My brother got Skyrim for Christmas last month and before I came back to school, I played it religiously every night. I was totally enthralled. One feature which I really liked was the ability to learn "shouts." In the world of Skyrim, shouts are words of power spoken in the language of dragons which grants you special abilities depending on which shout you use (one shout may give you the ability to breathe fire while another may slow time down for example). You learn these shouts by attaining "words of power" which are found in caves and dungeons scattered around the world. These words are supposedly how dragons do battle- so when you are fighting a dragon you are essentially having a literal shouting match with him when you both breathe fire on each other. New evidence may shed some light on the validity of these shouts:
The concept of using words to battle is very interesting to me. Even though we cannot (or at least I cannot) use my spoken words to breathe fire on anybody, in a way, this concept is not far off from real life. I suppose it is that "almost real" flavor that makes it so intriguing. It doesn't take a huge leap to say that in real life, words can be just as damaging as breathing fire on someone. I personally know that I have a very unfortunate tendency to let my words be damaging.
Ever since I was little, I have had a natural bent towards speaking my mind. Unfortunately, my mind is naturally full of hateful, hurtful, unhelpful things so when I speak my mind, those are the things that tend to spill out. Before I came to know Jesus, I was so convoluted in my thinking that I actually viewed that as a good thing: I thought that speaking my mind showed that I was brave- that it showed a lack of fear. Of course other people unwittingly supported this view. To illustrate, I will share a story from highschool that I am not very proud of.
My sophomore year, I was in an english class with a teacher that I did not like. In my opinion, she was not a very good teacher, nor was she worthy of any real respect. In my infinite 15 year old wisdom, I decided to assert my dominance over this woman at every possible opportunity. That meant that on a regular basis I would speak up in class at inappropriate moments to chime in with rude, disrespectful comments in an effort to undermine her authority and legitimacy in front of the whole class. This continued for some time until it climaxed in The Speech. We had an assignment where we were supposed to give a speech on a person who was inspirational to us. I was having trouble coming up with someone I wanted to talk about so the kid sitting next to me offered to pay me $5 if I did my speech on the teacher. Challenge accepted! The next week, with no notes and minimal preparation, I stood up in front of the class and gave a stirring speech on all of our english teacher's shortcomings- making sure that I paid special attention to the things that really didn't prove my point, such as her fro and strange choice in men. To my credit, it really wasn't a bad speech- I enunciated well, made eye contact, and eliminated unneeded "umms." News of my speech spread quickly among my peers- most of whom actually affirmed my decision! (As one classmate noted, I had just proven that I had "balls of steel"). When I go back home for breaks, I can still find people that remember that incident. And this was, unfortunately, not a unique incident- I made a bit of a reputation for myself as a kid who had no respect for authority.
The truth is that this is actually a pretty tame example of the way in which words can be used to damage others. At least there was a small element of humor in the way that I presented my speech, wrong though it may have been. I have to confess that my tongue is a weapon which I have unleashed far too often on people. I have made people cry with the things that I have said. I've made my own mother cry more times than I can count on both of my hands over the course of my life. Even some of my closest friends, I have wounded deeply with the things that I have said. Almost all of my greatest regrets in life stem directly from the things that I have said to people.
Just reliving those moments in my mind breaks my heart now. The time when I told my dad that I hated him. The times when, I've said something rude and hurtful to every single one of the men and women that I consider to be my closest friends (some more hurtful than others). My spirit cries out in anguish and regret when I relive those moments and I wish to God that I could take back the things I've said.
And I know that I am not alone. I see the way others cut down the people around them with their words. The apostle James spoke rightly when he said that "the tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." Who among us can control their tongues perfectly? No one! Even the people who are naturally full of grace and rarely speak hurtful words slip up occasionally. And even the most self-controlled among us can't hope to ever tame their thoughts. Evil, hurtful thoughts rise unbidden to the forefront of our minds every day. Even if you don't act on them, it infects your soul and your heart with hatred. Our depraved natures are revealed by our speech. Jesus said that "the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks"(Luke 6:45). In addition, he also told us that "all men will have to give an account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken" (Matthew 12:36, emphasis mine). For Christians the standard is to be perfect in word, thought, and deed. An impossible standard to say the least- I can't even begin to count all the careless words I've spoken. That is why we cling so tightly to Jesus- the only man to ever live perfectly in word, thought, and deed.
As Christians, we need to live regenerated lives. This includes our speech. Although not all of us are naturally grace-filled (like me), we must try and make an effort to speak lovingly. This doesn't mean that we always talk lovey-dovey talk to each other- there is a time and a place for hard words. But this does mean that we season our speech with grace, not seeking to tear anyone down but rather seeking to build each other up. On this point, I would like to give a shout out to my roommate Justin. At the end of last semester, he made a commitment to only saying nice things. This is quite a challenge for anyone, but especially someone who lives with a bunch of people who use sarcasm and point out people's flaws as a catalyst for their humor. I have to say that so far, he has done a pretty good job of staying true to that commitment. Obviously, there will be slip ups- as we concluded earlier, no one is perfect. I would challenge all of my readers to try and do that themselves. I know seeing Justin attempt to live that out in my life has convicted me and made me want to challenge myself in this area.
Always remember that the power of your voice is very real. Your DO have "words of power" at your disposal. You have the power to ruin or make someone's day. Truly the power of life and death. You can literally change destinies and lives with your voice alone. For me, this will be a life long struggle. Graceful words do not come easily to me. But I desire to please Jesus more than I desire to please myself and I am confident that by God's grace through the power of His Spirit, I will be able to make progress and so will you!
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