Tuesday, December 04, 2007

say something you don't mean

Luke 6:45//A good man out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Timothy and I were perfecting patience in each other last night (and we're getting better at it, because it didn't take nearly as long as it used to). I started to think about the idea of "saying something you don't mean."

People tell you to count to ten or walk away from and argumentative loved one or wait a day to talk to a manager ... because you might say something you don't mean. But I wonder if it's even possible to say something that you don't - at least in part - mean.

You might say something that is unBiblical, cruel, or deceitful. You may be acting in your flesh or from your emotion, instead of your spirit. But are you saying something that some unperfected part of you doesn't mean? I doubt it.

And, really, I think we do ourselves an injustice when we write it off as, "Oh, I was angry and said some things I didn't mean." If bitterness, jealousy, pride, etc. came out of my mouth, that thing is buried somewhere deep within my heart. Rather than blame emotion - and distance myself from my words as though the real me would never say something like that - I should probably consider it a big red flag and start cooperating with Holy Spirit to pull some roots out of me.

Just a thought.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

you can't see me but I am waving my two fingers in the way that people do from eye to eye signifying "i'm right there with ya sista"

Lex said...

Sweet. You can't see me, but I've raised one eyebrow and an nodding knowingly.

Anonymous said...

And you can't see me because I'm invisible!

Tami said...

you can see me. thursday night at rehearsal. yes? good calls, lex. spot on, as usual.

i like mr. invisible.