Joy From Our Words

“A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word [spoken] in due season, how good [is it]!” (Pr 15:23 AV)

One has to wonder how much misery we live in because we do not know how to tame the tongue.  There are two ideas here.  Solomon, the wise king, shares that joy comes through our verbal responses and the quality of our response is measured by appropriate timing.  It is that first idea upon which I need to ruminate.  If there is joy lacking in my life, it could be a lack of verbal skills that is the cause.  If joy does not rule my life, maybe it is time to look at how I verbalize my thoughts.  Or better yet, if I should verbalize them at all.  The issue we have as preachers is that we muse more than most.  This is how we learn.  We ruminate over our observations.  We meditate upon the word of God.  We watch, we learn, we investigate, and we conclude.  Wisdom comes in knowing what to say, when to say it, or if it needs to be said at all.  Humility is needed to understand that we may not be right.  Even though we have turned it over again and again, it might be that we will never have all the information needed, nor does it mean that even if we did, we simply do not have it right.  There might be more than one possibility.  Joy is the result of a wise tongue.  At least in the example above.

There are a lot of life changes that occur as one ages.  They happen faster than at any other time of life.  Learning and adjusting is difficult at best.  Given the time constraints, it is almost impossible.  The marriage relationship changes.  Parents age and pass away.  Children grow up, get married, have children, and move away.  Health issues arise that will never be completely resolved.  Financial pressures, retirement (if possible) looms, and a sense of purposelessness sets in.  Survival is about the only thing that motivates the aging adult.  Along life’s path, I have met two types of aging people.  There are those who can find joy no matter their circumstances, and there are those who are constantly complaining and can never have a happy day.  It is the rare person who can find the balance between the two.  One wonders why that is.

Perhaps it lies in how we choose to respond.  Solomon says that joy is a result of a wise tongue.  An answer is nothing more than a verbal response to a question or situation.  Solomon is not suggesting that reality cannot play a part.  We have hard days.  No one is suggesting that in the battle of your mind you have to be naïve toward the unfortunate.  No one is saying that if the sky falls, you have to hold your arms out and wish for it to crush you.  There needs to be some thought.  There needs to be some consideration.  One has to understand his or her circumstances to the best of one’s ability.  We need to know the choices that we face.  We need to know what might be or what might not be.  We cannot go through life with blinders on just because we want to be happy.  That is not what Solomon is suggesting.  Rather, our response to all that we see or know is the source of our joy.  We can either verbalize the obvious and bring ourselves and others down, or we can know the obvious and choose to react with joy.  In spite of it all, we can respond with a positive outlook because we have heaven as our home and the Father as our unchanging relationship.  We can choose to either become a victim of life or a victor over it.  The choice is ours.  Response is everything.