Tongue as predator

After James 3:1-12 

The tongue is a restless

predator, wandering

the landscape, seeking

its food, the unsuspecting

and the nourishing; 

this predator is hungry

for nourishment. It is

an evil, restless; it is

full of poison, a toxic

instrument of destruction,

which can bless and curse

simultaneously. No salt

sea can produce fresh water;

no fig tree bears olives. 

No human can control

a tongue, especially

one’s own. It lashes,

it destroys, it demeans,

it insults, it undermines,

it reduces, it erodes,

it exhausts, it makes

its object less than it is

by elevating itself.

 

Photograph by Lukas Vanatko via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Turn the Other Cheek – Jason Clark at This is Jason.

 

Sundays for the Young Son of a Theologically Conservative Pastor – Jon Wildeman at Front Porch Republic.

 

“Ploughman,” poem by Patrick Kavanagh – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

One Day, God Will Wipe Away His People’s Tears – Randy Alcorn.

 

Feeding – poem by Seth Lewis.