My first job was with an engineering company in the mid 80’s. I worked there for just under a year and learned a tremendous amount about electronics and machining. The trouble with that job was the owner. He was mean spirited and very intimidating! I must have conjured over two dozen scenarios where I could give this oppressor a piece of my mind. The problem was, each time I came face to face with him, my resolve would disintegrate. During that time, I never really discussed my troubles with my parents, friends or youth pastors. I basically absorbed the difficulties of my situation until my performance dwindled to the point that I was “invited to leave.”
Fast forward two and a half decades. I still see way too many examples of young adults refraining from discussing problems with wise counsel. Instead, their troubles, thoughts and wounded emotions are broadcast to the planet via venues such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Troubles at school? Update your Facebook status. Relationship problems? Send out a tweet.
Posting Whatever Is On Your Mind
More often than not, these “posts” are sent in the heat of the moment, and are sent out with ease because they can be said without the need to be face to face with others. Let’s take a look at what the word of God has to say about the practice of saying whatever is on our mind:
4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. (James 3:4-10, NKJV)
Communication: It’s Not Just For Your Tongue Anymore
As we read the passage above, we understand that the spoken word was the primary way people of the day communicated. In fact when I was a teenager in the 80’s, the spoken word (made possible by our tongues) was still the primary method of communicating. What would you say are the primary ways of communicating in this day and age? Many modern communication methods don’t involve the tongue, but they are still words, and you and I are responsible for them all. Consider this passage:
36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37, NKJV)
Seeking Wise Counsel
When you or I make a telephone call, the odds are pretty good that it is just the two of us on that connection. Not only that, unless the FBI feels like recording us, there is no copy of our phone conversation floating around. However, when we post something on the internet, odds are it is stored somewhere forever. Worse than that, according to internetworldstats.com, there are 1,966,514,816 users on the internet as of September 2010. It doesn’t sound like we have any chance of controlling who reads what we post.
Posting your troubles or musings on the internet is literally like telling the whole world. Shouting our troubles from a mountain top is not what God has in mind for us. We can gain further understanding of this from the following passage:
1 Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper. (Psalm 1:1-3, NKJV)
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper. (Psalm 1:1-3, NKJV)
Let’s continue with this verse:
5 A wise man will hear and increase learning,
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, (Proverbs 1:5, NKJV)
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, (Proverbs 1:5, NKJV)
We live in an information age. It’s up to all of us to use wisdom, and seek wisdom regarding the information we share. I’ll leave you with the following verse:
3 He who guards his mouth preserves his life,
But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction. (Proverbs 13:3, NKJV)
But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction. (Proverbs 13:3, NKJV)
-Brian Cox
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