The Controversial Capital

Let’s just break all the happy dinner party rules and talk about this sensitive issue shall we? (Maybe it’s not that sensitive, but in the right crowd It’s a real humdinger!)

Hey friends!

Have you ever had an issue or decision about which your brain said one thing made sense but your spirit said something else? I’m so there over this dumb, minute detail of capitalizing pronouns referring to deity.

Maybe that seems like a no-brainer to you. If you’re in the traditional camp, you may think capitalizing is the only way to go. Or maybe you’re in the hard-core literary camp and can’t stand the breach of order. My brain rests in the latter. I think there is no (zero, nada) precedence in the English language nor in the original languages for capitalizing a pronoun. I’ve lived in that camp pretty comfortably for about ten years. I feel no need to debate it with others and happily conform to their preference when writing projects for them.

Now, the debate with my own silly self. If you know my family at all, you probably know that we’ve gone through some crazy experiences with spiritual warfare in the last few years. We’ve been weirded out, learned a bunch and we live a healthier, freer life because of it.

One of the things we have learned to do more regularly is to ask God to examine our hearts. We have seen how incredibly important it is to ask God to reveal unrighteousness. It’s humbling and freeing and painful, but also helps me armor up and fight the way God intended.

One time when I was jotting things down to pray over, this capitalization issue came up. I always just write down everything that comes to mind and go back over it prayerfully. Long story short, then and now and every single time I ask God about this issue saying, “You’re a God of order. Wouldn’t you want us to use literary devices and rules as they were intended?” And without fail, in the depths of my heart I hear this:

Can you ever give God too much glory?

It’s still and small but also sounds oddly like Mr. Mike, an elder at my church. And just like a mic drop the conversation is over. There’s just no such thing as giving God too much glory.

So the one place this rule breaker wants to follow all the rules, it appears I should break them. What on earth? Also why am I telling you this?

Partly because you’re my readers with whom I regularly dump the contents of my brain and this has been rolling around in there for a while. But also, because I feel a little awkward having written one way for a good ten years and now switching. It’s such a habit that you may see me miss some here and there. On top of that, my favorite Bible translation doesn’t capitalize pronouns referring to deity, so that confuses me bunches when I’m using it in published works.

Anyways, I’d love to hear you weigh in on this in the comments below, especially if you have a good point to support your opinion!