Day 3809 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

James 3:10 NIV

A word’s worth

It seems that something so specialized as the state of mind which we allow to let fall or flow from lips our own should be of something resembling a value as it takes a measure of both time and effort for us to at first realize the necessity of something being said, a considering met with our contemplation as to what then needs to be said, a searching for the right words or ways in which to say what we feel worth the work within the way and then the actual physicality as is expressed within the movements of a mouth fighting to form these words so that they might finally get out.

But should said worth be always both wonderful and worthless?

A winning of a moment in meaning as won in the 50-50 of the same moment proving meritless?

What is the meaning of a word’s merit? Is it not measured within the distance that it inspires those listening to become interested in either going or coming? Should we not seek always to say something worth hearing? What is worth hearing? Does what we say carry the same weight, the same worth, the same wealth as what we feel by saying it? Does it present the impact we seek or sought to inspire inside the ears of another when found within that urgency to say something?

Or is speaking something meant to be done always without such desperation as if spoken always in the midst of a most dire situation?

Do we even care to consider that we seemingly don’t care to consider the difference anymore?

I mean, the overwhelming fact is that as we’re running short on days we’re also running out of words. And yet having become a people who deny/ignore the fact of the former, so too then have we managed to come unto the considering of our words as being this endless expanse from which we can forever pull more to say should the endless expanse of the life we’ve still left to live ahead find us then as eager to share whatever’s on our mind with those around us?

What is on our mind, and can it truly be so confrontational as to speak both blessing and curse?

Indeed, doesn’t the fact that we can say something good to one person and then turn right around and, within sometimes even the very next breath, say something bad about another? Or, and to make it even more confusing, should we be of the ability to say something good about someone to their face whilst also saying something horrid about them behind their back whilst talking to another? Yes, should such nonsense as gossip have been allowed to remain of the social importance that mankind’s long all but demanded it be?

Or should not we seek always to rise above the lesser ideals of a world so filled with idols in such forms as forlorn words and the distances they create between both brothers and betters?

Yes, can our words cause something to be bettered? And if they can, which they could, well then why ever should we allow them lost or left unto the common lack of effort given unto our thinking them through to see where they go before we foolishly invite another along for the ride only to likely both be surprised as to where it is that we then both end up?

Should we not want a little more concrete understanding than that? I mean, we’re a people who scarcely do anything without having a well-understood rhyme or reason firmly in place well before we set out. And so why then is our speaking so very different? For the truth is that often times we clearly say all these words that, whilst forming such expectations as sentences, as always preferred for their having always a point that’s relatively easy to follow, always sort of just manage to escape without our having put much into what they’re carrying when they go.

Where do they go?

Well, I think this is where the whole ordeal of all human interaction starts to unravel into a failure too big to fathom. It’s that we know that what we say is going to be heard, because that’s really the only real point or purpose in our ever saying anything. I mean, we’d not say anything if nobody was going to hear it. It’s kind of like that whole tree falling in the forest conundrum. Sure, it’s going to make a sound, and we all have a good idea what it’ll probably sound like having heard trees fall before.

But we don’t know how loud it’ll be, if it’ll hit other trees on the way down or if some unfortunate squirrel happens to be where said tree has unwillfully decided to land.

Do squirrels scream when crushed by trees?

Nobody knows, probably because nobody’s ever asked that question before. In fact, that may literally be the first time in all of human history that someone’s asked if squirrels can scream, let alone when smashed by falling trees that nobody else is around to hear falling.

Is that worth anything though?

Well, if nothing else it probably made you think.

And yet, is that not the worth of a word? That it’s a but a seed of some thought to think as planted in the minds of another by our audacity in saying what we thus obviously hope begins in them growing? Indeed, does not every word we speak carry with it the opportunity to make an improvement? Can we not always say something that helps someone? And if we can say something that offers someone such gain as encouragement or inspiration, well then why all this lack of perspiration as to the pursuit of such improvements always?

If we can help someone else with what we say, then why use our words to hurt anyone?

For there must always be that equal and opposing. And in this case it’s showing in that if we can say something that helps, then we can also say something that hurts. And even without all that temporary delve into Newton’s theoretical laws of movement, truth is that we’ve all seen it. We have literally witnessed the impact that our words have made as painted on the face of those who’ve either been soothed by them being said or rather scorned by the same.

We’ve seen people light up when we’ve said something that made them feel good and we’ve witnessed someone become upset by something we said that, perhaps even intentionally, sought to harm or hurt.

Why then do we retain such intentions as the mental or emotional harming or hurting of others, again, considering how “death and life are in the power of the tongue”? Indeed, if we can speak life, or at least a miniscule, and even that only momentarily, improvement to someone, why then ever speak death as is done in the hurting of the same?

Indeed, we’ve spoken things to those we love that have both helped and hurt.

Where’s the line?

And why do we continue to move it, blur it, doubt it, deny it whenever any of the above present again themselves as something we consider necessary based upon the moment and the perceived meaning of the words being thrown around within it?

We do realize that we measure the moments of life within the words we hear, right? And if what we hear has such an impact on us as to alter the meaning of moment, even defining whether or not it can become a memory we delight to keep or a misery we hope to forget, well then why don’t we put a little more effort into making sure that whatever we say is both worth being heard but also into understanding that anything we say can only be worth hearing if it manages to make an impact that leaves someone bettered for having heard it?

We do realize that everything we say can and will be held against us in the court of Heaven, right?

You’ll notice, as I did for the first time just recently, that part in which that little “will” reaches out and promises that anything we say will be used against us. Why? Because it can. And why can it? Because it’s always been God’s will for us to be holy and to thus seek inside everything we say and do and think to exude said holiness for all to see and hear. And, considering as how He’s said that He judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart, it seems then quite easy for Him to hear the words we say as sent pouring from the same.

Thoughts and attitudes.

Indeed, sadly such are often what decide for us both the words we say and the way they’re potentially, if not probably received by those who hear them.

It’s all in the attitude and what is sought in that moment in which we let our feelings take the wheel, often unto the careening of our speaking off the cliff of betterment into the ravine of saying something that we didn’t really mean but simply can’t take back.

Unfortunately, don’t seem to get that yet either.

For if we did, well, we’d likely not be saying half of what we do. Why? Because we’d also in that realize that, again, we’re running out of days in which to try anyway. And so even if we could take back any of what we’ve said or might still say, at some point we’re just going to run out of time to erase it all.

And so we’re basically doubly doomed.

Why?

Because we’ve both said things we either didn’t mean or that were taken by another in the form of either the same misunderstanding shared or as simply hurt that they clearly weren’t looking for. And even if we could take it back, at some point we can’t.

And so, again, why not put a little more effort into it?

Because the glaring issue is that we all seem to have so much to say, but at the same time, a good portion of it carries with it either no worth or, and even worse, the weight of wrong. And that wrong can be either that eventually proven as us being wrong or our having wronged another. Either way, so much of what we say gets us into trouble that we just don’t need seeing as how we’re in plenty enough already.

After all, we’ve already spent countless moments and words spoken within them within the past spent living against God that we’ve not any more need of any more failures to regard Him as Lord.

Yeah, we’ve blasphemed and betrayed and berated and belittled and bet against Him so many times already. And each of them carrying their very own receipts as printed by the words we’ve spoken.

And while we can, and probably will for as long as we’re here in this place in which such wasted effort is somehow still as popular as ever, we can continue to say we were joking or didn’t mean it that way or should have said something differently somehow.

But friends, the fact is that He who judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart knows thus every reason we’ve ever had for any word we’ve ever said.

We’re not getting anything past Him!

And yet why then do we continue to live as if we’ve both plenty of days left and thus within them just as many opportunities to put so little into anything we’re doing that we leave that door open for mistake or misinterpretation? Again, shouldn’t our words be seen as worth more than just accidentally accomplishing something that we either probably didn’t mean or simply can’t undo? I mean, where has this gotten us, all of this overwhelming lack of care and attention that we’ve put into our use of what is the greatest tool we have at our disposal?

For the reality is that our words can either build up or they can tear down. We can help someone who’s hurting or we can hurt someone who doesn’t need that help. We can speak life as is done through encouragement or inspiration and yet we can again also speak death in those moments such as argument and affirmation of sin.

So what are we to do then?

Well, it seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? For we’re here to do the good which God created beforehand for us to do. We’re to be holy. We’re to love Him in fear and reverence. We’re then to love others in action and in truth. Yes, we’re to speak always the truth only as the truth is the only thing that we can share that can help those who happen to hear it. And that is why we’re here! It’s to both praise God and help spur one another on toward doing the same in everything we say and do.

It’s called mutual edification, and simply put, it’s letting no unwholesome talk come out of our mouths but rather only that which is useful for building others up and encouraging them to continue growing in the Lord.

Anything else is only everything less.

And judging by the amount of noise we’re making with all these empty and pointless words we’re saying and the wars we’re waging over their being said, we’ve got plenty of everything less already.

And again, simply put, we’re running out of days to fix this thing before off the rails is where it stays.

All because there comes an end to our chance to say something that accomplishes something that will all collectively be judged upon the Day of the same. Yes, Judgement Day is the day in which every knee will bow and every tongue find that all it has left to say is that Christ is King, and we’ll have either done our best to rehearse that in a life in which we did strive to speak life, or we’ll find the words falling as if foreign at what’s then the end of a life in which all we spoke was death.

The choice is ours, and though we make it countless times every single day, sadly you just wouldn’t think it such a heavy burden considering how lightly we seem to take every opportunity we’re given to say something that itself gives someone else something to hear.

Does it help?

Does it hurt?

Do we care?

Well my friends, we should. Because He does!

How could He not? After all, everything we say tells a story about what it is that we believe. And thus we see, or at least we should, that our word words is indicative of our faith and that or in whom it’s placed. So what then are we saying? And well, what story is that telling?

And how on earth can we go on living as if our chance to live a story worth telling should be a gift given away in two such opposing directions? That’s what James asks us to consider in the very next verse!

“Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?”

Friends, what we say tells the world who we are. And who we are is defined by what we believe as belief is the spring from which everything we say and do continues to flow. But we need to start considering where our flowing is going. Because honestly, it’s still not going very well down here. We have more people than ever before, and thus more opportunity to be helping one another as well. And more opportunity to be praising God too!

And yet still we hear just as much cursing, just as much fighting, just as much gossip and gibberish and nonsense as ever.

Should this be?

Should we be using our words to both speak of God but also say something derogatory about another child He created? Should we use our words to speak the Name of Christ but also badly about the name of someone else? Should we continue to define this distance between the better we could be working toward and the harm we cause with the same words that could be working toward something better than just more hurting?

Should we be able to both praise God and curse those around us?

Or does not the fact that we do speak badly of His creation only contend that we perhaps don’t mind undermining what He created?

Can fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?

And if then we have any salt water pouring from our mouths, and thus unable to be drank by those around us who are just as thirsty for life and hope and healing and meaning as we know we are, then what are doing to help?

Or are we not just causing far more harm than good?

Friends, God put us here amongst so many so parched, and gave us the Living Water to share with them so that they, like we, would never thirst again. Why then are we all still so thirsty if not because we’ve all kept drinking from the wrong wells?

It’s time for something to change, and again, that something is us. We just can’t afford to keep pouring ourselves out in two such different directions. We are either seeking to do good or we’re not. And well, the truth is that our words define the difference.

Are our words and what we’re saying any different than the mixed bag of good and bad that the world continues to share?

And if not, why not?

Because we’re not here to do both good and bad. We’re here for good.

Just not for good.

And thus we’re running out of time to what’s basically stop living two different lives as if done by saying so many different things aimed in so many random directions.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold