lee.

It wasn’t long

before six words

became a regular spiritual practice for me.

Review the day

in six words.

Portray the experience

in six words.

Process the feelings

in six words.

Succinctly summarize

both joys and sorrows,

trials and triumphs,

hopes and fears

in six words,

Day after day,

Week after week,

Month after month -

It became a framework

to put things into a healthy perspective,

to both celebrate

and let things go.

Before I knew it,

I found myself

thinking in six words

about things both

humorous

and serious.

It even became a part of my

sermon preparation –

Write the sermon in six words –

and then write the whole sermon.

It was –

and is –

Both life-giving

and life-saving.

When the pandemic descended

upon

and engulfed the world

in early 2020,

I found myself

wondering what I could do

that would give people

a space,

a place,

and community

amid lockdown

and isolation

to not feel so alone.

We couldn’t be together,

but we needed each other.

With so much

Upended

And suspended,

I – we –

Needed some way to

Articulate,

Put into words -

Name

what we were

Thinking,

Feeling,

and Experiencing

amid so much fear and uncertainty.

Late one night,

In March of 2020,

I formed a Facebook group -

“Six Word Snapshots.”

The timeline photo

said then,

And still says now -

“Staying home

Washing hands

Praying more.”

The invitation is this:

In six words only,

write about what you are doing

amid these changing times.

What brings you joy?

How has your life changed?

What are your challenges?

How are you passing the time?

How are you

"making the best of it?"

What are you thinking about it?

Remember –

six words only –

no more, no less!

I invited a handful of my friends.

They invited more.

And it grew exponentially

In a matter of hours.

People wrote -

People responded

And with one six-word post

after another,

a community was formed.

People wrote of their sorrows:

And suddenly tears, despite the sun.

People wrote of their exhaustion.

I miss my motivation. Too tired.

People wrote of their loved ones who were sick:

Rest eternally, Dad. Kick COVID, Mom.

People wrote of strained relationships:

Painful relationship with mother. Weird day.

People wrote of unemployment:

Husband’s job loss is permanent. Sigh.

People wrote of the unsettled-ness of time:

Really? It’s not Friday? Who knew?

People wrote of the everyday things that were keeping them going:

Warm, delicious homemade cinnamon raison bread.

People wrote

and wrote

and wrote,

and they are still writing.

The posts are more infrequent now

and are often not related to the pandemic –

Prayers, friend's heart valve surgery tomorrow

Friends' happiness makes my heart giggle

Yippee, back to work at 80

Making play dough tonight! Kneading …Therapeutic.

But there is something profoundly holy

about this

six-word experience

and the ongoing way that

it meets people’s needs

to speak

and be heard,

to name something –

anything, really -

and have someone respond.

In recent months,

my personal six-word practice

has taken on

yet another

a new form.

Through my work as the

Program Director for Congregational Thriving

at St. Olaf College,

I have the privilege of

stewarding

The Nourishing Vocation Project,

a project through the

Lutheran Center

for Faith, Values, and Community

with generous support from

Lilly Endowment Inc.

The Nourishing Vocation Project

is a four-phase experience

that invites individual participants

and whole congregations

to deepen their understanding

of God’s call

upon their life and work

so that they can thrive.

Foundational to this project

is a spiritual practice

that I have created, called

Vocare.

Vocare,

from the Latin,

meaning “to call,”

is designed to

help you discern

and embrace

your multiple vocations

so that

you can more intentionally

live life on purpose

for the common good.

Vocare

invites ongoing reflection upon

six words –

Values,

Openness,

Call,

Attentiveness,

Regrets,

Experiences

of God’s presence.

Vocare

invites you to regularly

dwell with these questions –

What do I value,

and how am I living my values?

To what am I being asked to be open?

How do I respond?

What voices are calling to me?

Which ones do I listen to, and why?

Where am I giving my attention?

Does my attention align with my values?

What are my regrets?

What insight do I gain from them?

When, where, and how have I experienced

the presence of the God in my everyday life?

Values

Openness

Call

Attentiveness

Regret

Experience –

Six words

that can

nourish ongoing discernment,

Six words

that can

nourish the pursuit of purpose,

Six words

that can

nourish the living of

our multiple vocations in daily life,

Six words

that can

lead you to more intentionally

live life on purpose for the common good.

I commend this practice

and its six words

to you.

Incorporate it

into something you are already doing –

Put these six words

in your head

and write them on your heart.

Think on them

when you go for a walk,

Commute to work,

Have your devotions,

Mow your lawn,

Sit down at table with your family,

Take a shower,

Plan your budget,

Lay out your monthly calendar.

Give them space in your thoughts

when you go to bed at night.

Let them greet you

when you wake

In the morning.

Welcome them

as a companion

on your daily journey –

whatever that journey may be

and wherever that journey

may take you.

You just might be surprised at how

these six words

lead you to clarity

when life is confusing –

Point you toward intention

when meaning is allusive,

And deepen your understanding

of God’s call

upon your life and work –

in the everyday moments

of everyday life

so that

you can

more intentionally,

live life on purpose for the common good.

And who knows,

You may even end up with some

Amazing six-word stories along the way!

Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox

Rev. Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox (affectionately known as “Char”) holds a Doctor of Ministry Degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, with an emphasis in Spirituality; a Master of Sacred Theology Degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, with an emphasis in Preaching and Worship, a Master of Divinity Degree from Luther Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Augustana University, Sioux Falls. She has served as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for over 28 years, serving in seminary, collegiate, and congregational settings. She loves reading – especially memoirs and historical fiction, and enjoys writing poetry, travelling, and all things winter.

Facebook | PrChar
Website | Charlene Rachuy Cox

Church Anew is dedicated to igniting faithful imagination and sustaining inspired innovation by offering transformative learning opportunities for church leaders and faithful people.

As an ecumenical and inclusive ministry of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, the content of each Church Anew blog represents the voice of the individual writer and does not necessarily reflect the position of Church Anew or St. Andrew Lutheran Church on any specific topic.

Char Cox 7/7/22 Char Cox 7/7/22

Words Create Worlds

I am a lover of words.

I love what words are, and I love what words do.

When I was a child,

my three favorite books were

the white dictionary,

the red thesaurus,

and the green book of rhyming words.

I spent countless hours

trying on new words for size,

tasting them in my mouth,

savoring them in my ear,

and settling them into my mind.

Words, you see,

seemed to crack open a window

into worlds as yet unimagined.

I especially liked big words

with lots of syllables

that rolled around in my mouth

like a marble in pinball machine,

just for the privilege of being spoken out loud.

But then in high school,

I had a teacher who taught me

to never use a 50-cent word

when a nickel word will do.

“Think,” he said

“about the power of what most people would call

‘throw-away-words,’

like prepositions.”

To prove his point,

he had each of us choose one preposition

about which we had to write

a poem,

an essay,

and a short story.

His directions were so simple

that they seemed impossible:

“see what kind of world a preposition can create,”

he said.

“If you can grasp the power of the preposition,

you will begin to scratch the surface

of the power of words.”

The preposition that I chose

was “with.”

I remember nothing that I wrote,

but I do remember the feeling of the exercise,

something akin to a

life-changing “aha.”

Words are not neutral –

even the little ones,

I learned.

Words are laden with inherent power.

They can be a weapon,

or they can be shield.

They can create,

or they can destroy.

Regardless of the moral dictums of “good behavior,”

words cannot be taken back.

They cannot be un-spoken.

The exhale cannot be inhaled.

And users of words?

Well, users of words

bear both the privilege

and the burden of that power.

It seemed,

in that “aha moment,”a weighty thing,

that power,

to be thrust upon the shoulders of anyone,

but especially high school students,

Several years later

When I read

“Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity,”

by Abraham Joshua Heschel,

three words leapt off the page

and returned that adolescent

classroom exercise not only to my memory,

but to the everyday living of my life.

“Words create worlds,”

Heschel’s daughter, Susannah, wrote

of the wisdom her father taught her.

Words.

Create.

Worlds.

Indeed they do,

and theologically we say that it is so.

In one creation story,

God speaks –

God utters words –

Breath-given-voice -

and all that is

comes into being.

It is through the breathed-out creativity of God

in and through words –

“and God said” –

that creation comes into existence.

It is through the expelled breath of God,

uttered and blown across the face of the deep,

that the imagination of God comes to life.

One could assert

That without words –

all would still be formless void.

Words create worlds.

In the other creation story,

When God gives away God’s breath,

the human creature comes to life.

And with God’s breath,

God gives away God’s voice,

God’s ability to utter not just sounds –

But words.

With this holy generosity,

the human’s life becomes inspired with power,

animated by God’s own dynamic breath,

God’s own dynamic Word.

Hence,

the holy privilege of the spoken word -

of breath-given-voice -

is an imitative act of creative,

imaginative gift-giving,

breathing out power

to give life away.

Words create worlds.

But what kind of world do we create with our words,

with this holy, creative power?

I return often to these musings,

but they have especially been on my mind as of late

as each day seems to widen the chasm

in our ever-increasing divisive way of being –

and way of speaking –

with one another.

And in my musings, I keep returning

not just to the weighty privilege

and the holy burden of words –

but to that little, nickel word

through which I chose to fulfill that high school assignment,

oh, so long ago –

With.

For you see,

we who are cross-marked

and Spirit-sealed

have been both gifted and tasked

with speaking not just any words –

not carelessly or thoughtlessly

tossing about words

as if they are nothing;

rather we have been both gifted and tasked with

words that are in the service of the Word –

the Word -

through whom all things came into being,

through whom we have all received grace upon grace.

We have been both gifted and tasked

with the holy exhale that

brings to life among us

God who is –

with us always,

even unto the end of the age.

We have been gifted and tasked

with witness –

by and through our words -

to the withness of God –

a withness that not only makes

a withness with one another possible,

but that indeed is our call as human creatures,

tasked with stewarding our planet home.

Now, I have no magic wand to wave

that will somehow

bind up the wounds and bridge the divide

of our fracturing common life,

but I do wonder,

and I imagine,

and I hope

that maybe –

just maybe

a reminder that

words create worlds

will beckon us again and anew

to remember that the same Spirit

who went out in the rush of mighty wind

bringing forth speech –

that same Spirit

fills each of us –

and all of us

so that

when words come forth from our mouths,

they might be filled with the creative power of life,

rather than the destructive force of death.

They might imitate the holy act

of imaginative gift giving,

breathing out power that gives life away

and cracks open a window to yet unimagined ways

of living –

truly living –

with one another.

speak Word

into the chaos

over the void

in my now --

with me

to me

through me

bring me to life

that your breath might voice speech in me

breathe into me your Word

that I might breathe out your life in speech.

Church Anew is dedicated to igniting faithful imagination and sustaining inspired innovation by offering transformative learning opportunities for church leaders and faithful people.

Blog Posts

Six Words

Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox

Words Create Worlds

Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox