On Paper

Ah, it’s getting to be that time of year when school papers are going to be due and students will be focusing on how to get their research and thoughts put down on paper! Have you ever really thought about things being on paper? In an increasingly digital world, it does sometimes seem less and less important. Companies and banks push for paperless statements to try to save money. In fact, schools and colleges are even increasingly accepting work done and recorded in electronic or digital formats. Perhaps today, you might even broaden “on paper” to now include being “on computer” or “on drive” or “on phone” or “on a blog” 😜 or just “online.” So, what is so special about being on paper?!

Things written on paper tend to carry greater weight and interest than things only said. Despite living in an increasingly electronic world, things being on paper still tend to carry more consideration than not being on paper. Have you ever heard of something being “written in stone”? That is really solid! 😉 Before paper was popularized and produced, people often wrote in stone or in clay and on vellum or animal skins. Papyrus plants also came to be used for writings and bindings. Early Christian emphasis on the binding of books, and the Bible in particular, then exploded once the printing press was invented. Paper began to be readily produced and more and more people increasingly began writing down their thoughts and ideas. Today, there are multiple ways to store experiences in time and ideas and thoughts that are spoken and recorded somehow, yet something being on paper still has its advantages!

We are physical beings. We come to understand and grasp reality in our bodies. We use our hands to work and to hold things. We use our eyes to see and read and understand things. Having something and even someone near and around you tends to bring a greater sense of security and comfort. When you have something in your hands that you can readily manipulate and transport and even physically pass on to another, you have a psychological advantage. When you participate in writing something out verses simply pecking on a key or button, there is greater physical activity and thus a physical, psychological edge. While electronic communication has its advantages, being on paper may not be so bad, after all! Even news written on paper and in newspapers, tends to get more extended attention.

With that typed introduction out of the way and before I print this out on paper 😉, I wonder if you have ever thought about how the reality is often not what is written on paper? How many businesses and companies, or for that matter, how many organizations and even churches have one thing written down, but practice another? Isn’t it easier to put something down on paper, than to live that thing out in reality? What if what is written or on paper is also not the reality? Because of the advantage of having something easy to manipulate and even pass on right there on paper in front of you, what would be an advantage for something true, could then turn to a great disadvantage if the information is false. In other words, if something false is written down on paper, it tends to spread faster and even carry more weight, making many think it is true. Such has often been the case in aspects of my own personal tragedy. Things written down on paper that have been shared with others and have even been used in Courtrooms have often led to people believing things that are not true about me, since all happening after the 04-16-07 VT Tragedy. Additional improper judgment and personal tragedy has occurred when Hospitals and Courtrooms and even Churches have not lived up to what they have written on paper!

Friend, I trust you have been challenged in your thinking and will learn from what I am saying here and post and even print out on paper. Please be careful to consider each situation as it is and do not assume things to be true, just because they are on paper. Learn to test all things and hold fast to what is good (c.f. 1 Thessalonians 5:21). Please properly investigate each statement written on paper and fight that psychological tendency to automatically give it more weight. Remember, too, that there is Someone Who is keeping accurate, meticulous records of everything we think and say and do! These things are written in books (perhaps on heavenly paper 😉 ) that GOD will use to properly judge our lives! Selah!