The Blessings of AbidianceHow Do You Recognize a Christian?July 11, 2021

 Language is an ever-evolving thing. But where do new words or phrases come from and how do they go from obscure to official? A word gets into a dictionary when it’s used by many people who all agree that it means the same thing. First, you drop the word into your conversation and writing, then others pick it up; the more its use spreads, the more likely it will be noticed by dictionary editors, or lexicographers. Dictionaries can add more than 1,000 new words in a single year. Consider these recent additions to our English dictionaries:Hygge, (h(y)o͞oɡə) depending on how poorly you pronounce this Danish word, means a cozy quality that makes a person feel content and comfortable. In the US, we call those hugs.Merriam-Webster defines the term makerspace as “a communal public workshop in which makers can work on small personal projects.” A makerspace is like an art studio for the whole community. Most makerspaces cater to hobbyists rather than professional artists.Crowdfunding is “the practice of obtaining needed funding (as for a new business) by soliciting contributions from a large number of people especially from the online community.”This week, as we continue in our summer series, How Do You Recognize a Christian? I’m creating a new word: abidiance. I’ve decided it means “the act of abiding in Christ.”But what does abiding mean? What does that look like in the life of someone who follows Jesus? Where do we abide and how do we do it? The apostle John, whose letters we are studying this summer, stresses the importance of abiding more than once in his epistle. It’s important that we understand what it means and why it’s so vital for us!