“Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water?…No, you can’t draw fresh water from a salty pool.”

The news is aflutter about the Pope’s word slip. His slip has reminded me of the time I had a business meeting with someone who I know, but don’t know all that well. He now represents a financial institution but also is involved in a faith-based for-profit business at a very high level of influence and responsibility. We were having a business meeting over coffee. I was getting briefed on the faith-based business but we were also catching up on how he was doing in a new venture, etc. In the course of the conversation, over an hour or so, he allowed himself to slip out three epitaphs, which were of the non-FCC allowed kinds. Like most of us, we are used to this in business and seldom am I personally phased by any and all of what comes from someones mouth. I can’t be judgmental because I have been guilty way too many times in my own career. For years, I will admit that certain four-letter words rolled off my tongue without thought or concern. Those days are thankfully past for me now. But still, I don’t want to judge. However, in this situation I had with this person and the not so flattering attention that the Pope received, there is a lesson to be learned. As the executive sat across from me and gave me the update on the faith-based business, each time that one of the words would find their way into the conversation, for me, all credibility of everything else he shared would dissipate. It was like he was speaking two different languages and with each slip of his tongue, I could only hear what I thought was his true language coming through and it eroded his credibility as a leader of a faith-based business. 

As we read in the entire third chapter of James, the tongue is a mighty force and one not to be easily controlled or reckoned. My experience with this other person was exactly what James says in Chapter 3, verse 11-12: “Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water?…No, you can’t draw fresh water from a salty pool.” All I could hear (taste) in our conversation was the salty and the brackish. Whatever was fresh and life-giving was tainted and ruined by the bitter salt. As each day is a new beginning and this is a day where with the removal of a few words (think about it…it’s maybe two handful of words only) out of our vocabulary, we can assure that we are never spoiling fresh water or spoiling the other areas of our lives we are doing our best to work and live to God’s purpose. Can we start today with not letting ourselves continue with the slips of our tongues?

Reference:  James 3:11-12 (New Living Translation)