In March of 1942 the HMS Trinidad launched a torpedo at a German destroyer. With horror the men aboard the Trinidad watched their torpedo make a big circle and come back. Thirty-two men died. Eventually the British were forced to scuttle the Trinidad by having the HMS Matchless fire a torpedo into her. She sank to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.
This is so much like barbed comments we sometimes make about others. Unlike torpedoes that almost never came back, our demeaning comments about others usually come back. Our attempts to hurt others might be successful but they also hurt us. We are days away from mid-term elections and our televisions are filled with demeaning comments about candidates for office. Sometimes what is said is an outright lie but mostly it is half-truths. I find myself disgusted with the one promoting the ad and not the one attacked. So why do they do it? We are told it helps win elections. If so, shame on us. And so they win. But they are still diminished.
Sometimes we falsely believe we can elevate ourselves by deelevating others. My word checker is telling me that deelevating is not a word. But I’m sure you get the idea. Rarely does deelevation accomplish its intention without deelevating the deelevator.
Have you ever wished you could back up the clock or suck back the words? In chapter 3 Jesus’ brother James said, “The tongue also is a fire. The tongue is the most evil part of the body. It pollutes the whole person. It sets a person’s whole way of life on fire.”
With a sigh I wish I could say, “In all my life I have only said nice things about others.” I wish.
Written by Roger Bothwell on October 24, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org