While pounding a nail, you hit your thumb.
&%!0#!
The other guy rushes through a yellow light and almost hits you.
&%!0#!
You find cat poop on the carpet.
&%!0#!
Why do we cuss?
First of all, definitions:
A curse is an imprecation. Dictionary.com calls it "a formula or charm intended to cause ... misfortune to another."
Cuss can be the verb of which a curse is the noun.
But we are more comfortable using cuss as a noun because a cuss is somehow taken to be less serious than a curse.
In short, a cuss to a curse is something like a white lie to an outright lie. If someone curses, wow that's serious; whatta bad guy. But if he just cusses, oh well... he just hit his thumb with a hammer...
OK, so let's just use the euphemism "cuss." Here are 5 reasons why we cuss:
1. It is an expression of autonomy: I am my own power, so I can vent that power any way I want (for example: &%!0#! that stupid cat).
2. But it is also an expression of an essential lack of power: Existence is not how I'd like it (otherwise I wouldn't have hit my thumb with that &%!0#! hammer).
3. It betrays that, for me, angry is more primordial than happy: I'm chugging along under the illusion of #1 (I am my own power) when the reality of #2 hits me (things aren't the way I want).
4. Therefore cussing is impatience with this creation, fallen as it is, and with God's program in recovering it.
5. All of the above is why cussing is fundamentally a complaint against God.
That's why repentence is needed.
Logos2Go
Matthew 5.37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Romans 12.14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Five reasons why we cuss
Posted by
David Wang
Jun 27, 2009
2 comments:
Psalm 109 has a sobering passage on the one who curses: "For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted. He loved to pronounce a curse—may it come on him; he found no pleasure in blessing—may it be far from him. He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil. May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him." (Psalm 109:16-19)
Thanks Dan. It was your prompt from Ps 109 that reminded me of the topic of this post.
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