By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross“I’m sorry for what I said when we were working with cattle.”
That’s a form of a joke we see about how working with horses and cattle can bring out the worst in us, particularly causing us to swear or have angry outbursts.
We all know the idea of taking a breath and counting to 10 to give us time to calm down but there’s also a biblical way to do this.
James 3 tells us about how much power our words have to do great harm. He uses the example of a bit in a horse’s mouth or the rudder of a ship to make clear how something that seems so small is capable of controlling the direction we take. It can lead us into great evil with the power to destroy. In studies in bullying, there’s research that shows how girls tend to stay on another girl they target relentlessly from face-to-face confrontations to attacks across social media. They are capable of using their words to push someone to suicide though this has happened in both boys and girls.
James isn’t exaggerating in how much evil our words can do. He calls them a ‘restless evil’ and a ‘deadly poison.
I’ve witnessed rodeo cowboys spread rumors that have forced someone to leave the industry even though they knew the stories were likely to be false.
James 3:3-8 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
James makes the point that no human can bring the tongue under control. While it’s easier to choose not to intentionally do harm or spread gossip, it’s so easy to say harmful words in anger.
Earlier in his book, James addresses part of this in James 1:19 saying “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”
Now, James seems to be telling us there’s nothing we can do about it but he’s saying no human can tame the tongue, he isn’t saying that it can’t be. We serve and worship a God who can control everything. Instead of taking a breath and counting to 10, we need to take that breath and pray for God to take our anger away or to give us the right words to say.
God will control our tongue if we let Him and we can hold back from doing genuine evil in the world around us.
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