Meditation Monday #2

It only takes a spark, remember to set off a forest fire.  A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that.  By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue – its never been done.  The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father, and with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!”  

James 3:5-10 (The Message)

We are living in a truth crisis. Advertisers, corporations, government and nongovernment agencies, educational and religious institutions are all guilty of spinning the truth. All we have to do is watch the news to know the media can really twist a story. 

Pointing fingers is alarmingly easy and keeps us from facing our own ability to twist the truth in our favor. How do we live an authentically truthful life? How do we keep from exaggerating, minimizing, denying, rationalizing or managing the truth?  Set aside some prayer time with God this week to assess your honesty and ask Him to show you where stand in relation to these acts.  It may be uncomfortable for you to do this. When tempted to ignore this discipline, remember: