Yesterday I wrote about the tongue being dangerous. In today's world, that includes smartphones and keyboards. I'm talking about social media. We deal daily with stories of cyber-bullying and shaming, libel and defamation of character. Sometimes, it happens to us. Oftentimes it comes from people we've never met.
It happened to me last night. (Note: this is not an "Oh, woe is me" story. This is an example of how damaging words can be personally and professionally.)
I own my own business and have listings on social media and internet searches. The husband of a lady who works in my building has taken it upon himself to harass me via text. After the last go-round of his venom and my responding as calmly as possible, I thought it was over. (Note: I was calm texting, I wasn't in the safety of my brain.) Last night before going to bed, I logged into Facebook one last time. A friend of theirs had posted a completely false and damaging review on my business page. He claimed he was a client who I had attempted to seduce in a very graphic manner. I'm a massage therapist, and that claim could not only damage my business but also put my state license at risk. My heart immediately started trying to jackhammer its way out of my ribs. I searched for a way to get the post taken down (Facebook removed it within minutes), all the while trying not to cry. I was terrified and angry. I felt violated. My practice is built upon skill, integrity, and ethics, and here was some random jerk making a false and damaging claim against me. I am the sole source of income for my family. He was threatening not only my career but the well-being of my family. I wanted to scream. I wanted to call him every creative and bad name I could come up with. Instead, I cried and prayed. Then I called the authorities to find out what my legal options were to protect my family and my business.
Words are powerful. They can be used for good or for evil. They are weapons. While our words may not be as powerful on as cosmic a scale as God's...they still carry a lot of weight.
In Jeremiah 5:14, God's Word is fire. In Jeremiah 23:29, His Word is a hammer. In Hebrews 4:12, it is sharper than a two-edged sword. He gave us the gift of speech. Words coming from our mouths aren't sounds and letters strung together in a certain order. They are weapons. They can be used on the side of angels or on the side against.
After the 400 years of silence, the Word Made Flesh was born and turned the entire world on its collective ear. And He had a lot to say about the things we say. He talked about how what comes out of our mouths is more important than what goes in (Matthew 15:11). How we would one day answer for the things we said before the throne of judgment (Matthew 12:36-37). Most important, how we can't live by bread alone (Matthew 4:4).
I'm not sure what the lesson I'm supposed to be learning from these two guys is. I don't know what God is trying to teach me. What I do know is that I'm grateful to have learned how to keep my tongue (and temper) behind my teeth. I'm not going to lie. It feels awesome to look at those text messages and see how well I've learned to adult by text. Now, I need to learn how to do that when it happens face-to-face.
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