Words are important.
Back in the day in Country Victoria, I learned very quickly that if I ever proclaimed anything that was even the remotest bit negative such as “I’m sick” or “I don’t understand this” mum would inevitably say, “well, if you say it, then that’s what you’ll become”.
On the flip side, it’s incredible how much positive power words have, even though you didn’t mean it to be an object lesson for TBT’s devotion. Mandy is feeling slightly under the weather today, and after tossing and turning for most of the night, she mumbled “can you stay at home and take a day off”? At 6:15 am I managed to squeak out something along the lines of “hang on, I’ll just check the provisions for carer’s leave on the Fair Work Ombudsman’s website and get back to you.” (ok, I may not have said that) I simply said “yea, sure hun…no worries I’ll stay home today”. It’s 9:35 am as I write this and she is sound asleep- and I mean sound.
At Happy Meal on Saturday Simon (quite clearly in an effort to impress our newest addition :)) quoted a bit of Robert Frost when asked a random question, saying that he “took the road less travelled, and that has made all the difference”. Funnily enough, this is the theme as I see it in Psalm 12 – too often the easy choice is that the dialogue that continues in our head speaks negative, pessimistic, self fufilling prophecies into our life and our world. I have come to the conclusion that at this juncture, it is perfectly reasonable to speak victory into our life, and to have in clear focus, the God that is covering us to allow us to live that life.
Too many times in my mind, the words I speak to myself end up being mind forged manacles, preventing me from seeing the reality; we are in the hands of an awesome God who as it says in Verse 7, will keep us safe and protect us from the vast majority of people who will choose words that quite frankly, stink of negativity, pessimism, and criticism- not for the sake of building authentic relationships, but to climb some sort of self esteem ladder. In the words of my volleyball coach, sometimes, rather than self deprecate, it’s totally cool to “back ourselves in” (expletives and slightly Greek accent removed).
The filter somehow appears to be much more in play when it comes to speaking to and about others. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes, the odd statement will go through which I know deep deep inside was something that didn’t speak life, that was flattering for the purpose of personal gain. I am loving being part of a community that desires to create a culture of honesty and accountability amongst each other. Rather than accept that words just slip out, I guess that the logical progression is that if we are to be followers of Christ, we would follow his example, and verse 6 gives us a vivid image of the clarity, precision and live giving hope that God’s word provides.
Comparing ourselves to God’s incredible standard is not meant to be an exercise in masochism; for us to look at it and justify our words and thought process by saying “well, I’m never going to get there, Romans 3:23 and all that” but I think it gives us a glimpse at the potential of how wonderful it would be, that as we continue to live in community together, the hope, encouragement and protection that we can freely give to each other, ourselves and those around us by electing the road not taken and choosing speech which is pure in intention and brings life.
– Vinny Tan