On the Need to Speak Life

Podcast host and author of the New York Times best-seller, “The School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy,” Lewis Howes explained that money is a resource that amplifies who we truly are as a person.

“So if you’re a stingy and selfish person now when you make more money, you’re going to become more of that,” Howes said. “If you’re a generous, kind, or joyful person now, you’re going to amplify that energy into the world when you have more money.”

This principle about money applies to other kinds of resources at our disposal, including the access we have today to an audience. Social media, which connects over half of the world together, has given us the instant ability to broadcast our thoughts thus, fulfilling the intrinsic human need to be heard (watched or read).

The initial idea for social media is to bring us closer together, nurture connectedness, expand our horizons through knowledge, and even restore lost connections. An iteration of social networks from the late 1990s and early 2000s—think MySpace and Friendster—our social media accounts were supposed to bring fun and inspiration.

Remember testimonials?

But when social media became an integral part of our daily lives with Filipinos like myself spending over three hours a day on these platforms, it amplified the worst version of our humanity, to the extent there are parts of the internet today that have become cesspools of hate-filled speech, where rage gets the most traction and lies fuel the basis for discourse.

My country of origin, the Philippines, is deemed patient zero for misinformation. The results of our most recent presidential elections and the historic divisiveness brought by our politics reveal the impact of lies on our psyche as a people.

Unfortunately, it’s a global phenomenon and one that’s steep in the United States where I’ve lived for some time.

“Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that’s coursing through our information ecosystem,” said Nobel laureate and Filipino journalist Maria Ressa in 2021 when she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. In this regard, our words and how we regard and use them play an essential role in combatting the filth affecting our relationship with society and one another.

Because words are like seeds, when planted in the realm of possibilities will lead to an outcome.

Words play a critical role in this urgent need to improve the environment we’re all exposed to. Words are ubiquitous, essential, and omnipresent. It fills our voice when we convey an idea to another person, and type it up on a fill-in-a-blank as a status update, a tweet, or a caption to an Instagram story. We are living in an era where words matter more than they ever have.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits,” reads Proverbs 18:21 in the English Standard Version. Believed to have been written by one of the wisest monarchs who ever lived, this proverb presents the consequence of unbridled and careless speech, in that it it decimates life, assaulting our hope and resilience.

But then it also reveals the fruits of speech meant to do otherwise—words intended to bring life, fuel hope, and expose lies by speaking the truth and truth to power. When words are filled with the right intention, they become the key to one’s enlightenment and instrument to promote understanding.

As a person of faith, the son of an evangelical Christian leader and a Bible teacher, who makes a living as a writer and religion reporter, words have played a predominant role in my life. They have moved me, uplifted me, and on the other end have also caused me to pity myself and made me anxious. I recognize the power of words and how they can be used for good or ill.

Words are deeply connected to our lived experience as we use words to label a moment, articulate a sentiment, and describe a reality. Knowing the power of words is key to finding hope and maintaining one’s peace in any situation. As words create realities by influencing how we respond to things we go through and witness, tapping into its power for the right reasons can be our way forward to creating a world of possibilities for ourselves and others.