I thought the broken days were behind me.
The days of tears and wounds and the deep deep drowning.
The days of losing time and space and feeling this endless void of nothingness.
Sometimes depression is an oncoming storm,stirring the ocean, riding slowly over the waves towards you.
And sometimes it is a tsnumai, knocking you bodily from your moorings.
I have been rolled through the waves these past few days. Unfurled underwater, staring up through the debris into the twisted image of the sun.
I have felt the sand bneath my hands, the water in my lungs.
I have been pulled into the depths.
And I only have myself to blame.
I've had a catch in my spirit many times these past months, a niggling feeling of unease and of being not right with God.
I've felt it when I opened my mouth with less than kind words.
And when I've kept my mouth shut when I could have spoken.
I've walked, step by step, into being the woman I swore I would not be.
Natural consequences are often fierce and unrelenting.
I have gone back to the prayer I have always dreaded.
"God, if there is anything in me that is not pleasing to you, show me and I will change it."
Being refined is painful. Sorting through, piece by piece, my every mistake, my missed footing, my unconcious part in the wounding of others. Looking at the pain I have caused, with or without intention.
It all hurts. And it's all necessary.
Allowing the surfacing of things I have relentlessly pushed down for months. Bringing them to the light and seeing what I have known but not acknowleged.
I love well, but am overbearing.
I am loyal, but too fierce.
I allow myself to speak of others in their absence as I would not do in their presence.
I harbor resentments and anger.
I panic at the idea of being abandoned.
And on and on.
I don't like the woman I am right now.
What I have heard as I have closed my eyes and quieted my mind these past few days is just two words.
"Cultivate quiet."
I need to sit and look at my life and my actions. I need to look at what kind of friend I am. And what kind of friend I want to be.
I need to look at how I need to be loved. And if I can continue to love the way that I have been, and deal with the inevitable hurt that comes with it.
And above all else, I need to be quiet to learn that my mouth can and should be reigned. That there are words that should not be said. Things that should not be discussed.
Words that should be left only between God and I.
James 3
1Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.
4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.
5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.
6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind,
8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.
10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?
12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
