My Words...Worthy or Wasteful?

My scripture reading for today took me to Romans 3...

12 "All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." 13 "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." 14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." (NIV)

All too often, I wonder if I am wasting my time when I sit down to write. After all, if the words we say can be compared to the poison of snakes, then the words we write could have an even longer lasting and far-reaching negative impact. The echo of spoken words dies away in a moment...but what I write can be spread far and wide and might be remembered far longer than I can imagine.

I have many friends and acquaintances who believe they can excuse their avoidance of church attendance as the result of careless words. One such friend, a single mom, tells me that her minister insisted her child would not be in heaven because it was illegitimate. This is only one of the many examples I've heard of hasty, judgmental words spoken by (hopefully) well-meaning churchgoers.

The effects of nasty or poorly chosen words can be devastating, bringing hurtful stings in the short run and life-lasting discouragement in the long. I can vividly recall the unkind words of a fourth grade classmate who mockingly pointed out my overweight condition when I was tagged out in a schoolyard kickball game. Then there was the scathing rebuke of a choir member who didn't like my direction for the choir to sing the hymns from the choir loft when no special anthem had been scheduled for the service. Those two episodes are etched with acid on the scenes of my memory.

Personally, I want my words, both spoken and written, to be life-giving, life-affirming, life-enriching and a source of joy. Are they? Or are they an excuse others might use to avoid the things that are most real and important to me?

I have a writing mentor who has referred to me as an idealist. In a way, this description might have been used euphemistically, when she really meant, "heavy-handed and blunt." Christians so often deal in absolutes when it comes to truth, goodness and beauty, it is very easy for us to slip into an ugly, pontificating, absolut-ist mode, insisting (maybe not in so many words, but by implication) that our hearers/readers ought to agree or go along with our point of view, simply because it is ours.

Actually, even referring to oneself as a Christian at all, can come across to others as a claim to an exemption from human weaknesses and sinfulness. I have to remind myself (and should more than I do) that Christ Himself didn't go around touting his own authority or His sinlessness or His Sonship. In fact, when demons identified Him as the "Holy One of God," Jesus told them to be quiet! Mostly, Jesus simply taught the truths about God's kingdom, pointed people to His Father, and let His words and works speak for themselves.

This misunderstanding of the designation "Christian" has been a problem for a long time, I'm sure, and not simply because people are blind to the truths of sin, confession, repentance and forgiveness. People misunderstand it because so many folks so designated have spoken and written in ways that were unlovely and unloving. If I've ever come across that way to you, dear reader, please forgive me.

And, furthermore, you have my permission and my encouragement to "bring me up on charges" anytime you feel personally wounded, affronted or misrepresented by anything I write. Please let me know so I can correct the matter.

If I'm not representing my Lord in a way that is true, good, and lovely, I have no business writing and publishing this stuff at all. I mean that.