Tonight’s the big night. Our church’s music team is making a live recording CD and DVD. Everyone is excited, and we are expecting a full house. Last night was the last practice, a time to tie up the loose ends, and to make sure all of the technology is going to do what it’s told.
I’m not a singer. I’m not in the band. I’m one of the behind-the-scenes techno geeks. So there we were, tucked away in our private little sky box for the video team. And something wasn’t working right, and somebody had to be blamed.
A name is dropped. “Somebody” gets dissed. Then someone remembers - there is an open mic from the video booth back to the media room. Oops. Now they imagine that certain “somebody” back there listening, so they start speaking directly to them, telling them to get up there and fix it. It was all rather lighthearted and harmless.
But one of the leaders said, “We need to watch what we say. Remember, there is always an open mic up here.” And since I can never quite turn off the teacher within, I said, “You know, with God, there is always an open mic.”
That’ll preach.
I think we’ve all been there. You’re saying something less than flattering about someone, and suddenly, there they are. Oops. And we’ve all been on the receiving end, overhearing a conversation about ourselves that was shocking and disappointing.
Just imagine that open mic. It will help you watch your words.
Jesus said that one day we will give an account for every idle word.
When I was a kid, I watched a lot of television. I told my daughter the other day that back then certain things popped up in TV plots all the time, but you never hear about them anymore. Back then people were always getting amnesia, or messing around with voodoo, or falling into quicksand. And in the Westerns, what was it that might explode at the smallest nudge? Nitro glycerin!
What I learned from TV about nitro glycerin is that you have to be very careful, or at the slightest bump it might blow up. Yes, by the time I was seven I knew how to handle “nitro.”
Well, our tongue is sort of like nitro. It could go off at any moment.
But the tongue can also do great things. It is the rudder of your ship. Whichever way you steer your tongue, that’s the direction your life will go.
We all need to work on this, speak more uplifting, positive words, building up those around us, “imparting grace to the hearer.”
Remember, we always reap what we sow when it comes to the words we speak, so be careful – your mic is open.
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