What OBTR means
People ask what OBTR means. I don’t blame them. It looks like a code.
It comes from a Latin phrase used in court: obiter dictum. It means “said in passing.” Or “by the way.”
In a decision, not every sentence is the ruling. The ruling is the part that actually decides the case. The rest are remarks along the way. A judge might say something true, even something wise, that was not needed to settle the dispute. That part does not bind the next case. The Supreme Court has said so. An obiter is an opinion said on the side. It has no force as a final order.
That is why I used the name.
Said in passing
I did not want this to sound like a verdict. I am not handing down a holding on your life. I am not building a pulpit. I am writing the things that come up while living. Faith. Work. Family. Responsibility. The ordinary day. A thought that stays after a conversation. Something that will not leave you on the way home.
Said in passing. A journal that happens to be public.
I care about the Christian faith. It sits under what I write. But I don’t want every page to feel like a sermon. Some of the most important things I’ve learned were not said from a stage. They were said at a table. On a walk. In a quiet moment after something went wrong. Deuteronomy even tells people to talk of God’s words when they sit at home and when they walk along the road. (Deuteronomy 6:7) Not only in the official hour. On the way.
Jesus did a lot of His talking that way too. On the road. At meals. While walking with people who were already going somewhere. The two on the way to Emmaus were just talking when He came near. The big things happened in passing.
That is the kind of writing I am trying to do here.
Not a niche
It will not all be one topic. Life is not one topic. Some days the thought is about God. Some days it is about how we treat people. Some days it is about a hard conversation, or a simple meal, or why we get angry too fast. The thread is not a niche. The thread is paying attention.
An obiter can still matter. That is the other part. “Said in passing” does not mean “said as nothing.” It means it was not imposed. You can take what helps. You can leave the rest.
I would rather offer a thought than force a conclusion.
I will get some of this wrong. I still do. These pages are not the last word. They are the words I have for now, written down before they disappear.
Courts bind you with the ruling. Life often changes you with the aside. The comment after the meeting. The sentence on the way to the car. The thing nobody announced, and you still hear years later.
Not the order. The remark on the way.
That is OBTR. If something here follows you home, it has done what it came to do.
Photo by Anastasiia Parukh on Unsplash.
