Remember this? Alas, one of his heads is missing…
Nog, Glog, and Grog are awesome words. They sound like the names Tolkien would haven given to a trio of orcs or each of the heads of a three-headed giant.
Speaking of which, have you heard of an ettin? What’s neat about this kind of giant is that each of its heads has a different personality. The way to defeat them is to distract them by getting them to argue amongst themselves, then spring whatever offensive tactic (or withdrawal) you want.
I like the image of the ettin because I think it symbolizes us and the voices that fight for dominance in our minds. In the case of today’s 40 Days of Blogging words:
NOG (short for NOGgin) could be the one who knows he’s always right. He can come up with a justification for anything. The irony is that he doesn’t think of it as a justification, but as the real reason why he wants what he wants. The truth is that he wants whatever his mood tells him to want and he uses his big brain – or big mouth – to explain why it is the thing all reasonable people should want.
GLOG (short from Graphics LOG) is the one who is always imagining the past or the future. Sometimes, he is obsessed with bad things that happened before, making sure that he brings all the pain of unpleasant events into the present. At other times, he loves to reminisce and romanticize people and things from the past, making sure to explain how much better they were than people and things are now. When he thinks of the future, he always does it in a way that either brings fear or discontent to the present. He is never content with the way things are.
GROG (short for “Gimme some ROt-Gut) is the one who lives in his gut. His appetites, whether for drink, food, sex, or adventure, are completely insatiable. His communication skills are not very well developed, so he usually relies on Nog to do the talking for him.
They all love to shout and they can really make some noise. He’s a real monster.
All three of these guys need to be civilized in order for our minds to be at ease and allow us think clearly. We err when we think of these voices as who we really are – even when we pick one out as the voice of our “true selves”. All three have their place in our humanity, but none of them – not the intellect, the imagination, or the gut – are the image of God in us. To find out who we really are, we need to quiet those voices and listen to the God we meet in the silence of the contented heart. Once we have done this, we can really begin taming the ettin’s heads to sing in harmony to the glory of God.
Now that would be music to the ears! 
