Sometimes the Perfect Tool, Is Softer Than You Think

Being here in my Mississippi "homeplace," has brought back many, many memories.  

I remember trimming my mother's prized roses as a present for her, only to find out later that I had trimmed them at the WRONG time of year! 

I remember losing my little toenail as it drug on the hard, rocky gravel, while pedaling as fast as I could to get away from the neighbor's dog.  I probably would have been fine, if I just hadn't turned around to stick my tongue out at the mutt as I rode to victory. 

And I remember sitting in the driveway for HOURS, trying to find fossils and precious minerals in the gravel.  I would use a hammer to break rocks open, just to see what they looked like in the middle.  Surely there were precious prizes in "them there rocks," and I was determined to find them.  

This morning, that's where my memories have lingered...out in the driveway with the hammer.  In my hand, that tool was hard, heavy, and no rock was hard enough to withstand my assault.  It as the perfect tool for the job. 

Strangely enough, not once did I ever - while breaking those rocks - even think about picking one up, sticking out my tongue and trying to use that soft organ in my mouth to pry open my prizes.  For some unknown reason, that just never crossed my mind! 

However, Scripture says that the tongue is a powerful tool, even powerful enough to break bone:  "By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded, and a gentle tongue breaks a bone"  (Proverbs 25:15).

Hmmm...a gentle tongue breaks a bone.  Now, I don't know about you, but when I first read that, it just didn't make much sense...about as much sense as me whacking away at a rock open-mouthed.  However, the more I thought about it and prayed about it, the more I realized that a gentle tongue was, in fact, the most useful tool for breaking something hard.   

In the natural world, it makes perfect sense that a harsh tongue would break something - or someone - who was hardened.  After all, in the natural world, to break something hard, you use something harder.  In contrast, within the life of the spiritual man or woman, gentleness with our tongues - not harshness or hardness - brings the results. 

A great example of this can be seen in the parent/child relationship.  For instance, if I use harsh words or biting remarks to try to correct my six year old, he doesn't "break."  Instead, he hardens.  His little face scowls and his heart attitude becomes less than amiable.  However, when I take time to let the Spirit guide my tongue, and respond to him in gentleness, he doesn't "harden."  Most of the time he "breaks" and apologetically wraps his arms around me in a gesture of a broken and contrite heart. 

The same things happens to us, too.  When someone speaks to us in anger or harshness, our instantaneous reaction is one of two things.  We either harden and fight back, or we harden and run away.  Either way, everybody loses.

So, this truth of gentle-speak is a reality...but it's not easy to practice.  We have to be intentional.  Remember, in the natural man, harder breaks harder, but in the spiritual world, gentleness breaks the bone.  So, today, when you find yourself in that compromising situation - and you will - wanting to respond harshly, but knowing you need to respond gently, take a deep breath and breathe out a prayer for gentleness.  Ask God to fill your tongue and your tone with His gentleness and watch what happens. 

Jesus, sometimes, I am so quick to speak harsh words, thinking my harshness will cause change.  Yet, You say that gentleness is what breaks the bone.  Help me lean on You today and respond in ways that are pleasing to You - with words that are pleasing to You.  I give my tongue to You today...as funny as that may sound.  You can have it.  Use it, Jesus...to bring healing and restoration in the lives of those around me.  I love You, Lord, and I thank You for Your gentleness with me.  

Swallowed Up!

Swallowed up - those words bring a couple of things to mind, like chocolate chip cookies in my possession and ducklings - yes, ducklings.  

My kids were at the pond behind our house one day, and they raced home to relay a very intriguing story.  Evidently, a duckling, who was trailing behind his brothers and sisters, disappeared underneath the water in one fail swoop of something!  After much speculation and a phone conversation with my father as to the identity of the unidentifiable monster in our pond who could swallow a duckling whole, we finally determined that the monster was no montster at all.  Evidently, a large mouth bass will, in fact, swallow a duckling if its mouth is large enough.

You would think after 43 years of life - at the time - that I would been privy to that little tidbit of trivia, but somehow, it escaped my educational training!  That poor duckling had been "swallowed up" into something else.  His life had been snuffed out...swallowed into another living thing.

So, when I read Paul's writing in I Corinthians 5:4, my mind can picture exactly what he's talking about:  "For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life."  I don't know about you, but I CRAVE that my mortality would be "swallowed up" by life.   

What in the world does that mean?  Well, I take it to mean that in my flesh - in my bodily tent - I don't necessarily want to lose myself.  I just want MORE of something that isn't me!  I want Jesus to "further clothe" me, so that my sin, my ugliness, my selfish behaviors, my stinky attitudes, my harsh words, my mortality, my "humanness" would be swallowed up in His life - in His peace, His perfection, His unselfish motives, His positiveness, His comforting words, His divinity, His perfection!  Oh, that on a daily basis, more and more of Him would show forth in me...that my mortality - my humanness  - would be gobbled up, "swallowed up" by His amazing Life. 

Thank You, Lord, that You desire that for me...even more than I desire it for myself.  I want Your life to swallow mine, so that I can show forth Your life to those around me.  Thank You, Jesus.  Swallow me up, today!  I love You, Lord.  I really, really do!