Words shape you

I learned about Mead, Sherif and Kuhn in my Classical Sociology lecture yesterday. These sociologists are well known for their work in the area of the mind, self and society. I chose to blog about them because they helped me gain further understanding of a scripture that I kept bumping into - Romans 12:2. The following points are the conclusions that I drew from the lecture and afterwards I will say why they helped me understand Romans 12:2.

Words have symbolic meaning
Mead says that constraints controlled by the conscious is more powerful than biological urges. He also said that symbolic meaning has more coercive power than biological drives. The symbolic meaning he is referring to is language - words. Sherif shows that language is a symbol system. Each sound is a symbol that stands for something else. He believed that this symbol system can create it's own perception and create its own reality.

Words change our perception of our self and the world
1. Perception of the world: Sherif’s experiment
Sherif did an experiment to prove his point: He had people sit in a dark room and observe a pin point light in front of them that was not moving. It was a stationary light. People typically saw the light moving in an erratic random motion. He then told subjects that the light was moving in a certain way and the people agreed. He then split the people into two groups and told the first group that the light was moving large distances and the second group that the light was moving small distances. Then he put the two groups together in one room and they looked at the same stationary light once more and arrived at a midway point.
In other words, perception changes in response to symbolic communication.

2. Perception of Self: Kuhn's test
Manfred Kuhn performed an experiment called the '20 statement test' where he asked people to have 20 responses to the one question, "Who am I?" He found that people often defined themselves in relation to their social status. He came to the conclusion that humans acquire their sense of 'self' from symbolic creations and we tend to become what we are told we are.

Perceptions of self and the world are a learnt behaviour
Humans do not have an innate self-awareness/perception. We learn from infant hood 'individual' and 'self' concepts symbolically (words) through society. We acquire knowledge of 'self' when we acquire language through communal interaction.

Applying this knowledge to Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (New International Version) 

I will focus on the first part of the verse, "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Knowing that words change our perception of ourselves and of the world, we must be extremely careful of the words that surround us. How many of you know that the word of God is perfect converting the soul, perfect for teaching and instructing and perfect for encouraging? It is a perfect mirror in which we must examine ourselves and continue to being transformed. People are imperfect and therefore, the words that come out of their mouths are also imperfect. The labels that the world places on you are imperfect and what the world thinks about you is imperfect. If you continue to let what the world says about you shape who you are then you will have an imperfect picture of who you are and also, what the world is. You may not believe that the world changes your perception of self and your reality but if you allow the world to be your main source of knowledge then it will inevitably shape you. In other words, you must be constantly emerged in the word of God if you are to be shaped by His words. I heard a friend say, "You cannot know what the lie is until you know the truth." God's word is that truth and everything else is lie. Submerge yourselves in God's word and allow it to shape who you are and your reality. Then you will know what his good, pleasing and perfect will is.