What3Words?

Ed was hiking in Switzerland with his 59-year-old aunt when disaster struck.  He watched on in horror as she fell 60 feet down a mountain, suffering serious injuries. In a heavily wooded area far away from flat ground and with no landmarks, it would’ve been incredibly difficult to convey to the emergency services where they were, but luckily for Ed, he remembered he had the what3words app on his phone.

If you’ve never heard of the app, it divides the world into 57 trillion squares, each one measuring 3 m x 3 m.  Each square is randomly allocated a three-word address.  In the case of Ed and his aunt, the three word grid reference crabmeat.hers.froze enabled the emergency services to work out their exact location.

You might be interested to know that 40,000 words is enough to create this three-word address for every 3 m² of our planet.  You might also be interested to know that the 10 Downing Street press area is stage.pushy.nuns; that there is a 3 m² area on the Mount of Olives that can be found by inputting berated.lovely.shark and (because of the way my mind works and because there was nobody else in the office to tell me it was a daft idea) I discovered that the nearest male toilet to my office desk can be found using the three words alone.cans.moment.

What3words has saved many lives, as you’ll see with even a casual search of the internet.  Download it, if you feel so inspired!  There are, as you might expect, some amusing (and occasionally slightly inappropriate) location names!  There’s one in the middle of the Atlantic with the reference forgotten.previous.husband.  Ominous.

As I read through this week’s readings, I couldn’t help but spot three words that can save a life in every one of the scriptures.  Words - even three words - can have incredible power.  Remember the first time someone said, “I love you,” or looked at you and your situation and asked, “Can I help?”  How about that moment when healing began with the words “I am sorry.”

John reminds us to love.one.another  throughout this week’s scriptures.  (1 John 2:7, 1 John 3:10, 1 John 4:11,21, 1 John 5:2, 2 John 1:5).  Perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18), it is patient, kind, it does not envy or boast. It isn’t proud.  It does not dishonour others; it is not self-seeking and not easily angered.  It keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres and it never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4 – 8).  But John doesn't just remind us to love one another, he wants us to live in the truth that our father.loves.us and that He brings mercy.grace.peace into every part of our lives and through us to the lives of those around us.

Each day this week, I’ve picked my ‘Bible What3words’ - words that anchor not a geographical location but a spiritual truth.  As you read through this week’s Bible verses, I encourage you to share what3words stand out to you.  Your three words might not be my three words.  After all, God knows each of us intimately and speaks to us in different ways.  It’s my hope that the three words that stand out to me give you something to reflect on, and the words that God speaks to you (it doesn’t have to be three!) speaks to me and everybody else who is on this amazing journey of faith that started with Jesus.my.saviour.