:. snarky .:

Our church did something pretty cool last month: we all did a corporate fast for the month of September. The idea was for everyone to give up something (think Lent) in order to hear from God and be unified in our thinking and direction.

People gave up caffeine, web browsing, beer and the like, and after careful thought, I decided to give up sarcasm. (Go ahead and laugh, Josh Johnson!)

You have to understand, sarcasm is my favorite form of humor. I resort to it all the time, and usually it comes out as quite witty, at least in my opinion. (Which is probably the reason Chandler is my favorite 'Friend'.) So giving up a favored form of speech for a month was harder than it might sound.

I was amazed at how often I would open my mouth to say something, then have to immediately shut it again as I realized the words I was about to speak came under the heading of sarcastic.

And as I thought about it throughout the month, I realized more and more just how snarky my humor can be. I've long held the opinion that if you have to say, "Just kidding!" after a comment, then you probably shouldn't have said it in the first place. So even in my sarcasm, I try never to hurt a person's feelings. But, face it, snarky is snarky, no matter how you cut it, and I realized that many things I mean as a joke come out sounding all wrong. [So if I've ever hurt you in some weak attempt at being funny, I ask your forgiveness.]

Here's a bit of wisdom from the book of James*, said much better than I ever could:

A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!

It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

And then there's this, from Ephesians:

Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.

With those guidelines, I may never be able to open my mouth again.

*Bible passages are from The Message.