What do you notice here?

I you he she we they

Anything? How about

you he she I we they

It’s something that struck me the other day – the self-importance of it all. “I” is the only one we give a capital letter. I am so much more important than you, and you are less important than I. I don’t mean that, of course, but it is very symptomatic of how we look at ourselves and how we look at others. It certainly doesn’t help when we have this innate bias from just the way we spell! I know that it’s only in the English language, but I think that the fact that the English language is taking over as the international language of choice maybe says a lot, eh?

The Greek letter i is the smallest letter in the Ancient Greek alphabet. It is so small that the ancient Greeks didn’t even put a dot on it. It is the letter iota, and it gives us the English word jot – as in ‘jotting something down’ – making a quick note. Sometimes we use the word iota, as in ‘it doesn’t make one iota of difference’.

Then came the Romans. The word they used for the pronoun I is ego. Do you recognise that? It’s a word which has been adopted straight into English, and comes with the connotations of self-importance, conceit, self-esteem.

I.

I think I think too much in terms of I.

I think i should start thinking more in terms of Others.

But it’s more than that. When I became a Christian I accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour. But did I really do both, or did I just accept Him as my Saviour? Did I really accept Him as my Lord? Do I put Him, the great I AM, higher than I put the I that I am?

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. (John 3:30, NLT)

It’s worrying me quite a bit. I must become less – and less, and it’s not easy. A lifetime of I is hard to change to a life of i.

I have to dot my i.

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