Feral

“...no one can tame the human tongue.” James 3:8

I have sometimes thought biting my tongue, so to speak, did no real good because whatever I’d been about to say was already in my mind anyway. But I have come to believe that saying something out loud is like pushing a stone downhill: chances are, it will start rolling once gravity gets a hold of it.

The sense I have is that words spoken create momentum toward another thought, then another remark, which propels toward another thought,etc. Given conducive circumstances and willing conversational partners, the momentum can quickly become strong enough to pull me into attitudes I didn’t mean to visit.

It’s better to train the tongue to set good things in motion: encouragement, affirmation, kindness, provocation toward love and good deeds...

But maybe we need to accept the fact that it is never completely domesticated; it remains at least partly feral.

TOE

That's "term of endearment", which is how I feel about Mr. Buzzkill. I am grateful that James' letter made it into the New Testament canon (it was touch and go for a while, you know).

I recently learned (from the intro in my J.B. Phillips Translation) that the Book of James is conceptually linked to the Beatitudes. Of all the NT epistles, it is arguably the one most directly distilled from the words of Jesus.

James [Mr. Buzzkill] part two

“...man’s temper is never the means of achieving God’s true goodness.” James 1:20

As much as I affirm this statement, it also bums me out. My temper has been a potent energy source over the years, so it costs me something to set it aside.

Quick to listen, slow to employ the tongue... This is what James proposes as an alternate source of energy; essentially, it is the power of story.

If I will hold my tongue long enough to hear where you’re coming from, I will begin to perceive your perspective more dimensionally. Once I’ve taken that step inside your story I might still become angry, but I will probably be less likely to lose my temper.

Another facet: Even if I consider my temper-flash to have yielded a desirable effect, it will not have been “God’s true goodness”. My assessment of the outcome is misaligned with God’s.

James [Mr. Buzzkill] part one

The first paragraph of the Letter from James (New Testament) includes the phrase, “of mature character with the right sort of independence.” [J.B. Phillips Translation]

I want that. I really, really want that. The trouble is that James says it comes as a gift of trials and temptations. (Deng-it!)

James says to trust the process: “...let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed.” If I’m extrapolating correctly, what’s being suggested here is that independence (the right sort, at any rate) depends on patience.

Hmm... Yet another paradox of the faith-venture of following Jesus.