The tongue only delivers what is in our heart.
As part of Six Thinking Hats® training, we discuss the red hat. This is a metaphorical hat that we can put on or take off when we want emotional or intuitive thinking. We must make a time and a place for this critical element of thinking or our emotions will be just under the surface of the logical elements of our thinking. To illustrate this point, I often ask for a volunteer from the class and then hand them a glass as they stand next to me. I fill the glass to the top with water and tell my volunteer just to keep the water in the glass. I start into the first part of my lecture standing next to my volunteer when I look at him and ask him to trade places with me. I usually place a gentle hand on his arm or shoulder and guide him into position. Most of the time, water spills from the glass and I refill it. I go throw this repositioning drill another time or two then proceed to explain the analogy of the cup and emotions.
The water is our emotion. We carry our emotions around with us. Some of us place a shell over them, but with only a minor incident many of these emotions come spilling out. Some will spill more than others and some will exert all of their efforts just to keep their emotions in the cup. Whether we show them naturally or only as a last resort, we have emotions that affect our behavior--and our thinking. We must make a time and a place for them in our thinking otherwise they will attempt to disguise themselves as logic.
The cup of water analogy also applies to the discussion of taming the tongue in James. James is not talking about physical conditioning of a body part. To tame the tongue, we must have the word of God in our heart. What we have in our heart will be what spills out of our cup. The tongue is but the instrument of delivery.
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 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. 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. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. James 3:1-12 (NIV)
Comments