A couple of Saturdays ago, I walked across the street to the church to finish my sermon for the following day. Upon making my way into the building, I discovered that the hallway from the lobby up to my office was flooded with water. At first I thought a pipe had burst, but the walls were dry. Then I noticed that the water fountain was dribbling, almost imperceptibly. Apparently the drain had been clogged and the faucet had gotten stuck before turning fully off.
It was hard to believe that such a small trickle of water had created such a massive amount of water on the floor. The faucet must have been on throughout the previous evening and all through the night. Though people had been in the building (the cleaning crew was there around midnight), no one noticed the dribble, because it had not yet filled the drain pipe and overflowed while they were there. But eventually it did after they left, and by the time I came in the next morning, the damage had been done.
In fact, the damage was worse than I thought. When I opened my office door, which is located right next to the water fountain, I discovered that the water had seeped five or six feet into my office area and had completely flooded the carpet. When I stepped on to the flooded carpet area, the water rose almost halfway up my shoe.
I took almost an hour to mop up the water in the hallway, then my wife came over with our shampooer to dry-vac my office. We got as much water out as we could, but it seemed to do little good. The next day when I came into my office, it had a rotten, mildewy kind of smell. I left my door open and blew a fan on it all that day ... and the next day. But it still reeked. A gentleman in our church who lays carpets for a living came in and assessed the damage, saying that the padding and carpet were wrecked and could not be saved. The stain couldn't be removed, and the rotten smell would remain: the carpet and padding had to be replaced.
One little leak, yet such a big mess! Isn't this the case with the careless words we utter? One tidbit of gossip here, one little critical remark there ... and yet what damage it can do! Listen to the testimony of Scripture:
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!
And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body,
setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
(James 3:5b-6 ESV)
Whereas I used the word picture of water, James uses the metaphor of fire to depict the destructive power of the tongue. In essence he says that those who misuse the tongue are guilty of spiritual arson! Remember that old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me?" Well, that's about as false as false can get, according to Scripture. The tongue has caused more damage and wrecked more lives than all the sticks and stones one could ever hurl at another person. As I was reminded by the leaking water fountain, a little dribble can cause a lot of damage.
While meditating on the use of the mouth, I went to BibleGateway.com and typed into the word search "my mouth." I came to find out that the Bible has a lot to say about my mouth, and how it ought - and how it ought not - to be used! You should check out all these verses; they are highly instructive! One such verse was uttered by David - one we should all pray:
Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
(Psalm 141:3 NIV)
On a windswept hill in an English country churchyard stands a drab, gray slate tombstone. The quaint stone bears an epitaph not easily seen unless you stoop over and look closely. The faint etchings read:
Beneath this stone, a lump of clay,
lies Arabella Young,
who on the twenty-fourth of May
began to hold her tongue.
Don't wait till you're dead to stop the leak. Start today, with the Lord's help!