A
good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil
man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth
speaks what the heart is full of.
Luke 6:45
I grew up in a proper Latino
household: a comal was always on the
stove, the question was never “white or wheat” but “corn or flour,” our
detergent didn’t come in a box but in a bag that said “Ariel,” and birthdays
weren’t “birthdays” without a piñata! Your
childhood isn’t complete without having a scar, preferably on your face
somewhere, from being a little too zealous for candy before the bat swinging was
done (mine’s on my lip).
I was at a Spongebob themed birthday
party several years back. So guess what piñata
came out? Spongebob, of course! Child after child took turns taking swings at
this beloved character. Then it hit
me: Who came up with this idea? Why do we choose our favorite character to
beat the stuffing out of for our birthdays?
Shouldn’t it be a character we don’t like? Why not devil piñatas or Taliban piñatas or
spider piñatas? Who likes spiders? That would make more sense. But no!
We find Olaf or Spiderman and we want to gather our friends around and
take swing after swing at him. Each of
us taking a shot until he’s been torn apart.
That’s so like gossip, right? Gather friends together to take turns tearing
apart someone else’s character until there is nothing left. Maligning their
motives, sharing “what I’ve heard,” and throwing a bit of exaggeration for
effect.
In James 3, James talks about the
trouble our tongue gets us in. He describes
that we have a wild animal living with us, our tongue, that’s untamable and unstoppable. He says our tongue is like living with a
pyromaniac who’s constantly setting things on fire that you can't reason
with. Like a rudder it’s steering our
lives and shaping our future.
That’s all sounds hopeless. If we can’t control it then what do we
do? I had heard a preacher talk on this
subject recently and he said this: If
you were living with a wild, untameable animal, (let’s say they’ve moved in with
you) what would your priority be? Survival,
safety, or simply put: trying not making
it mad. You make it mad and it will just
respond to its environment. Your tongue
is a wild animal that’s simply responding to its environment. Or as Jesus put it: A
good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil
man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth
speaks what the heart is full of.
By changing what you put into your heart,
you’ll change what you get out of it.
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