“If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.” James 1:26
It sure hurt. It sure was embarrassing. I know all of us, and I do mean all of us, have done things that were just down right embarrassing. Some of them were rather public and some were private but they were embarrassing just the same. And then some of us have done some things that were painful and embarrassing and that is today’s story.
I’m a people watcher and I think that is largely because all people have stories and sometimes those stories are part of their physical appearance. Have you ever been standing in line at the grocery store and noticed that the guy in front of you had a banged up finger nail? By that I mean one or more of the nails on one of his hands was black or even missing. Well, I certainly have and I always wonder what happened. Most times I have to resist the urge to ask them what happened. You know, did you hit your finger with a hammer? Did you slam your finger in a car door? Did you drop something on it? You get the idea. I guess I am just curious like that.
Well, if you look on my left hand and my middle finger, you will notice a small but definitive spot under my finger nail. It isn’t big enough for you really to notice unless you were looking. Well, this week something happened that caused me to join the painful and embarrassing club. It goes like this. I had just gotten home from a stay in Vienna (remember this is the one in Illinois and not in Austria). I couldn’t find my shaving kit so I called my wife Judy and she suggested I go check again in the car. I was munching on a piece of toast as I went. After checking the car, I closed the trunk and was heading back to the house. There was one bite of toast left so I chucked it in my mouth and, get ready, chomped down before my finger was out of the way. I bit my own finger. My front incisor came down right on my finger nail and let me tell you–it hurt.
I’m pretty sure in the annals of my life history I had never before bit my own finger. I’m also pretty sure I never want to do it again. Almost immediately a dark spot appeared under my nail. I’m glad to report I didn’t cuss but it may have crossed my mind. Smile. So for the next half hour or so, my finger throbbed and I kept checking to see if my nail was going to fall off. Gratefully it did not nor does it appear to be a threat but it will be a long time before I forget how painfully embarrassing that was.
The most amazing thing was to realize just how much downward biting force my mouth had. I simply didn’t realize how strong my jaw muscles are. I’ve seen those shows about alligators but I’m pretty sure they’ve got nothing on me. And then a bell went off in my head–as deadly as my bite might be–my careless words, my harsh and unkind comments are worse–much worse. James, the half brother of Jesus tells us, “And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.” Now that is a hard but powerful truth.
So two bits of advice come from this story. First…don’t bite your finger. It will definitely hurt and if you do–don’t tell anyone. Oops. Second, if you do bite your finger or if you know someone who did, learn from their mistake. The tongue that resides in the mouth can cause more pain than your bite can. Honesty, it is very hard to control the tongue but I know someone who can help us. If we are Jesus followers, He’s our Dearest Daddy and He can and will help us do this difficult task. You might say, “He’s got this.” Chomp! Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 