Friday; November 14
The other night Jeane and
I were watching a movie and came across a phrase neither of us had ever heard –
listicle. The characters in the show
used the word several times so we finally decided that we needed to figure out
what they were talking about. Come to
find out, a listicle is a piece of writing or other content presented in the
form of a list. (And who said watching
the rom-coms on Great American Family or Hallmark Movie Channels aren’t
educational!). Now, I don’t know who
coined the phrase, but it appears that it began to become popular in the
mid-2000s. Let me rephrase that – the
word became popular in that decade; the literary device is much older.
As I reflected on
listicles, I thought of the Apostle Paul pretty quickly. One of his notable writing techniques is listing. There are times when he could have painted
word pictures to describe a concept; but, instead, chose to list connecting
words to present his point. For example,
take his challenge to elevate our thinking by writing, “Finally,
brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there
is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
(Philippians 3:8). Whether it is the
quintessential definition of love in I Corinthians 13 or the fruit of the
Spirit in Galatians 5, Paul used lists to help us grow spiritually.
Are we looking for the
best self-help book on the market? Sure,
there are some incredible writers out there (some of whom write listicles), but
let’s not overlook the best of the best – the Bible!
Think About It!