Overflow of the Heart

As we approach Holy Week, I find myself reflective upon this season of Lent. Part of me wonders if I even tried at all to engage with Jesus as our local church has defined Lent. I at least set up a goal for myself, to study and practice the speech ethics of Jesus. To aid me in this I have been reading Eugene Peterson's book Tell it Slant, a study of Jesus' parables as he travels through Samaria on his way to Jerusalem and to the cross. In many ways, this season of Lent has mirrored that journey, as I've walked with Jesus through a foreign land. I wish that I had the same flare for the dramatic as Jesus, that I could interpret people's spiritual situations into well-crafted metaphors that people would be repeating two thousand years later, that I could set aside my agenda to be well-liked and to merely speak words that give life. Yet in my quest to see my tongue changed, I found God working on a very different part of me, my heart. Its often like this, I think, with God, we simply want to change our behaviors but He seems to care far more about who we are at our core. I found that to speak like Jesus did not mean learning smooth rhetoric but to be changed by his words.

And so as Jesus is preparing for his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem he tells a story about the life he is bringing us into. He tells of a master who entrusts ten servants with some investments, talents. When the master returns a King, he surveys how his tenants spent their talents. One especially daring servant risked his in high-stakes investments and doubled the King's returns. Another held tightly to his, afraid of losing it and is scolded by the master who subsequently takes the servant's little and gives it to the daring one. In this story Jesus is illustrating what it means to live in and move in his coming Kingdom. We are to throw caution to the wind and risk all.  He has given us tools to use and what he most desires is for us to go to work, without fear and with great hope.

So often I find myself like the last servant, keeping my talents to myself out of fear. I am so often afraid of failure that I fail to act at all, a failure in and of itself. Yet I see Jesus telling me that anything worth anything is going to take risk. He knew this keenly as he rode that donkey into the death trap that was Jerusalem. He knew what was on the line and he risked it all, even his life for his dream, for our dreams. He died and in that act of bravery he freed us all to do likewise. This season of Lent has challenged my heart at the basic level: I am coward, yet Jesus looks deep into my eyes and sees far beneath and proclaims that my name is "Courageous" and "Victorious." He bids me, and perhaps us all, to follow in his steps of daring even if it costs me my life, for the reward is doubly, even infinitely, greater.

Let My Words Be Few

As I continue to explore and practice a renewed speech ethic this Lenten season, I hope that scripture will guide my path (and my tongue). While I am learning about speech by studying how Jesus spoke, there are places where the scriptures speak directly about a framework that should support the use of our words.  Here is a sampling of these that merely refer to the tongue itself.

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Psalm 34:13


Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation,and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Psalm 51:14


The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, Proverbs 10:20


There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12:18


Death and life are in the power of the tongue,and those who love it will eat its fruits. Proverbs 18:21


If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. James 1:21


Whoever desires to love life and see good days,let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; 1 Peter 3:10


Jesus came, among many reasons, to show us that our words were not the problem but our hearts that produce them. So, perhaps I am a bit misguided in my attempts to tame the tongue, for James says this is impossible. But we must also remember that nothing is impossible with God. Lent is a bit of a quandry when you think about it, we "do good" and "cease bad" so that we may be more like Christ? Is not the heart of the Gospel our utter lack of ability to save ourselves? Yet also in the heart of that same gospel is a plea to be changed. So perhaps the the greatest speech ethic I can learn this season is that of prayer.

My God, take this heart of stone and make it new. I am afraid of the chiseling you must do, but Lord do it please. Teach my heart to give worth to my words. Tame my tongue to not speak folly, lies, slander, and even death, but praise, joy, healing, and especially life. May Your Son, the Word of life give life to my words and defeat death in my heart. Thank you God that you have granted me, a man of unclean lips, the privalage to proclaim that you are holy, holy, holy. Amen