Ways with Words

As Brad & I reflected on Job yesterday, we thought about how difficult it sometimes is to do the right thing... to keep quiet instead of speak unhelpful or hurtful words. However, we shouldn't always be silent. We do need to speak, when the words we speak are given from God. We just need to ask for the discerning spirit to say what God has given us to say and to be silent when words would spoil what God is saying without them.


Silence is Golden

1 Then Job replied:
2 "How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?

3 Ten times now you have reproached me;
shamelessly you attack me.

4 If it is true that I have gone astray,
my error remains my concern alone.

5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
and use my humiliation against me,

6 then know that God has wronged me
and drawn his net around me. (Job 19:1-6)

I have long appreciated silence. Yes, even before I started teaching rowdy high school students, although that only heightened it, I am sure. But, it is hard to be silent at the moments we need that silence most... to calm our thoughts, to only let the best words touch our tongue and touch the ears of the ones who are so dear to us. The easy thing is to be defensive, fight back. But, what we need is a little bit more space. We need to be 'slow to speak' and abounding in love. Job felt attacked, tormented by the words of his 'friends.' Our family, our friends need us... and they need our words... but they need words of kindness, love and hope. They don't need words that are held above them, humiliating them.

I'll give you one example of my mistakenly quick draw on some wrongly chosen words from this past Spring. At the grocery store, I had a couple bucks left in my $25 weekly budget. So, I looked at my favorites- granola bars/nutrition bars. I looked at the different flavors and kinds and everything. I hardly ever have extra money to get something just for fun, just because. I must've taken 15 minutes there. It may seem like a little, but when standing staring blankly at boxes, you'd get frustrated too. So, as we walked to my apartment, Brad said something about how long it took me to decide on granola bars. I felt embarrassed/ humiliated like Job, so instead of the right answer: "You're right. It's kind of ridiculous," I said, "Well, you're just as indecisive as me. You can't decide what you want to do after you graduate." Absolutely a foul play, and these words were totally uncalled for. In this instance, silence would've definitely been the better option. Learning not to speak, unless we have something nice to say (as we were told when we were young).


Speaking is Golden

9About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. 13Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
14"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."

15The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

16This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

17While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. 18They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.

19While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three[a] men are looking for you. 20So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."

21Peter went down and said to the men, "I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come?"

22The men replied, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say." 23Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guest (Acts 10:9-23)

However, sometimes there are people, and sometimes we are one of them, who have something to say that is not merely for our own good, but for our own God. When we are not looking out for the fake 'numero uno' and are really looking out for the real 'numero uno' who is our Lord, we have something very important to say. That's why we go to church, pray together with our family, read scripture together. We want to hear what He has to say. And we want Him to use us to say what He would have us say to everyone. May His words only be on my lips... on the hard days and the easy days.

To me, these verses are an excellent example. Simon himself didn't really understand the dream, but Cornelius needed to know the dream, and in that moment God revealed the dream and its meaning. Right now Brad and I are thinking about the possibility of doing missions after we finish our grad programs for a couple of years. And I know that even though it may make Brad a little nervous since he's never done it before, I know from first hand experience that we are not able... but God is able. He is faithful to His servants who go and do His work and He blesses them greatly. Still, we'll have to continue to pray about this greatly, since we would both need a strong sense of calling to do this- a calling that will help us to speak His words.