The Tongue

Students of school of life have related many experiences they have learnt and they constantly attempt to pass these lessons on to those who are willing to learn from them. The lessons are free but many refuse to learn to their own peril. One of such lessons is about a hunter who encountered a talking skull during one of his hunting expeditions in the forest. The skull informed the hunter that if he were not careful with his tongue, he too would find himself resting by his side in the heart of the forest. The hunter, the story has it, was shocked and surprised that a skull could talk to him. He ran out of the forest straight to the palace of the king and narrated his ordeal to the king. On hearing this, the king summoned his advisers and councilors so that they would hear the story of the hunter. The hunter repeated his story and recounted how he saw a skull in the forest and what the skull told him. He reported that he was prepared to go and fetch the skull so that the king, his advisers and councilors could see it with their eyes and hear it speak with their ears. He went on to say that if the skull would not speak to the king, the king should cut off his own head. (He was so sure of himself)  The council of the king accepted his proposal and he was dispatched to the forest so that he could bring the skull in.

The hunter went to the forest where he found the skull at the exact position that it was when he first saw it. He then picked the skull up and brought it to the presence of the king and his council. On dropping the skull, he ordered the skull to tell the king and his council what it told him. But the skull did not utter a word. He commanded, cajoled, begged and pleaded with the skull to speak to the king, but the skull did not answer him a word. Finally, the king, his advisers and councilors decided that they had had enough. They took counsel and decided that the hunter’s head should be cut off, and that the two heads should be thrown into the forest. This was done: the hunter’s head was cut off and together with the skull dumped into the forest. When the dispatchers had left, the skull turned round and spoke these words to the hunter: “remember what I had told you, that if you did not guard your tongue you will one day lie side by side with me here in the forest? Here you are just like I had said, lying side by side with me”.

This short story says it all about the power of the tongue. The third chapter of the letter of St. James is devoted to the power of the tongue. James says, “if a person is without fault in speech he is a man in the fullest sense, because he can control his entire body. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide the rest of their bodies. It is the same with ships: however large they are, and despite the fact that they are driven by fierce winds, they are directed by very small rudders on whatever our course the steersman’s impulse may select. The tongue is something like that. It is small member, yet it makes great pretensions” (James 3:2-5). Many friendships have been sacrificed on the altar of the unguarded tongue. Many have suffered abuses and betrayal because of the wrong use of the tongue. Friends we trusted and shared our inmost secrets with have divulged our secrets and brought us down because of the tiny body part called the tongue.

Let us listen to our brother James again: “See tiny the spark is that sets a huge forest ablaze! The tongue is such a flame. It exists among our members as a whole universe of malice. The tongue defiles the entire body. Its flames encircle our course from birth, and its fire is kindled by hell. Every form of life, four-footed or winged, crawling or swimming, can be tamed and has been tamed, by mankind; the tongue no man can tame. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. We use it to say, “Praised be the Lord and Father”; then we use it to curse men, though they are made in the likeness of God” (James 3:6-11).

It is sad that many times this restless tongue of ours is so prone to evil that it says things that are not true about our friends. This is malicious! Before we pass on information about our brothers and sisters, do we even bother to check the facts? Do we ask ourselves if this is the kind of information we would like to be passed on about ourselves? I dare say that we should take a step further to see how important and beneficial this information should be if we pass it on to others. In using my tongue, it could be good to ask how I would be comfortable to confront my friend with this information before I pass it on. The book of Proverbs observes, “A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof” (18:20-21).

God gave us the tongue to use it in praising him, in lifting up one another, in correcting one another in love. Let us be kind to one another in the use of our tongue. Remember the golden rule, do to no one what you do not want done to you. Let us use our tongue to bless rather than use it to bring sadness to one another. May God bless you, may he let his face shed its light upon you. May he be gracious to you now and always!