By the end of each day, I am tired of talking. You never would guess that would be the most difficult part of teaching tennis, as my body seems to withstand the daily abuse better than my tongue does! Years ago, I took the Myers-Briggs test when a man named Jonathan P. Niednagel applied that result to athletics. The ensuing result didn’t surprise me, but it surprised most of my students and acquaintances that I am an introvert. A little research helped give me a better understanding of the difference between introvert and extrovert. Basically, where do you derive the most energy, from being at a party with friends or at home alone?
I was thinking of the Eliza Doolittle song, “Show Me” from “My Fair Lady:”
“Words, words, words, I’m so sick of words. I get words all day through, first from him now from you, is that all you blighters can do? Don't talk of stars burning above,
if you're in love, show me!"
That song made me think of what God must feel with our prayers and promises. It’s hard to believe that He doesn’t tire of our words and desire for our actions to be more in line with those words. I know that we are to take our oaths to Him very seriously, but I have made promises and broken them. Most of those broken promises concerned sins that I promised never to do again. I have learned some lessons there, as I would rather not make a promise if all I am going to do is break it. Prayers can be just as empty, as too many of them have to do with my own selfish desires. God has promised to supply our needs, but His idea of what we need is starkly different than what we think we need.
Having spent much time in the South, I am accustomed to people making friendly comments when you walk past them. In New York, people tend to turn their faces away from you as they are hesitant to invite you into their spaces. Can you tell what a person is really like from their words or do you have to study their actions? The Lord told us:
34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. 36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Matthew 12:34-37
That is a scary verse, as it makes me want to be of the silent minority! Maybe our prayer should be more in line with one from King David:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14
We know that our hearts are wicked and deceitful, but the Lord gives us new hearts. When our words come from that new heart, they are aligned with Him, but the old heart has the idle words.
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